Early 90s, a friend and I had a visit on a BA DC-10 flight to DFW, as we were both avionic engineers and of course, interested what was up front.
Chatting to the crew, they asked what were were going to do in Texas. We told them that actually, we were going to learn to fly and get our PPLs. That prompted further discussions and they even pulled maps out to find the actual airfield we were going to use (Bourland Field, just outside Fort Worth).
They really did take an interest, gave us lots of encouragement and was a great start to our trip.