Penguins Fly First Class On Delta

I know this is gonna be hard for some of you to believe, since I come off as such a baller and all, but I’ve never flown first class in my life. I know, I know — SHOCKING, right? Though I’ve flown quite a bit and haven’t fit comfortably into a coach seat since middle school (I’ve been 6’5” since I was 13), I’ve never been able to bring myself to fork over the money for a first class seat (“I can use the money I save on BOOZE!”). And past employers who’ve paid for my travel have paid for business class, but not first class. Dicks. (And don’t even try to tell me that they’re the same, because they’re not.) But now I may just have to finally bite the bullet and spring for a first class seat on my next flight. After all, I don’t want to be one-upped by a couple of penguins.

Yes, penguins. Yahoo! News media reporter Dylan Stableford was on a Delta flight from Atlanta to New York on Wednesday night when this happened

“Is anyone here allergic to penguins?” the captain of Delta Flight 486 from Atlanta to New York asked passengers—including this writer—on Wednesday night. “No? Alright, we have a surprise for you.”

But sure enough, after the plane reached a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet and the seat-belt sign was turned off, a pair of penguins waddled down the aisle from first class.

“You can take pictures, but we ask that you don’t touch them,” the captain announced. The flight’s 300-plus delighted passengers heeded the warning, snapping photos and videos with camera phones lighting the aisle as if it were a red carpet.

The foot-and-a-half tall penguins, Pete and Penny, ages 6 and 12, were en route to the New York premiere of “Frozen Planet,” a new Discovery Channel documentary series narrated by Alec Baldwin. The screening, held Thursday at the Lincoln Center, was followed by a “polar-themed” party, hosted by Baldwin, Dustin Hoffman and Glenn Close, among other environmentally-conscious luminaries.

Here’s video one of the passengers took…

Those penguins don’t appear very socially awkward to me.

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