Stories responding to the invitation on the Web site available at http://www.whyyoufly.com to send reasons "why you fly" American have ranged from heartwarming (one was entitled "Because I'm Grandma") to humorous (another was called "Vegas, Baby!"). Some, as you'll read, are very specific; others are quite wide-ranging.

Maya Sutton's specific reason to fly, she wrote, was "Keeping Relationships Alive." After her senior year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, Sutton accepted a job in Chandler, AZ, more than 2000 miles away from her family, also in upstate New York; then her boyfriend, Marco Aimi, began graduate school in Santa Barbara, CA.

"Long distance relationships of every kind were on the horizon," recalls Sutton. "The trip from Chandler to Santa Barbara was about a 10-hour drive, and so began our intimate relationship with flying. Now, more than three years later and too many flights to count, Marco is my fiancé," she said, though for now the long-distance element of the relationship remains.

However, Sutton said, "He will soon finish his Ph.D. and we will look for opportunities to bring this long distance -- both from each other and from our families -- to an end." The wedding date is set for June 4, she explained, and "although we will be ecstatic to be together, we are all too familiar with the feeling of comfort we get when arriving at the airport and the sadness we feel when departing. Perhaps we will finally begin to fly to exotic destinations together instead of flying to familiar locations apart."

Congratulations in advance, Maya (and Marco) ... we're happy to learn of your previous reason to fly -- and the new one, too.

Meanwhile, Nick Hawkins, a self-described "20-something Exec Platinum who is a 100 percent leisure/impulse traveler," and flies out of Chicago, has a wide variety of reasons he flies, as he wrote:

"I fly American ... To go to places and amuse my friends with the stack of postcards I send. Because I saw a woman with the most magnificent smile at a museum in Toronto and I wanted to go back just to see that smile again. To look like a hero to my friend's three-year-old daughter when I bring back a stuffed animal from overseas ...

"Because I miss my friends who have moved away and it's worth flying 1,800 miles to go have pizza with them and to sleep on their couch overnight just like the good old days. To see the look on people's faces when I say 'I just got back from Paris last night' ...

"Because the world's a small place. I get on an airplane, close my eyes, wake up later and I'm magically in another place ... Because my definition of 'road trip' now includes Asia.

"I fly AA to find places in the world that are so beautiful that I save them for when I want to propose to the woman of my dreams there."

Thank you for writing, Nick. And welcome aboard American Airlines (again).

Send us your own stories, photos or even video, by visiting http://www.whyyoufly.com.