Cody Rhodes has heard plenty of stories about his father, Dusty Rhodes, over the years. Some have become foundational pieces of wrestling history, while others have taken on the larger-than-life quality that naturally follows a performer as influential and charismatic as Dusty. But one tale that Cody initially believed belonged in the category of family mythology turned out to be completely real: Dusty Rhodes was a Delta Air Lines “Flying Colonel.”
Speaking with Jacob Heyman on The Roundtable, Cody recounted the moment that revealed just how significant his father’s airline status had been. The discovery came while Cody was arranging for Dusty to travel to Sacramento to participate in an angle involving Rey Mysterio. Cody explained that he was unhappy with the way Dusty had been booked for the trip and decided he would make sure his father was flying in first class.
Before that flight, a discussion about Cody’s own airline standing led to an unexpected exchange with Dusty. Cody said his financial manager was reviewing his travel status and mentioned that he was once again at Diamond level. When Dusty walked by, the manager asked what kind of airline status he had accumulated through all of his years on the road.
“He said, ‘Colonel. Flying Colonel,’” Cody recalled.
For more background on this topic, read Dominik Mysterio Eyes Multiple WWE Title Paths After AAA MEGA Championship Loss.
At the time, Cody did not fully buy it. Given Dusty’s remarkable gift for storytelling and the many unforgettable legends associated with him, the phrase sounded almost too perfect. “Flying Colonel” fit Dusty Rhodes so naturally that it could have easily been another piece of colorful Dusty vocabulary, an answer delivered with confidence whether or not there was paperwork behind it.
There was, however, very real history behind the title. The Flying Colonel program was Delta’s first customer loyalty and recognition initiative, originally created in 1940. It predated the modern airline-status systems that frequent travelers now recognize, including the tiered programs that reward travelers with priority benefits, upgrades, service recognition, and other perks. Dusty’s designation reflected the extraordinary amount of time he had spent traveling.
For someone whose career spanned decades in professional wrestling, that travel history is no surprise. Wrestling’s territorial era demanded constant movement, with performers routinely going from city to city and territory to territory. The miles accumulated by major stars were not simply the result of occasional business trips. They were part of the job itself: long flights, rental cars, arena runs, television tapings, promotional appearances, and the relentless schedule required to remain a top attraction.
Cody’s story captured that reality in a way that statistics never could. Dusty’s status was not merely a label on a boarding pass. It was a small but striking reminder of how much of his life had been lived in transit, building a career that left an enormous mark on the wrestling business and on the performers who followed him.
Cody said that WWE had originally booked Dusty in coach for the Sacramento trip, a decision that clearly bothered him. He wanted his father to have a better experience and quietly upgraded the ticket without telling him. Cody described the moment with the familiar mix of humor and admiration that defined the story.
“They booked him coach; we’re headed to Sacramento, and I wasn’t going to have it, so I upgraded his ticket, and I was not going to say I did it; it just was,” Cody said. “Dusty Rhodes is flying first class with his son.”
The biggest surprise came at the gate. Cody scanned his own boarding pass and was thanked for being a Delta Diamond member. Then Dusty scanned his pass. The response from the airline employee was entirely different.
“‘Oh my gosh. We have to take care of you, don’t we, Mr. Runnels?’” Cody recalled the employee saying. Dusty’s response: “‘Yes, you do.’”
Cody said the interaction initially left him wondering whether the employee was simply a wrestling fan who recognized Dusty. But once the two were seated, Cody asked his father what had just happened. Dusty slid his boarding pass over, allowing Cody to finally see the answer for himself. In the corner, where Cody expected to find a modern designation such as Diamond, it read: “Flying Colonel.”
“It was a defunct Delta miles program,” Cody said. “I didn’t think it was real. I thought it was legend. It wasn’t.”
That final detail is what makes the anecdote especially memorable. In wrestling, stories often grow in the retelling. The most enduring personalities inspire the most enduring tales, and Dusty was uniquely capable of making any moment sound important. Cody himself introduced the story by acknowledging the difference between what he called “Cody lies” and “Dusty legends.” In this case, though, the legend had a boarding pass to prove it.
It also offered a glimpse at the relationship between Cody and Dusty. Cody’s instinct to upgrade the ticket was an act of appreciation, and he wanted to do it without making a show of it. Yet the moment turned around in a way only a Dusty Rhodes story could: Cody attempted to take care of his father, only to learn that his father had already reached an airline status so rare that the airline seemed prepared to take care of him in return.
There is an added irony in the story because Dusty’s vast travel record was presumably earned over years in an industry that did not always make the road easy on its performers. Long before the current era of extensive corporate travel programs and more streamlined logistics, wrestlers often endured difficult schedules with little separation between work and travel. The airports, rental-car counters, hotels, and highways were as much a part of the profession as the arenas.
Dusty’s Flying Colonel status therefore serves as a uniquely tangible symbol of a career built through that grind. It is not a championship, a Hall of Fame plaque, or one of the many well-known honors associated with his name. But it reflects another kind of accomplishment: the miles required to become Dusty Rhodes, one of professional wrestling’s most recognizable and enduring figures.
For Cody, the discovery apparently settled a question that had lingered around one of his father’s most unbelievable claims. It was not an exaggeration. It was not a character line. And it was not one more piece of Dusty Rhodes folklore that became bigger over time. The Flying Colonel was real.
That is why the story works so well beyond the comedy of the gate agent recognizing Dusty’s status. Cody began the trip determined to give his father a first-class seat. By the time the flight was underway, he had learned that Dusty’s years in wrestling had already given him a distinction that few travelers could claim. In the end, Dusty Rhodes did not need anyone to explain why he deserved special treatment. The boarding pass had already done it for him.
Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.