Jumpseating

[Fred Rogers]

Since when did the gate agent become the authority in charge of the jumpseat? I have a buddy of mine who was trying to jumpseat out of DFW the other day and the gate agent was being very uncooperative. It was an AA MD-80 which ended up leaving half empty with my buddy waving goodbye from the window. He was not allowed to go ask the Captain or anything.

If I was the Captain on that flight I would be ticked off knowing that I had a half empty airplane and a jumpseater stuck at the gate.

One time when I was jumpseating, an America West FO came up to the gate about 10min before pushback (the boarding process was a total cluster - shocker) and checked to make sure there were no jumpseating crewmembers. He made sure that myself and a flight attendant on her way back from vacation got on the plane. I am confident that if he had not done that, we wouldn't have gotten on the plane because the gate did not want to deal with us. (AW FO, if you are reading this thank you again!!!)

Any thoughts???

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

The power trip of the gate agents....


you have to use Jedi Mind tricks or other positive human social skills to get what you want... some can do this and others can not....

 

[timetoquit]

Same thing happened to me in ATL a few weeks ago on DAL. The gate agent was yelling at last minute connecting passengers! I was shocked at the rudeness of the this gate agent! I was certain to be ignored despite having listed for the jumpseat 2 hours prior and politely making myself known that I was patiently waiting. Luckily the FO came out and watched in disbelief as the agent berated paying customers while ignoring us. He finally just took me down the jetway and into the cockpit. When the gate agent came into the cockpit with the final paperwork he said to the Captain "I have no idea where this guy came from! Do you want him on the plane?" The captain turned around and could not believe what had just been said! The agent then told the A-line that there were a few standbys remaining but he didnt want to deal with them and take a delay! When the captain found out that 3 standbys were left behind he hit the roof, but it was too late.

The flight left 10 minutes late with 3 open seats and 3 standbys remaining! This agent should be fired for his rude and disrespectful behaivor toward paying customers and employees!

It's people like this who make me hate this profession. Are we not all on the same team?

To the DAL pilots, thanks for the ride and utmost professionalism.