America West Ramp Agent

drum4jim

drum4jim

Well-Known Member
I got an interview with America West as a Ramp Agent today at BUR. The pay isn't great, especially considering I've recently graduated with a B.A. degree. But I thought it would be a good experience to get into the working world of aviation since I plan on becoming a pilot. I don’t know too much about the job though (just baggage handling, marshaling, etc.). I was wondering if anyone had an insight on what this job is like. Is the experience and being involved in airport operations worth the low pay since I’m interested in aviation?

I also had a question about flying for free. Are you just on standby every time you want to fly for free?

I appreciate any comments on this so that I can decide whether to take the job or not. Thank you.
 
Big question: would you be cross-utilized ramp and counter, or are the 2 work groups seperate?

In Bangor at Comair Where I work we do both inside and outside work lets see here...as far as I thing counter sucks....gate is fine when the plane is on time and not over sold, but ramp is the best. My theory is bags dont b!tch. I am not the biggest people person, hence why I want to fly 135 freight, that and the flying is feally freaking awesome.
 
Here's the gouge on non-revving.

Don't plan on summer vacations, and don't plan on getting anywhere hassle-free during a holiday weekend! :)

Most of our trips Kristie and I make are usually planned the last minute (like two days out) and I do a lot of October, February and April vacations.
 
yes, the ability to go someplace for a day or two, at your whim....If you can get time off, is wonderful. I can wake up and decide to se a friend in Boston, and hang out for a day and come back no problem. For you in Burbank Its "hmmm I want to go to Vegas tonight and play some poker....be back tomorrow". Again dont expect that because there is a flight that you can just "hop on". Thing over book and things cancel. Absolutely no guaruntees. Then again its free.
 
Therein lies the rub. It's not necessarily 'free'. That's part of your compensation package -- almost akin to saying that "well, my company has paid medical, so that root canal I had was free" or the ability to pay your mortgage is a 'free perk'.

Getting stuck in a city like LAS can be tres cher. Last minute hotel, even the crack hotels are in the hundreds, your travel partner misses a day of work and can potentially get fired and if you get stuck overnight in a base city, you can end up on a snowballing standby list that, at times, can amount to 50 or 60 people vying for 2 seats.
 
I've seen what you're talking about Doug. I was at work one day and was helping a co-worker get home by looking up loads on the comp. Well this co-worker was stuck in all places...Chicago...and asks me to look where she is on the DM for a flight to LAX. So I pull up the flight...pull up the DM and start scrolling....scrolling....scrolling...she ended up being #115 on the DM list!! I couldnt believe it. There was a bunch of flts cancelled before the flt she was trying to get on. Its non-rev hell in Chicago!
 
Sometimes for fun, I look at the NRSA lists out of Hawaii. Generally a bunch of S4's... People get hired, their friends say "Gimme a buddy pass to Hawaii!" and the brand new employee hasn't a clue that friends don't give friends buddy passes! :)
 
Doug Taylor said:
and the brand new employee hasn't a clue that friends don't give friends buddy passes! :)
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True that! I find it hard trying to explain to friends and my parents at that boarding priorities. I also like looking at the "list" for Hawaii flts and seeing a bunch of UA BP6Bs with 30 some odd years of service ahead of BP8Cs like my self anxiously waiting to hear their name called:( However its always nice when you travel on your own airline and seeing BP8A and #1 next to your name on the DM. What a great feeling...ahh!

Ok...back to homework. Calculus...differentiation....chain rule....:( HELP!
 
What's really fun is looking at a city during a big event. Say Munich during Octoberfest. You'll see like 1 employee or spouse standby and three or four 'buddy pass' riders on the same flight listing among a list of like 60 higher seniority non-revs for about three open seats. Usually someone was bragging to their friends about flying for free/cheap and is going to experience the 'pleasure' of sitting around the airport for hours, if not days to show his/her friends the spiffy perks of being an airline employee! :)

"Oh, we'll get to Munich no problem!"
 
Doug Taylor said:
What's really fun is looking at a city during a big event. Say Munich during Octoberfest. You'll see like 1 employee or spouse standby and three or four 'buddy pass' riders on the same flight listing among a list of like 60 higher seniority non-revs for about three open seats. Usually someone was bragging to their friends about flying for free/cheap and is going to experience the 'pleasure' of sitting around the airport for hours, if not days to show his/her friends the spiffy perks of being an airline employee! :)

"Oh, we'll get to Munich no problem!"
Click to expand...

Yes! Been there done that. The non-rev experience. Ahh...the joy of running from gate to gate, terminal to terminal, and agents saying "dont worry we'll roll the list over" when in fact you get to the gate and find out that no list has been rolled over. Those benefits come at a price...your sanity!
 
Have you ever had an agent convince you to sit there by saying "We'll take care of you, don't worry! Just be patient please!" because the last time you checked on your computer a few minutes ago, there were plenty of seats available and you were #1 and #2 on the standby list.

Then the flight leaves the gate, they said 'the flights full, sorry! but uhh, it's 40 minutes until the next one but we're not going to roll over the standby list, see ya tomorrow!'

That was Kristie an I in Frankfurt last weekend! :)
 
tripleseven said:
True that! I find it hard trying to explain to friends and my parents at that boarding priorities.
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Yup, that's why whenever I give one of doug's buddy passes out (they are his priveledge after all), I say "my rules or no go"...because i'll be damned if someone gets us in trouble for giving someone a buddy pass.

tripleseven said:
Ok...back to homework. Calculus...differentiation....chain rule....:( HELP!
Click to expand...
ugh.. chain rule... another problem alltogether! hahaha
 
tripleseven said:
True that! I find it hard trying to explain to friends and my parents at that boarding priorities. I also like looking at the "list" for Hawaii flts and seeing a bunch of UA BP6Bs with 30 some odd years of service ahead of BP8Cs like my self anxiously waiting to hear their name called:( However its always nice when you travel on your own airline and seeing BP8A and #1 next to your name on the DM. What a great feeling...ahh!

Ok...back to homework. Calculus...differentiation....chain rule....:( HELP!
Click to expand...

ah i love math. i forgot a lot, so im going to take calc again, and then take the next one too, just for fun. haha.
 
Doug Taylor said:
Have you ever had an agent convince you to sit there by saying "We'll take care of you, don't worry! Just be patient please!" because the last time you checked on your computer a few minutes ago, there were plenty of seats available and you were #1 and #2 on the standby list.

Then the flight leaves the gate, they said 'the flights full, sorry! but uhh, it's 40 minutes until the next one but we're not going to roll over the standby list, see ya tomorrow!'

That was Kristie an I in Frankfurt last weekend! :)
Click to expand...
oh man.. that was NOT fun...try sitting there, waiting for the gate agents to come talk to you (cuz they said they would right?)...there are 17 seats on the flight available and all of a sudden, they come over, say flights full and your scratching your head doing a double take "say wha?"...the gate agents told us that there's a JFK flight leaving in 1/2 an hour...but we're not going to roll you over because it's not "enough time"..we're like "thank you SOOO much for your help :sarcasm: "...you think you might make it if you run & check in at the gate... so we (along with 8 other standby's) run down 8 gates, go through yet another security checkpoint and while we're trying to get on the flight, they say they have seats left if you have no bags checked...they take 2 folks OUT of seniority, put them on the flight and then as the rest of us are trying to tell the agent that we have no bags checked, can we get on...another gate agent *closes* the flight.. therefore, we're not going anywhere... yet the jet left with seats open... hmmmmm....we're still trying to piece that one together and figure out who we need to talk to to find out if situations like that really need to be happening.:insane:
 
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