"Gate Pass" BS! Hassle to Jumpseaters

[PCL Flt-ops]

I'm just curious as to how some of you frequent non-revers and jumpseaters are dealing with this new "Gate Pass" crap that the TSA has implemented. Scenario- You get to the airport and your flight leaves in 40 minutes. You have your Airline ID and your Airmen Certificates. There is a 1 1/2 hour line at the ticket counter. You go through security and some idiot without even a high school education tells you that you need a gate pass. You try to explain to this idiot that you are jumpseating and that jumpseating is handled at the gate..... what next?

Well, I have come up with two semi solutions to this annoying problem. (1) I get a few extra blank jumpseat forms and then fill them out as my gate pass when I go to the airport. (2) I use NWA frequently. They have this new internet check-in system. So I call reservations and book myself with a standby reservation. Then I check-in for the flight online and print out my "gate pass."

But the other day I had to take American. As some of you may know, American does the jumpseat strictly via their reservation computers and there is no jumpseat form that I am aware of. On that particular day, there happened to be at least an hour line at the ticket counter and I had 50 minutes before my flight left.

So what do you do, go to the front of your line with your airline ID? Please, I need a solution to this annoying problem!!!

 

[FL000]

Get to the airport sooner.

 

[ifly4food]

I'm curious what airport you're having trouble at.

I've had no problems at all just showing my ID at security and going straight to the gate to "take care of business". I have done this both in uniform and "incognito" but being in uniform helps.

If you go to the checkpoint , show your airline ID, and someone won't let you through, ask to see a supervisor. Again, being in uniform helps, and while not required, it is recommended to jumpseat.

 

[greg20]

Where specifically are you having problems? I nonrev all the time to airports big and small and only have to show my airline ID to get past security, never been asked for my airman certificate no matter how I'm dressed (business casual for F/J, jeans for Y). I do get suspicious looks sometimes as I look very young for my age, but I've never had any real problems at a checkpoint.

 

[Low Timer]

This same thing is what I was talking about when I was jumpseating on AA in STL.

The TSA in STL tells me this is something that will be done at all airports after the test period. It is going to get a lot harder on all of us if they don't change their policy.

 

[Ty Webb]

Get to the airport sooner.

Spoken like a true idiot. Guess you don;t mind spending half of your off days hanging out at the airport, but some of us have a life.

 

[FL000]

That's one "idiot" and one "dumba$$" in just two days. I'm finally starting to get some recognition around here!

By the way, last time I checked, commuting was a choice.

 

[Ty Webb]

I'll bet you're getting the same type of recognition at work and around the house, too.

Your attitude towards your fellow pilots tells me that you are a pretty unhappy person. Why else would you frequent a thread that has nothing to do with you, for the sole purporse of making juvenile taunts?

It's guys like you that those ridicuous psych tests are designed to weed out. SOunds like your airline doesn;t use 'em.

 

[FL000]

Is your keyboard upside down?

 

[enigma]

Unfortunately, when you're an offline jumpseater, this happens. If you are flying out of an airport where your own company flys, you should be able to go through with out a gate pass. If not, you may have no choice. Successful commuting is largly based upon knowing how to play the game. Most checkpoints that deal with Delta use the JS form as a gate pass. You have to go to the counter to get a gate, pass. Sorry, that's the way the system works. I have sometimes gone to the first class line and asked if they could give me a JS form, if you ask nicely you usually get it. At AA destinations, you have to get a priority verification from the counter, the only way is to get to the airport in time to accomplish all of the required steps.

Whatever you do, don't create problems for the CS agents at the airline you are trying to jump on. You will only create problems for all of the rest of us.

regards
8N

 

[dkwid]

Hey Boys! What with all this mean spirited "garbage".

Perhaps next time you are challenged by an individual with a TSA badge you should step back and say something like:

"HEY Moron, I bet you don't eevn have a high school diploma, I am your MORAL and Intelectual Superior, let me pass you incompetant a$$."

If that doesn't work kick him in the balls go to his kids schools and berate his 8 year daughter until she starts to cry.

By than you should at least feel like the man you are or at least the man you you should be seen as becouse, after all those gold bars on your shoulder do elevate and square off the base your head rests on.....Demanding RESPECT ME...I'm A Pilot. So now standing in lline for 50 minutes you feel justified.

