Darling Dad Books 6 Flights Just To Spend Christmas With Flight Attendant Daughter

Now that the holiday season has passed, travel is starting to calm down a bit. With people hopping around all over the country to be with loved ones, the number of planes crisscrossing the skies are vast. While one-third of business flights land in secondary airports and 19% of those flights land in larger commercial airports, holiday fliers land — in droves — as close to home as possible.

Everyone has a different method for coping with these long flights. About 17% of airline passengers prefer to sleep, for instance. However, one adorable father has found an entirely new way to pass the time — he’s bonding with his flight attendant daughter.

It’s not so easy for some to go home for the holidays. While millions are traveling, it’s very easy to forget about the pilots, flight attendants, and airline staff that make last-minute holiday flights successful. Over the past 50 years, the average size of the American home has tripled. But, when you can’t go home for the holidays, it’s reassuring to know that home truly is where the heart is.

Hal Vaughn wasn’t going to see his daughter Pierce over Christmas. She’s a flight attendant who happened to be working over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and would spend it in the air rather than home with her family. That just wouldn’t do, so her Dad Hal decided he was going to spend Christmas with his daughter anyway. So, he booked six flights that she was working on just to spend Christmastime with her in the sky. An outrageously adorable Dad move.

Navigating airports can be a chore at the best of times, let alone during Christmastime. Hal was up for the challenge and nothing would stop him from spending Christmas with his daughter. He is recovering from a neck injury that had rendered him quadriplegic for a time and chose this Christmas adventure to be his first adventure since the injury. And my what an adventure it was. Most people’s worst nightmare is spending a holiday on six different flights, but Hal was fine. He was with his daughter and he was happy.

“The flight was from Fort Myers (Florida) to Detroit. While chatting with Hal, I mentioned I was heading back home. He then told me about his daughter working as our flight attendant and how he was along for the ride to spend Christmas with her,” said Mike Levy, who sat next to Hal.

So, they zipped around the country a few times and proved that the spirit of Christmas is never limited to a solitary place, let alone the ground. And that home is where your family is, whether it’s around the Christmas tree or in the cabin of an airplane. Even Delta, the airline Pierce works for, loved the story and commented on it in a social media post:

“We appreciate all of our employees for working during the holidays to serve Delta customers, and love seeing this awesome Dad having the chance to spend Christmas with his daughter — even while crisscrossing the country at 30,000 feet.”

Take notes, other Dads, it’s your turn now.