Holiday travel is usually about survival. Flights are full, so boarding feels like it takes forever after you’ve waited to check bags, queue for security and crowd through the terminal. By the time you get to the lav you’re just hoping there’s still soap.
On one recent JetBlue flight, the bathroom line turned into something else: a moving wall of handwritten gratitude.
Flight attendant Ashley, who posts on Instagram as @ashmatteooo, brought a stack of napkins to the galley and started asking passengers queuing for the bathroom if they wanted to jot down what they were thankful for. The crew taped the notes up on the side panel by the JetBlue logo. By the end of the trip, the galley wall was covered – family, second chances after illness, new jobs, pets, and a lot of “thankful for a safe flight.”
During my flights yesterday I asked my passengers that came up to use the bathroom if they wanted to write what they were thankful for and we were going to display it during the flight. So many people participated , thanked us for this idea and some even made us cry with their stories. I think this is such a great time to reflect what really matters in this life. Forever grateful for my job for letting me meet people all through the world and hear their stories
She wrote that many passengers thanked the crew for the idea, and a few of the stories even made them cry. It was a reminder that the holidays aren’t just “packed cabins and tight schedules” but a chance to notice what actually matters.
Her colleagues jumped in online with “you are the JetBlue experience” and “so proud and happy to be your coworker.” Another flight attendant asked if she can borrow the idea on her own holiday flights, and Ashley tells her to go for it.
Since this is the internet, not everyone caught the feels at 35,000 feet. A couple of comments were:
“Don’t trust JetBlue”
“Just serve me drinks”
This isn’t the first time handwritten notes on a plane have gone viral. Almost a decade ago I wrote about Taylor Tippett, a DC-based American Airlines flight attendant who started leaving inspirational messages taped to passenger window shades – her Words From A Window Seat project. Those were short, personal affirmations left for passengers to discover on their own, and they exploded on Instagram because people loved the idea that someone up front cared enough to write them.
- It cost the airline nothing except a few napkins and tape.
- It gives passengers a way to feel seen as individuals instead of just seat numbers.
Participation is optional. No one is being forced to bare their soul to use the restroom. And in a holiday cabin where tensions are already high, a little reminder that other people on board are dealing with cancer, grief, or fresh starts can make that seatmate’s elbow in your space feel a little less personal.
If JetBlue tried to turn this into a uniform “holiday activation” – laminated talking points, brand hashtag, mandatory photos for the company TikTok – it would immediately lose most of what makes it work. It’s the authenticity that made this work.
Taylor Tippett’s window notes made people feel like someone had thought about them before they ever boarded. Ashley’s napkin wall flips that: she’s asking passengers to share themselves, and then building a visual record of that across the galley. In both cases, the message is the same: there are actual humans on this plane, not just “load factors.”
If you were handed a napkin on your way to the lav and asked what you’re thankful for, what would you write?
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