US Olympic Curling Team Denied Airline Upgrade After Winning Gold

The U.S. Olympic Team took home the gold medal in a startling upset last night, but Delta Airlines didn’t have much to offer them for a reward.

The men’s curling champions, Team Shuster, were ecstatic last night when they doubled their score at the last moment to win the gold medal. In their celebratory reverie, they sent a tweet out to Delta Airlines to let them know.

“[Delta] our Olympic [curling] champions are flying home on Monday. Upgrades?!?” The Olympians‘ blunt request for a hero’s welcome was, unfortunately, denied.

“Hi, there,” wrote the airline’s official account. “Congratulations, gold medal champions! We are honored to be your ride back home! While we don’t have any upgrades to offer, we look forward to seeing you on board. Thanks for flying with us! *AJL.”

The interaction was painfully awkward for followers, who were grimacing at the instantaneous shut down, but the U.S. Curling team took it in stride. “Thank you for the well wishes and checking into it,” they responded. “I’m sure it’ll be a smooth ride home.”

The curling underdogs shocked the niche sport’s whole community by taking the gold right out from under the nose of the Swedish team. The victory put an unexpected gold medal the USA’s performance for the year.

Fans couldn’t help but notice that the curling win represented another eerily accurate prediction for The Simpsons. The long-running Fox cartoon has had several moments of cultural clairvoyance in its decades on the air. Eight years ago, they aired an episode where the U.S. curling team stole the gold in a last minute upset from the Swedish team, almost exactly mirroring last night’s events.

Unfortunately, the actual Olympic coverage couldn’t achieve Simpsons-status ratings. The curling finals hit another low point for the season, in an Olympics that was already disappointing to NBC and its advertisers.