The Flight Attendant and the ‘Bee Gee’: A Travel Love Story

One unique and extremely well-traveled couple, one of whom’s a woman’s man with no time to talk. (Photo: Emily Witkop)

Emily Witkop and Paul Lines are just like any other busy couple who spend a lot of time apart traveling on business. They live out of suitcases and hotels. They travel to multiple cities, often on the same day. They both live on the casual exhilaration, and occasional stress, of life on the road.

And one of them has to sing “Stayin’ Alive” every night. Okay, maybe they’re not your typical road warrior couple.

“I love my love story,” says Emily. “Sometimes I feel like my life is a sitcom.” If Emily’s life were a sitcom, the title would write itself: “The Flight Attendant and the Bee Gee.”

You see, Emily is a longtime flight attendant for Southwest Airlines. And while her fiancé, Paul, is not named “Gibb,” he is a performer in The Australian Bee Gees — a tribute band devoted to the music of the three Gibb brothers who provided the soundtrack to the 1970s disco scene. Paul performs as Robin Gibb in the touring version of the group (a separate Las Vegas-based trio of Bee Gee impersonators perform in residency at the Excalibur Casino).

WATCH: The Australian Bee Gees

The Australian Bee Gees spread their particular strain of Night Fever all over the world. (Source: You Tube)

How did this traveling performer and this nomadic flight attendant meet? On a plane, of course!

“You always hear those stories about people meeting on a plane,” says Emily, who ironically dismissed such love stories as Jive Talkin’. “I was like, ‘Oh, that never happens.’"

Related: 10 Tips to Pull Off the Perfect Airplane Proposal

For Emily, “never” happened on a Sunday in January of 2014. She was working a flight out of Las Vegas, where she was based, to Tucson, Arizona, where she lives.

“Being Las Vegas-based, we get a lot of musicians on our plane, which is very cool,” Emily says (Adam Levine, Benji Madden, and Glen Campbell were some of her past passengers). So when a group of guys with guitars boarded her plane that January day, Emily — a big music fan — struck up a conversation with them. She found out they were playing their next gig right in her backyard in Tucson. One of the musicians in particular caught Emily’s attention.

Why’s he just singing when he “Should Be Dancing?” Paul as Robin Gibb (Photo: Emily Witkop)

“When Paul was talking to me, I said, ‘Wow, I love your accent,’” Emily says of Paul who, like the Bee Gees, is Australian. “And he said, ‘I love yours’ — just playful banter,” she remembers.

Paul remembers differently. “He says I flirted with him. I don’t agree because I flirt with everybody; that’s my job. I flirt with old ladies!” [When pressed by this writer, Emily did admit to some flirting.]

Related: 12 Surprising Secrets About Flying

Chances are the old ladies Emily typically “flirts with” on planes don’t do what Paul did when they landed and he was disembarking: “He handed me the beverage napkin that I’d given him with his Coke [during the flight],” she says. “He had written a note on it. It said… you’re gonna laugh… it said: ‘Emily, Sorry if this is inappropriately forward. But… would you grant me the privilege of your perfect accent and beautiful infectious personality over dinner this week???’"

Yes, Emily saved Paul’s note as well as the ticket stub from the first time she saw him perform. (Photo: Emily Witkop)

Apparently, singing “How Deep Is Your Love” hundreds of times had given Paul serious game in the romance department, because he pulled off the herculean task of picking up a flight attendant. “I was totally charmed,” says Emily, who like most flight attendants had spurned her fair share of in-flight advances. “I think it’s because he did it subtly. He wasn’t aggressive — like, ‘You need to give me your phone number,’ or anything like that. He just wrote a note and put the ball in my court. It was just respectful and subtle and very charming.” [A note to potential aerial suitors tempted to try this on your next flight: It also helps to have a sexy Australian accent and some wingmen who can help you sing love songs in killer three-part harmony].

Related: It Started With a Barf Bag and Ended With Love

Emily and Paul went out to dinner the very next night, and she went to see the group’s Tucson show the night after that. “We’ve been together ever since,” she says.

Emily and Paul just days after meeting. (Photo: Emily Witkop)

Since getting together, this couple has had to face two big challenges: one was explaining to Emily’s kids who the heck the Bee Gees are. They were without a clue until Emily reminded him of the “Barry Gibb Talk Show” sketch on “Saturday Night Live.” Their response: “So he’s Justin Timberlake?”

WATCH: Saturday Night Live’s “Barry Gibb Talk Show” Sketch

The SNL sketch that, until Paul, was the only exposure Emily’s kids had to the Bee Gees. For the record, Paul’s “Robin Gibb” is slightly better than Justin Timberlake’s. (Photo: Yahoo Screen)

The other challenge, of course, is keeping a romance going when her flight attendant schedule and Paul’s constant touring keeps them apart for weeks at a time. How do they make sure their love is “Stayin’ Alive?”

(Come on — you had to know that was coming.)

“Make sure that the time you spend together is quality,” Emily says. Because she has some flexibility with her flight schedules, she can arrange to meet him on the road when he’s on tour in the States. And when they can’t be together, they don’t skimp on the calls, texts, emails, and Skype-ing.

Paul with Emily’s kids: Scott, 16; Grant, 12; and Morgan, 13. They now like Bee Gees songs — especially “Nights on Broadway” because it’s in the SNL sketch (Photo: Emily Witkop)

But for now, Emily says they’re enjoying their unique nomadic relationship. And she really likes life as a self-described “Bee Gees groupie.”

Related: The Absolute Ten Best People You Meet on a Plane

“This is going to sound really cheesy,” she says. “But when he’s on stage singing ‘More Than a Woman’ I’m like, ‘That’s me! That’s me! I’m her!’ Or when they sing that line in ‘New York Mining Disaster’ — ‘Have you seen my wife?’ Every once in a while he’ll point at me or wink at me. I’m like, ‘I know where his wife is. That’s me!’"

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