ERfly
Well-Known Member
Because they're no longer the gate agent's problem. Also, at the aforementioned cAArrier, D-0 is absolutely everything and agents are disciplined by their out-of-touch managers if they're not meeting certain metrics.
Adventures in Jumpseating
- Thread starter ZapBrannigan
- Start date
Ian_J
Hubschrauber Flieger
It pretty standard. Once the crew gets there it’s pretty quick to push if boarded. That said, got to watch that 30 minute clock or else they have to give the passengers a chance to get off the plane. I had a gate agent one time absolutely determined to board the aircraft even though the captain wasn’t there. I was texting with the captain and knew he was way over 30 minutes out. She didn’t care and wanted to board anyway and I had to override her.
I get it, the gate agent wants to get rid of them, or they get taken to task. But a gate agent shouldn’t be held responsible for a lack of flight/cabin crew….thats not their problem or their cause of the delay, correct? And even if they load the jet with people, the gate is still blocked until the flight crew gets there.
Beep
Well-Known Member
The gate agents would rather have the passengers be the flight attendants responsibility ( without pay ) than risk having their supervisors think they weren’t doing everything possible to get the flight out ASAP.
Kingairer
'Tiger Team' Member
You dont have the big picture man...or so im told....Maybe that thread on the ACMI is the BIG PICTURE!
ERfly
Well-Known Member
*Laughs in American Airlines*
I mean, get get that the pax would no longer be at the gate, but the jet would still be sitting there with the door open to the jetway, and the jetway door to the terminal, as they wait for the pilots. Wouldn’t the gate agent still have to be there anyway then?
Kingairer
'Tiger Team' Member
Youre over thinking this i believe and most are overexaggerating this. This doesnt happen often, I can think of once in the last couple of years. It takes about 20-30 minutes to board an A321 and doesnt take that long for a captain to take their seat and prep for the flight. If you wait until captain/crew gets there you lose more time. Perhaps the captain decided to get food on the way to a gate despite running late, perhaps he was called out late for the flight and was "supposed" to be there by then. It isnt normal for them to board the flight with no expectation of when the flight crew would arrive and sometimes they dont get the timing just right.
Ah, so this kind of a situation is generally a rarity anyway. That makes sense then. Fair enough.
n156499000
I-am-a-pirate. I do not need credentials!
And more importantly, to see it BEFORE the paycheck was created, not months later.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
You're right, but at that point, the delay is demonstrably not the gate agent's "fault". They probably don't trust us to be honest when that ACARS delay message hits the wire, if CA walks in and everyone isn't boarded. I kinda get it, at least in a "not getting the bigger picture/customer condition" sense. Or maybe they just have a misplaced idea about how to do their part to keep the operation moving. Stupid, but I can see where it would come from.
EDUC8-or
Well-Known Member
This is slow season, I really enjoy this time of year. Reduced schedules and decent weather with lots of people on the MU list. Reserve is not so amazing during the summer on the narrowbody domestic fleets. But it should hopefully be better than years past, especially after the COVID furloughs.
Autothrust Blue
"Well, on the Brasilia..."
I mean, I was on RES for most of my time as a Captain, so it was marginally more complicated than that for me (indeed if memory serves it was big check little check just like this place), but overall yes. As a REG, I did not like how if your month was lopsided in terms of workload, as some of mine often were, you’d have a tiny check (which usually coincided with rent being due, ha) followed by a big(ger, anyway) one. Half the reserve guarantee is easy enough but who knows if the consolidation payment is right, right?
That said, this is all murderously opaque at this place, agreed. Doing crew comp work at Yellow was stupid easy because the payroll reports at least rebuilt themselves every 24 hours And you could do napkin math. Here? Errrrr…I don’t know where some of those bits are.
Maurus
The Great Gazoo
You have no idea how emany delay codes were out on PSA FAs by the gate agents. If we didn't put our own code in we would get a call from the "project" pilot so that PSA didn't get blamed. Absolute mess.
phill1174
Well-Known Member
Should've let the gate agent board anyway since they were so adamant about it. When they have to allow pax an opportunity to deplane a lesson will be learned, maybe.
Ian_J
Hubschrauber Flieger
The FAs would have cut me and/or peed in my coffee.
phill1174
Well-Known Member
Did you all use the program "Rainmaker"? We had it at 9E and it was awesome. If something was wrong I could just leave a message and it was usually fixed by the end of the business day. We got it at Brown earlier this year and there's no interface for the pilots. I'm guessing its the lite version. Some people have had mistakes on just about every check since it's been rolled out.
scooter2525
Very well Member
Have a PP excel sheet to keep the checks honest.
Autothrust Blue
"Well, on the Brasilia..."
As of when I left in '18, SkyWest had an army of crew time people with Excel sheets (yes) in lieu of substantial automation, but the system worked. I think they only shorted me twice (once when they didn't generate my base pay at all - ouch) in 6.5 years; I would call that a system that works despite its expensive (e.g., humanware) nature. Full employment policies in SGU, etc. And they'd overnight a check to you.
There was plenty of skullduggery but I never experienced it on the payroll end or, rather commendably, in the training center.