The reality is security is a factor we all deal with and will continue to. Until we have a universal ID that is truly recognised we have limited options. I suggest you go to your Unions jumpseat coordinator and offer some constructive ideas to aleviate these issues that, I agree, need to be dealt with and fixed.

Until than, buck up little camper and I will be seeing you in line........................

 

[enigma]

By the way, last time I checked, commuting was a choice.

FL000, are you a pilot or a screw scheduler?

Your comment about getting to the airport earlier, is true, but this crap about commuting being a choice sounds like management. Commuting was a choice before Sept.11th. Now with all of the downgrades/displacements/furloughs/etc, commuting has become a necessary function of staying employed. My personal story includes four forced base changes since Sept, 2001. There is no way that I could move my wife and four kids everytime I am displaced by the company. Commuting is not my CHOICE.

later,
8N

 

[FL000]

Hey y'all, I'm just dorkin' around. I will say that I think that TSA is doing a much better job than the rejects that were there before, and I don't think that the same insults apply. I am on your side, meaning that I think we should all have "universal access" to all US airports to avoid these hassles. However, the hassles are in place for now, and we all have to take a bite of the proverbial s--- sandwich.

Though my first reply was curt, it was the easiest solution to the posted problem until such time that we do get a universal ID. dkwid and I were thinking along the same lines. He was just more diplomatic than I.

Oh, Enigma, point taken about the "new" commuting world. Sorry about the dig.

 

[enigma]

Oh, Enigma, point taken about the "new" commuting world. Sorry about the dig.

No probleemo bro. I was quick too. I've just heard that phrase used too many times by schedulers and managers when discussing commuting problems.

regards,
8N

 

[HAL]

There's a few large airports - mostly in the east - where the TSA has implemented the 'boarding pass' requirement. They're testing it out there, and it may spread to all the airports in the US if they don't hear any complaints about it. So in this case, let your union and congressmen hear about it!

HAL

 

[ifly4food]

By the way, last time I checked, commuting was a choice.

He says this because at ASA this is official company policy. Why FL000 feels the need to parrot this eggheaded idea is beyond me. Maybe he's a member of management or of the training department (same thing, really).

Despite management's usual rosy outlook, many of us ASA pilots commute (almost 50% according to one poll), because frankly, it's none of their d@mn business what we do on our own time. If FL000 chooses to live in domicile, that's fine, but he has no right to tell others to.
It doesn't matter because we WILL be getting a commuter policy in our next contract. We're just about the only airline left in our class that doesn't have one.

 

[FL000]

Maybe he's a member of management or of the training department

I love it when people around here get cornered with logic and start throwing the "M" word around, hoping it will stick like a scarlet letter. It's like the Al Sharptons of the world who yell "racist" whenever nothing else is working for them.

Besides, 8N already set me straight and I apologized, or didn't you get that far in the thread?

 

[lionflyer]

I usually have no problem getting by the checkpoint with just my ID. I did have one lady (who was new) ask to see my boarding pass. I just pulled a Write Your Own and said "This is what flight crews use." She said: "OK." Most of them don't even know.
Happy Holidays.

 

[Lindy]

Trouble in MCI

I missed the flight I had listed for out of MCI due to the fact that I didn't have a jumpseat form. Dressed in business casual; displayed FAA Certificates and company id; two weeks earlier walked through w/o having a "pass"; politely told the security employee that it wasn't necessary. He told me that I needed a pass.

Stood in line, very patiently at check-in; nice to the CSR at WN; he gave me a blank form; asked if it needed any special verification because I was stopped at the security checkpoint; he stated that I just needed to show the pass.

Walked back to the same security check point w/ the same security employee and showed him a jumpseat form NOT YET COMPLETED and he let me through.

Now it was 25 minutes prior to push and since I hadn't officially checked-in, I was unable to catch the first flight out; waited for the next flight; gate agents were nice enough to let me on the next flight, even though I wasn't listed on it.

I agree that until there is on id, we will always have problems.

 

[dispatchguy]

Re: Trouble in MCI

Walked back to the same security check point w/ the same security employee and showed him a jumpseat form NOT YET COMPLETED and he let me through.

Proof that the idiots are now running the asylum