Florida

Selfie Wins Woman a Free Flight from Tampa to Germany

Staci Lyons won the ``Picture Yourself in Frankfurt'' contest promoting new nonstop Lufthansa Airlines flights from Tampa to Frankfurt.

A flight to Frankfurt, Germany, will be the first ever for a Hillsborough County woman who was awarded two round-trip tickets after winning a selfie contest sponsored by Tampa International Airport.

Last week, Staci Lyons of Plant City won the ``Picture Yourself in Frankfurt'' contest created to promote new nonstop Lufthansa Airlines flights to Frankfurt, The Tampa Tribune reported.

The only rules were for entrants to take a photo of themselves in front of one of the promotional Lufthansa banners at the airport and post it to social media using the hashtag (hash)tpa2fra.

``I had to come here to the airport with my friend and we passed by the (Lufthansa) sign,'' Lyons recalled, describing her first trip to the airport. ``I didn't have a Twitter account or Facebook or anything to post a selfie on, but my friend said, `Go ahead and take the picture and we'll go from there.' So, I thought why not give it a try.''

Lyons said she has never been on a plane or traveled very far from her Plant City, Florida, home. Now she and her fiance are planning their honeymoon to Frankfurt using the tickets.

``I've never really won anything,'' said Lyons, who called her fiance immediately after learning the news. ``He's excited, too.''

``It was exciting for us, too,'' airport spokeswoman Emily Nipps said. ``We were so happy that it was someone who really appreciated the tickets and who has never flown before. When we saw the selfie was the only thing on her Twitter account and she had no contacts, we weren't even sure she'd get our message to call. We crossed our fingers and sent her a tweet.''

Airport staff drew Lyon as the winner Sept. 24 from 115 submissions.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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