jhugz
Well-Known Member
Good thing I’m where I’m at then.
Pax begging for flight
- Thread starter SlantG
- Start date
Good thing I’m where I’m at then.
Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
I mean. I get the airline’s side. You delaying this flight to take someone running late, well now you risk the downline flight being delayed.
If someone isn’t onboard 10 minutes prior to departure, it wasn’t meant to be. The airline will reschedule them. No point screwing the other 177 people waiting inside the plane, while you go play Captain to get that last passenger on and delay the flight for everyone else.
Our cutoff is 10 minutes. At best, I’ll tell the gate agent I’m okay with 5 prior if they are, and I’ll still get the flight blocked out on time.
jhugz
Well-Known Member
I have the tools to look at things like connections and the outbound flight. I’m not talking about delaying a flight for 20 mins for 1 passenger, but preventing an overzealous gate agent from closing 10-15 early while security was a mess, yes. Or that same agent that closed on a party of three 10 early is now at the gate 8 minutes prior, yup, jet bridge is coming back.
bLizZuE
Calling for engine starts en français
When I was an FO at eagle on the CRJ I was in DFW doing a flight to who gives a crap. We are operating the last flight of the day to who gives a crap and the agent has closed the door at the gate about 15 minutes before push. Two or three people are at the window jumping and waving at us. I look at the Captain and say "what do you say we get these people on?" I might have asked operations on the radio about this before I asked the Captain, I don't remember, it was over 10 years ago.
Operations said no. The Captain said he had received a phone call from the DFW chief pilot about a delay he had the previous trip. This I remember pretty clearly because I was a bit surprised to hear him show fear or concern over a phone call from the chief pilot of DFW. Mostly because we were a ORD crew and the DFW chief pilot isn't our chief? I don't know how that hierarchy actually works nor do I care. Not then and not now. Anyways.
I think I made a point to say we still had plenty of time to be on time and the Captain simply said "if operations says no, then no." Now I must say, the Captain I'm flying with is a decent enough guy. He's a career changer. Worked a whole career at American Airlines as a crew scheduler. Retired and thought, "that sounds like fun" and came to Eagle. He was older and he sometimes had trouble keeping pace. Nice guy.
But having flown with him a few times I was frustrated already with his decision making process (lack thereof) so I was pretty spring-loaded.
So when he said "if operations says no, then no" I just calmy started packing my stuff up. Unplugged my headset, put my checklist in my kitbag, the whole shebang.
"Where are you going?"
I pointed up at the terminal and the people, still waving at us, "up there."
Listen, I didn't have a plan I didn't know what I was going to do. But I was pretty pissed that our operation tasked with the transportation of people would refuse to transport them in the name of D+0. Especially when that wasn't even a factor!
Before I left, I called operations on the radio and told them of my plan. They threatened to call a reserve and replace me to which I laughed, "this isn't a CRJ crew base, good luck!" I went to the gate area and found three people very tired and confused.
"Did we miss the flight?"
"Nope."
"Why are you here?"
"I told the company if they weren't going to open the door for you they wouldn't be operating the flight to who gives a crap."
I'd love to tell you that I did this out of the goodness of my heart and my disdain for operations, but it was at least a little bit because I felt like the Captain should be the one in my position. The couple that almost missed the flight thanked me. The other guy just grinned and said "Nice."
"So now what?" they asked.
"I honestly don't know." I said. Because I didn't.
The gate agent came back to the podium.
"Operations just called, they said if you're still here and you want to go, we'll put these passengers on and leave."
"That's a fantastic idea!"
The flight with the Captain was only a little awkward. I sat down in my seat, unpacked, got my checklist out.
"Before start checklist, sir?"
We left only a few minutes late and I believe we arrived on time.
In case you're wondering, I did get a call from my chief pilot. I told him the story, he listened, and I never heard another thing about it.
Months later in the mail, I got a gift card from the couple. $300 gift certificate to a steakhouse nearby where I lived. No idea how they got my address. Recently I've upgraded and this experience still influences me to this day. I'm lucky to be working somewhere that seems to put some more thought into our connections than just on-time. We have a system in place that automatically makes connections decisions for us like when we should wait or not. Sometimes it's right, often it's not. That's where I step in. Recently in Denver we had one late connection and it was down to the last minute we were supposed to wait. I just walked off the jet and went to the gate podium. The agent looked at me and knew. The late passenger ran up and I said "you don't have to run, we're here."
Operations said no. The Captain said he had received a phone call from the DFW chief pilot about a delay he had the previous trip. This I remember pretty clearly because I was a bit surprised to hear him show fear or concern over a phone call from the chief pilot of DFW. Mostly because we were a ORD crew and the DFW chief pilot isn't our chief? I don't know how that hierarchy actually works nor do I care. Not then and not now. Anyways.
I think I made a point to say we still had plenty of time to be on time and the Captain simply said "if operations says no, then no." Now I must say, the Captain I'm flying with is a decent enough guy. He's a career changer. Worked a whole career at American Airlines as a crew scheduler. Retired and thought, "that sounds like fun" and came to Eagle. He was older and he sometimes had trouble keeping pace. Nice guy.
But having flown with him a few times I was frustrated already with his decision making process (lack thereof) so I was pretty spring-loaded.
So when he said "if operations says no, then no" I just calmy started packing my stuff up. Unplugged my headset, put my checklist in my kitbag, the whole shebang.
"Where are you going?"
I pointed up at the terminal and the people, still waving at us, "up there."
Listen, I didn't have a plan I didn't know what I was going to do. But I was pretty pissed that our operation tasked with the transportation of people would refuse to transport them in the name of D+0. Especially when that wasn't even a factor!
Before I left, I called operations on the radio and told them of my plan. They threatened to call a reserve and replace me to which I laughed, "this isn't a CRJ crew base, good luck!" I went to the gate area and found three people very tired and confused.
"Did we miss the flight?"
"Nope."
"Why are you here?"
"I told the company if they weren't going to open the door for you they wouldn't be operating the flight to who gives a crap."
I'd love to tell you that I did this out of the goodness of my heart and my disdain for operations, but it was at least a little bit because I felt like the Captain should be the one in my position. The couple that almost missed the flight thanked me. The other guy just grinned and said "Nice."
"So now what?" they asked.
"I honestly don't know." I said. Because I didn't.
The gate agent came back to the podium.
"Operations just called, they said if you're still here and you want to go, we'll put these passengers on and leave."
"That's a fantastic idea!"
The flight with the Captain was only a little awkward. I sat down in my seat, unpacked, got my checklist out.
"Before start checklist, sir?"
We left only a few minutes late and I believe we arrived on time.
In case you're wondering, I did get a call from my chief pilot. I told him the story, he listened, and I never heard another thing about it.
Months later in the mail, I got a gift card from the couple. $300 gift certificate to a steakhouse nearby where I lived. No idea how they got my address. Recently I've upgraded and this experience still influences me to this day. I'm lucky to be working somewhere that seems to put some more thought into our connections than just on-time. We have a system in place that automatically makes connections decisions for us like when we should wait or not. Sometimes it's right, often it's not. That's where I step in. Recently in Denver we had one late connection and it was down to the last minute we were supposed to wait. I just walked off the jet and went to the gate podium. The agent looked at me and knew. The late passenger ran up and I said "you don't have to run, we're here."