The Maple Leaf pub in Covent Garden is a ‘little piece of Canada in the heart of London’ and a favourite hangout for lots of Canadians – it has Canadian beer and shows the ice hockey on its TV screens. At this time of year, like lots of ‘ex-pats’, Canadians start thinking about home, family and friends and unfortunately, many know that they are not going to see them this year. The nearest they get is the pub, some Canadian food and a phone call home (or Facetime for the ‘modern’ ones!) and that’s it!
But some very lucky customers got an amazing surprise the other week. The pub was visited by two Air Canada pilots carrying a bell! They mingled with people asking them what they missed most about Canada, the problems of being away from home for Christmas and the high cost of travel. Then, on ringing the bell one of the pilots said that they had an announcement to make: “Because we are in the holiday season, I’d like to take this occasion to offer everybody here, present this evening, a round” he said. As you would expect, this brought lots of smiles and loud cheers around the pub!
What brought an even louder cheer an more smiles was when the other pilot went on to say “When we say a round, we mean round trip tickets for everyone to go back to Canada for the holiday season!”
Now, THAT’S what I call a ’round’!
Cue lots of excited, emotional and delighted customers, the singing of the Canadian National Anthem, and a video that’s gone viral with lots of publicity and ‘word of mouse’!
Here’s the video…..
If you liked that, you might want to check out another Canadian airline, WestJet’s attempt to delight 250 of their customers this time last year!
