It's an hour past departure time...

[Xcaliber]

You show up to the airport on time, get your morning coffee, head to the gate, tell the gate agent you'll be ready to board in 5, and settle in for a four leg day. The plane is ready, the FAs are ready, the pax are ready. 15 min to departure, and there are no pax to be seen. Departure time comes and goes, still no pax. 15 min past. 30 min past.

Meanwhile, you've already talked to the gate agent several times. She's refusing to board because the flight is oversold and no one is volunteering. You've explained that your company has procedures in place to deal with this situation, and now she's going to have to reroute everyone, not just the bumped pax. She still refuses. You can't get a hold of company ops. You've called the MOD to see if he has advice/can do anything.

WWYD?

As an aside, I'm currently sitting in BUR, exactly 1 hour past our departure time...

 

[GypsyPilot]

See, the nice thing about the airlines is at some point you just shrug your shoulders and say, "whatever". After talking to the gate agent, ops, and the MOD, I would get coffee/lunch and not worry about it. Not worth sacrificing your health/mental well being over idiots in this job.

 

[Mike Wise]

Agreed ^

 

[Pachong]

Who cares? You can't be a one man airline.

 

[Flying Saluki]

No need to talk to the gate agent more than once, to find out what's going on. After that, you contact your dispatcher, and bring System Operations Control into it. There's more to it than a plane full of misconnected passengers. There's down line delays, misconnects, deadheading crews, occupied gates, and a whole host of problems caused when planes run late.

 

[BajtheJino]

@Xcaliber your story has captured my interest. How did the problem resolve?

 

[Itchy]

See, the nice thing about the airlines is at some point you just shrug your shoulders and say, "whatever". After talking to the gate agent, ops, and the MOD, I would get coffee/lunch and not worry about it. Not worth sacrificing your health/mental well being over idiots in this job.

Sometimes, ya just gotta be the honey badger.

 

[Screaming_Emu]

Put the boarding delay on the gate. Advise SOC. See if there is anything reasonable you can do to help the gate agent.

If all that has failed, go grab another cup of coffee and settle in for some not giving a crap.

 

[Xcaliber]

First off, I'm not a captain (yet), so I really couldn't do much other than offer suggestions and do what I was told. We couldn't really come up with anything else to do. As a relatively frequent non-revver, I can't help but feel bad for passengers when they get delayed and miss connections because of something that is entirely within an airline employee's control. Weather and maintenance are one thing, holding your passengers for ransom at the boarding gate is something else entirely.

@Xcaliber your story has captured my interest. How did the problem resolve?

About two minutes after I posted, the agent started boarding passengers, but only after rebooking each one's itinerary at the gate. What should have taken 15 minutes took 40.

 

[Blackhawk]

I'm pay protected. Day one of a trip. I won't say I don't give a crap- I do- but I've done what is within my power. The only other thing I have left to do is check the delay code when it is put in the system. If this is RIC I'm sure it will come up as "Crew slow completing checklists".

 

[Screaming_Emu]

I'm pay protected. Day one of a trip. I won't say I don't give a crap- I do- but I've done what is within my power. The only other thing I have left to do is check the delay code when it is put in the system. If this is RIC I'm sure it will come up as "Crew slow completing checklists".

Choosing your battles is key to surviving this industry. Not sure if you got any of "the Dulles experience" but it was educational. You could give 150% or 50% and most of the time the end result is the same. Much of the time all you can do is commiserate with people.

 

[Blackhawk]

Choosing your battles is key to surviving this industry. Not sure if you got any of "the Dulles experience" but it was educational. You could give 150% or 50% and most of the time the end result is the same. Much of the time all you can do is commiserate with people.

I do what I can but I try not to get any more gray hair. I'm not one of the "it's not my job" types, but my sphere of influence is limited. I do fill out IORs where the are warranted. After all, if I don't fill one out and nothing is fixed then the problem is on me and I'm part of the problem; if I fill one out and the problem is not fixed then it is on someone else up the line.

 

[Screaming_Emu]

I do what I can but I try not to get any more gray hair. I'm not one of the "it's not my job" types, but my sphere of influence is limited. I do fill out IORs where the are warranted. After all, if I don't fill one out and nothing is fixed then the problem is on me and I'm part of the problem; if I fill one out and the problem is not fixed then it is on someone else up the line.

I wish more people would take that approach with MX especially.

