Get me a ticket!
530,000 retweets will get U.S. man a ight to see girlfriend in Corner Brook
A man from Michigan is looking for 530,000 retweets of a request he’s made to Air Canada to get from there to Corner Brook, N.L., to see his girlfriend.
And C.J. Poirier has gotten the official word from Air Canada that if he gets that many retweets they’ll provide the ight.
Rebecca Atkinson has lived in Corner Brook all of her 19 years.
She started talking with Poirier, who is from Clarkston, Mich., last June via a dating app known as “Meet Me.”
Atkinson said neither were really looking for a relationship at the time. She said they just stumbled upon each other and she was drawn in by his personality. “He’s such a quirky, goofy guy.” A perfect match for the girl who also uses the word quirky to describe herself. As they chatted online the relationship evolved.
“Nobody really said, ‘Will you be my boyfriend, will you be my girlfriend?’ It just kind of happened.”
Atkinson said it’s not uncommon these days for people to have long distance relationships like theirs. Poirier coming to see her is something they’ve talked about for a while, but the cost seemed out of reach for the Starbucks barista.
So, he reached out to Air Canada via Twitter to ask how many retweets it could take to get a free round-trip ight to the province.
In response, the airline asked the population of the province and with Poirier’s response of about 530,000, they said they’d go with that.
In an email, a spokesperson for the Air Canada’s media relations said the airline takes pride in what it does and is always trying to nd ways to surprise customers who can use a little help.
“We know a few things about long distance relationships! We certainly hope we, all 530 thousand of us, get invited to the wedding.”
Atkinson, meanwhile, said she was at a loss for words that Poirier actually did it.
“ e whole fact that he reached out to Air Canada and they gave him a goal — that’s crazy,” she said.
e couple is now sharing the tweet wherever and to whoever they can, asking people to retweet his original tweet to Air Canada with the hashtag #530Kforbecca.
As of Wednesday night, they had more than 12,600 retweets.
“I didn’t think much was going to happen, but then we started hitting 100, 200 and then the thousands,” she said.
But they still have a long way to go to get to 530,000.
“Who knows, people could be very generous,” she said.
Poirier already has time booked o work starting May 13, so they have just over a week to get to the goal.
Poirier said even if they don’t make the goal, he still plans on going and he’s undertaking a bit of fundraising to help out.
As for where the relationship is going, Atkinson said there’s been no talk yet of either moving.
“But you never know.”