Tantalising texts from Thai

At first I thought someone on the plane was coming on to me.

"Have a great flight", flashed the message on my seat's screen.

But then I realised that everybody had the same message on their screens and so I began to feel a little less special.

Throughout the next 8.5 hours, as I winged my way from Brisbane to Bangkok on Thai Airways, little messages kept popping up in the corner of my screen.

"Hungry?  Meals are on their way!"

"Thirsty?  Let us know!"

"Time to rest.  See you."

These messages must be extremely comforting for those who are addicted to text messages and are having withdrawal symptoms 5,000 metres above sea level.  They're like a nicotine patch for textaholics.

It's a quirky touch and not something I have seen used on a plane before.

Admittedly it was sometimes annoying when you were engrossed in a film (or Tetris) and you're momentarily interrupted, but for the most part it's a neat idea.  It not only injects a bit of personality into the flight and the airline, but also let's everyone know what's going on without having to scream it across the PA system.

Given everyone stares at their screens anyway during a flight (whether they're watching something or not) it's one of those things that makes you wonder why no one had thought of doing it earlier.

Why this funky Thai Airways is just like a new Facebook friend - though it isn't clogging up my newsfeed with photos of every meal they've ever eaten.

Further proving they're super eager to be our new "bestie", shortly after takeoff the flight attendant took to the PA system with a special announcement: "Would the person in 12E marry the person in 12D?"

It seems this airline is so accommodating that they'll even do mid-flight proposals for shy wannabe-grooms who don't want to pop the question themselves.  (By the way, she said yes.  How awkward would the flight have been if she had said no!)

Sadly, looking around the cabin, which seems full of Brisbane families heading for Thailand's sandy shores (do children go to school these days?), I'm confident there's no one on board I want to propose to or receive a proposal from.

Actually I was more than happy that my screen was the only thing that spoke to me for the entire flight.