"These packs suck, they won't cool down."

"Wanna write them up?"

"Nah, we only have this 2 more legs."

 

[SurferLucas]

"Not my circus, not my monkeys"

 

[derg]

You show up to the airport on time, get your morning coffee, head to the gate, tell the gate agent you'll be ready to board in 5, and settle in for a four leg day. The plane is ready, the FAs are ready, the pax are ready. 15 min to departure, and there are no pax to be seen. Departure time comes and goes, still no pax. 15 min past. 30 min past.

Meanwhile, you've already talked to the gate agent several times. She's refusing to board because the flight is oversold and no one is volunteering. You've explained that your company has procedures in place to deal with this situation, and now she's going to have to reroute everyone, not just the bumped pax. She still refuses. You can't get a hold of company ops. You've called the MOD to see if he has advice/can do anything.

WWYD?

As an aside, I'm currently sitting in BUR, exactly 1 hour past our departure time...

On minute six after the initial five, we weren't boarding, I'd be at the gate inquiring about delays.

If the agent isn't following procedure, it's time to send a detailed ACARS to OCC about a potential delay because the agent is making up her own rules and call ops to send down a second agent and a supervisor. If there's no action in five minutes or you can't reach OPS, physically walk in.

I know my chief pilot isn't going to think too kindly if I put the "captain" thing on pause and sat around waiting for magic to happen when you know darned well it isn't.

 

[ctab5060X]

I know my chief pilot isn't going to think too kindly if I put the "captain" thing on pause and sat around waiting for magic to happen when you know darned well it isn't.

Sometimes the "captain" thing requires you to reach out and grab the reins for a little bit. Take control of the situation. Be a leader.

I had a situation last week that if I had not stepped in, we would have probably cancelled a full flight of passengers that had been stranded multiple days because of the the snow storm. I could have either sat on a warm airplane away from everything and let the meltdown ensue, or I could step up and lead and help bring multiple portions of the airline together to reach a common goal of operating that flight with passengers. I chose the later.

 

[surreal1221]

Gate agents love it when you do the Captain (or First Officer) thing and attempt to take control of a bad situation.

They really love it when you operate on their turf.

A lot. Big Time. Do it often.

You'll make friends.

But hey - perhaps things are different when you're not a sub-contractor and you're physically representing the brand that is painted on the side of the aircraft. Mainline agents will do whatever they wish, whenever they wish, to whomever they wish. Not much a sub-contractor can do but sit around and wait for the third-party to do their duties.

Hence the attitude you may see here from a few of us who just so happen to be sub-contractors. Overall the MSP agents are spectacular but I don't bat an eye anymore when the boarding schedule isn't even remotely adhered to. No amount of ST - Failure to follow D-0 Compliance timeline sent over ACARS is going to change certain individual's behavior.

 

[derg]

There's much truth to that. I actually had a chance to meet the CEO, randomly, in the hallway and after he congratulated me, by name, on the upgrade (huh?) he said, "Be a captain and make a decision. If you make it based on what's best for the company and it works, awesome, if it doesn't, great. If you get any slack, here's my business card, call me and I'll take care of it".

I think he was serious.

 

[Roger Roger]

Just sing over the PA "the wheels on the bus fall off off off, off off off, off off off..."

 

[Screaming_Emu]

Gate agents love it when you do the Captain (or First Officer) thing and attempt to take control of a bad situation.

They really love it when you operate on their turf.

A lot. Big Time. Do it often.

You'll make friends.

But hey - perhaps things are different when you're not a sub-contractor and you're physically representing the brand that is painted on the side of the aircraft. Mainline agents will do whatever they wish, whenever they wish, to whomever they wish. Not much a sub-contractor can do but sit around and wait for the third-party to do their duties.

Hence the attitude you may see here from a few of us who just so happen to be sub-contractors. Overall the MSP agents are spectacular but I don't bat an eye anymore when the boarding schedule isn't even remotely adhered to. No amount of ST - Failure to follow D-0 Compliance timeline sent over ACARS is going to change certain individual's behavior.

MSP agents are awesome.

We found out mid boarding that one of our flight attendants had a death in the family. He said he wanted to continue, but it was obvious that he was a mess, so we decided to replace him.

Gate agent was fully supportive, dealt with some pretty irate passengers, and ordered pizza for everyone as soon as it became obvious that the delay was going to be significant.

This industry can be awesome when we all have each others back.