Southwest Passenger Volunteers Brother To Be an ‘Honorary Flight Attendant’ and the Cabin Had a Boisterous Response (Exclusive)

Jack and Miles Peterson are the type of people who love to “commit” themselves to “weird situations” and they’re never afraid to offer help, the siblings say.

Sometimes when dining out, for example, Miles, 19, and Jack, 22, may ask the wait staff if they are in need of any assistance.

“They think it’s bizarre, but we find it fun — trying out new things,” Miles tells PEOPLE. “We love offering our help where we can, especially if the people we’re trying to help are good to us.”

So when the brothers were traveling back home to Clifton Park, N.Y., after spending New Year’s Eve in Miami, Jack thought it was the perfect time to throw Miles a curve ball.

“My brother has always wanted to help pass out drinks and snacks, [during a flight],” Jack remembers telling the Southwest Airlines flight attendant on their trip. Remarkably, the staffer agreed to let Miles assist the crew.

Alicia Garcia, a Houston-based flight attendant of three years, tells PEOPLE she was initially “surprised” by the request.

“It was the first time I had ever been asked by an adult,” Garcia explains. But, she had recently seen a video of an older passenger living his dream as an “honorary flight attendant,” so she offered the opportunity to Miles as well.

“I felt so bad,” Jack says of Miles’ full-flight commitment. “We only got like three hours of sleep that night and I was like, ‘Dang, I just signed him up for something when he just wants to sleep.’ ”

Miles’ jobs ran the whole gamut of flight attendant duties, which Jack captured and shared to his TikTok account. After getting introduced to the entire crew, he shadowed Garcia as she took orders, passed out drinks and snacks and grabbed fellow passengers’ trash.

At one point, Garcia introduced the entire cabin to Miles and informed them they’d be able to vote on the teen’s honorary flight attendant status based on his performance.

“Everyone clapped, it felt great,” Miles says. “It felt like the plane was alive.”

“I told him it’s very important that you have a warm and welcoming smile, and you make the passengers feel welcome and comfortable,” Garcia says. “He did exactly that. He’s got a great smile. He made great eye contact. He was very fun, charming and respectable, and the passengers loved him.”

Then came the moment of truth: the vote.

“[Alicia] introduced me again to the cabin and was like, ‘Alright, so if you guys think Miles has done a great job so far, please ring your call bell,’ ” he recalls.

“Just seeing everyone’s hand going up to their call bell, it was crazy,” he says. “Flights are usually pretty dead, like everyone is just kind of mellow, but everyone was cheering, ringing the call bell. I had goosebumps.”

It was a unanimous vote, but there was one more person who needed to approve.

Miles says: “Out of nowhere, the captain came on the intercom, ‘I heard we have a special helper today. I just want to welcome him as an honorary flight attendant to Southwest.’ ”

“I had no idea that this was even a thing they would entertain and now everyone’s on board with it,” Miles says.

Jack admits he was a little jealous of Miles, though, overall, he doesn’t think he’s “ever laughed so hard on a flight.”

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Without experiences like this one, the brothers know they wouldn’t be who they are today. Doing things out of the ordinary helps prepare them for anything unexpected.

“Knowing Miles my whole life, if [he] was told to help out with a flight attendant even five years ago, I don’t know if he would because of [his] comfort level. But doing stuff like this really pushes your comfort limits and I think really helps shape who you are,” Jack says.

Plus, they’ll “have a really cool story to tell” too, according to Jack.