Missing a flight for love has been a plot move in many a romantic comedy. Earlier this fall, Florida resident Karissa Wampler took a cue from them when she ditched her Frontier Airlines (ULCC) -) flight for a chance at love.
As Wampler recounts in a viral TikTok video, she was already at the airport to fly back to Florida from a trip to her home state of North Carolina when she got a text from a friend about a friend of a friend she thought could be her "soulmate."
Related: Dad who created child-free flight for himself is getting blasted on TikTok
"I didn't get on my plane and talked to him, he texted me," Wampler said. "I said 'you have 20 minutes to convince me that I should go out with you tonight and rebook my flight for tomorrow [...] and he convinced me so I'm going.'"
@k.wamp This was too crazy not to vlog 😭 i cant make this up #blinddate #storytime #wattpad #datingstorytime
♬ original sound - Karissa Wampler 🤯
'Frontier has been watching all of this,' TikToker says of viral romance story
Wampler then left the airport and went on a date that included a visit to an art museum, a rooftop bar and a game of pickleball. She gave the date the "Granola Boy" nickname for his love of hiking and nature and described him as "the most perfect person [she's] ever met."
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While Wampler already had more than a million followers on her TikTok account from doing makeup and travel videos, her story of the ditched flight quickly went viral among viewers who were touched by the spontaneous move.
The budding romance is still being closely tracked by Wampler's followers and also reached the higher-ups at Frontier because, two weeks after the missed flight, she released another TikTok video about receiving the airline's all-you-can-fly pass that Frontier launched last year for frequent flyers and $1,000 in vouchers to ensure that she can visit her new love.
"As if this wasn't crazy enough, Frontier the airline has been watching all this and are really rooting for Granola Boy," Wampler said in the follow-up video. She also showed a card in which the budget airline wrote that it hopes to "ensure you can easily hop on all of our flights for your future dates."
Viral TikTok proves to be marketing opportunity
"We are rooting for you and granola boy 😉," Frontier Airlines also wrote underneath the video. "Enjoy all your future travels!"
As the original story of the missed flight and the follow-up video were viewed a respective 2.1 million and 500,000 times, the flight credits are a small price given the positive marketing opportunity for Frontier.
Talking excitedly of the gift, Wampler repeatedly calls Frontier "the greatest" and "the GOAT" (the greatest of all time). Airlines often give away flights to promote themselves and their charity work — in January 2023, Frontier offered a free flight to a social media follower willing to adopt three kittens.
Delta Air Lines (DAL) -) recently ran a flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City for Breast Cancer Awareness Month taking place throughout October. More than 150 breast cancer patients and survivors were invited aboard the Boeing 767-400ER alongside a DJ and a group of flight attendants wearing pink to celebrate life in the face of the disease.
