Heathrow Airport surprises U.S. flyers with Thanksgiving pumpkin pies

Bleary-eyed passengers arriving Wednesday morning at London’s Heathrow Airport on a handful of flights from the United States didn’t find their luggage at the bag claim.

Instead, they got fresh pumpkin pie.

It’s an effort from Heathrow that comes on the eve of Thanksgiving, one of the biggest holidays of the year in the United States.

The American expat community in London is estimated to be about 200,00 strong and the team at Heathrow has noticed that #happythanksgiving had become a trending hashtag on Twitter in past years.

So, this year the airport got in touch with Austin-based Whole Foods and cooked up a “surprise and delight” event to welcome Thanksgiving flyers from the U.S.

Passengers on six flights originating from Houston, Philadelphia, Newark, Austin, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., arrived at the bag claims Wednesday to find wicker baskets filled with individual servings of fresh pumpkin pie rolling out on the bag carousel.

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There were also vegan and gluten-free pie options available.

And to top things off, literally, baggage ambassadors armed with cans of whipped cream were standing by to greet everyone and garnish the pie slices.

After all the pies were delivered, garnishes and selfies-with-pies were taken, passengers received their checked bags.

This isn’t the first Thanksgiving that Heathrow has celebrated in a fun fashion. In previous years, people dressed as turkeys roamed the terminals greeting passengers.

And, in December, holiday travelers can look forward to a variety of North Pole and Christmas-oriented activities at Heathrow. The events and promotions should be entertaining, as past campaigns have included Boarding Bon Bons said to taste like Christmas pudding, turkey and stuffing and other traditional Christmas meal dishes.

And then there’s the heart-warming, multi-year tale of Doris and Edward Bair. Handkerchiefs ready?