Twitter flight a go
Michigan man is coming to visit his Newfoundland girlfriend
Rebecca (Atkinson) Warren will have a special visitor come Monday and that’s left the young Corner Brook woman feeling “very excited.”
At just around noon on Friday Air Canada tweeted the good news that it would give her online boyfriend, C.J. Poirier, a flight from Detroit, Michigan to Deer Lake so that the couple can finally meet.
Warren and Poirier, who lives in about an hour from Detroit in Clarkston, met online about a year ago and as their relationship developed they started talking about him visiting. Neither are in a position to afford to travel, so Poirier reached out to Air Canada through Twitter last week asking how many retweets it would take to get a flight.
The airline responded with 530,000 and #530Kforbecca quest was started. When the goal wasn’t reached on Wednesday the airline threw in some retweets of its own and said it would accept retweets of individuals’ own tweets.
At around noon Friday the airline announced some good news in this tweet: “Wow @ Thecjpoirier! Congrats on making it to 530K! (With a little help from a few friends, of course.) Pack your bags ’cause THIS Monday, we’re flying you to Newfoundland! And best yet, you’ll finally meet Becca IRL!”
After hearing the news Warren said she hadn’t been entirely sure how things would go.
“We were definitely very hopeful, so I didn’t really have doubt in my mind. But I wasn’t 100 per cent sure that it was going to happen.”
When Air Canada threw in the twist she got a little more hopeful.
“We kind of both seen it at the same time and we were both like, ‘oh my heck this could actually happen.’”
And in some more good news, a Gofundme account the couple set up also met its goal of $500 on Thursday night.
The money will go towards gas and parking at the airport in Detroit.
With Poirier busy at work on Friday afternoon the couple hasn’t had much time to talk about it all and Warren wasn’t sure what time he’ll arrive on Monday.
Poirier did make some tweets thanking Air Canada for the opportunity and to everyone who made #530Kforbecca a success.
For Warren, it means she can now stop looking at Twitter, which she did every chance she got and settle into getting ready for Poirier’s visit.
“We don’t have any plans just yet,” she said.
But Poirier has asked for a bit of privacy as they get to know each other.