My first mesa experience ;(

[igneousy2]

The original poster is confusing terms.

Non rev, Deadhead, and Positve Space are not always the same thing. When you are traveling to work a flight on the other end you are still deadheading but you are now a "super-deadheader". Just kidding, different airlines call it different things but as an example...

American and I'm sure every other 121 airline has something called "MUST RIDE"

When I was at American Eagle - if you were booked "MUST RIDE (A1)" then the gate agent could not even close the flight in SABRE unless you are on.

When I was on reserve in Dallas for Eagle - they held a 757 going to MIA for 45 minutes for me and the Captain for a last minute deadhead. The beautiful part was the flight was OVERSOLD and they had to pull two paying passengers OFF the flight so we could get on. The same thing has happened at my current airline.

Once we got to Miami we worked 4 legs down in the MIA system that were able to operate on time.

As far as the Captain goes - basically - unless it's a safety issue - his hands are tied. If the powers that be want that flight to wait...then you wait. Even if you talk them into letting you go...they still "let" you go.

I don't agree with the FA's delivery but the FA might have saved Mesa a bunch of money because she may have saved the schedule for the next day. You waited - so obviouslly, somebody agreed with her.

Later

 

[HarryParatestes]

Okay guys, wanted to talk a little about my first mesa experience, which was leaving las vegas to el paso texas on sunday night at 1159pm. The crj 900 was packed to capacity and we boarded about 10 minutes late. no big deal right? well once everybody is on board, one non-rev captain jumps up front in the jumpseat, and we hear them talking about another deadhead f/a that needs to be on the plane. the flight attendent announces to all us passengers that we will be waiting a few minutes for some of their employees that needs to be on this flight. so we wait. and wait..and wait.

about 20 minutes later the deadhead f/a gets onboard to find out that there is no open seat (no ******************** didn't we know that this flight was sold out 30 minutes ago?) anywho, she demands that she has to be on this flight and won't get off. the gate attendant that boarded us comes onboard and says that the deadhead f/a Must call dispatch immediately. she says (i hear all this because I am in the first seat) "im not going to call them, lets just close the door up and ill call them from el paso". For the next 10 minutes she acts like a 2 year old saying that she "is NOT going to get off the plane". Meanwhile all of us revenue passengers have now been boarded for about 40 minutes, everybody getting impatient, including myself.


I motion for the f/a working this flight to come over, tell her that I am also a pilot and I was wondering why they were holding over 50 revenue passengers over an hour to solve a nonrev situation. i got the reply "sir, i am not in charge of this flight, i am just working on it" a little smile, and walked away.

The gate attendant comes back on board and asks for a volunteer to get off the plane and they will give them a free roundtrip ticket, freee hotel , blah blah blah. they get one volunteer, that volunteer goes off board, and the deadhead gets on. problem solved right? wrong

we are getting ready to push when the f/a phone dings. i hear her say "are you kidding me?" she then opens the door and motions for the deadhead f/a to come up front. she then told her "the captain told me that you need to get off the plane and call dispatch". Meanwhile you can hear them opening up underneath getting her luggage off the plane. she gets off the plane, here we go again finally off to el paso. wait ..........not yet.

five minutes go by and the SAME deadhead gets back on board laughing HYSTERICALLY as loud as she can saying "i made it!! i made it back on!!! woohoo." the plane wasn't amused as we are now over an hour after being boarded and now we won't get home in el paso till about 4am, most people having to work 3 hours later. she saw that we were not amuzed and said "im sorry guys, i know yall hate this, im sorry". and yes, again they have to open up the cargo bay, throw her crap back on.

This is absolutely ridiculous. i have read most people criticizing mesa on here and only believed half of what i read but for christs sake, how do these people stay in business? how do they fly under aw/us air's banner conducting business this way. i will admit, i know very little about the 121 side of things, i am a freight dog, but i do know when customers are being taking for a ride.

a few questions for you 121 guys. in a situation like this who is suppose to take charge? i would think the captain would have the balls to say "hey we have to get these people where they need to go" and take charge, is this not true or does dispatch have a trump card over him? do airlines really hold an entire sold out flight over an hour to facilitate a nonrev crew member?

im not criticizing the flight crew in the cockpit, once they got the green light they hauled ass (i think we were taxiing at 50 knots) and were hauling ass into el paso, seems like they were doing the best they could when they got the green light.

needless to say, i won't be flying on a mesa airlines flight anytimes soon until their management can learn to manage something. thanks for listening to me vent! (*oh, and btw, that 900 was nice, im jealous!!!*)

So full of $h*t. 900 filled and only 50 Revenue pax. Liar. Bashing Mesa is a trend on FI and you are on the bandwagon.

 

[i fly boxes]

Okay guys, wanted to talk a little about my first mesa experience, which was leaving las vegas to el paso texas on sunday night at 1159pm. The crj 900 was packed to capacity and we boarded about 10 minutes late. no big deal right? well once everybody is on board, one non-rev captain jumps up front in the jumpseat, and we hear them talking about another deadhead f/a that needs to be on the plane. the flight attendent announces to all us passengers that we will be waiting a few minutes for some of their employees that needs to be on this flight. so we wait. and wait..and wait.

about 20 minutes later the deadhead f/a gets onboard to find out that there is no open seat (no ******************** didn't we know that this flight was sold out 30 minutes ago?) anywho, she demands that she has to be on this flight and won't get off. the gate attendant that boarded us comes onboard and says that the deadhead f/a Must call dispatch immediately. she says (i hear all this because I am in the first seat) "im not going to call them, lets just close the door up and ill call them from el paso". For the next 10 minutes she acts like a 2 year old saying that she "is NOT going to get off the plane". Meanwhile all of us revenue passengers have now been boarded for about 40 minutes, everybody getting impatient, including myself.


I motion for the f/a working this flight to come over, tell her that I am also a pilot and I was wondering why they were holding over 50 revenue passengers over an hour to solve a nonrev situation. i got the reply "sir, i am not in charge of this flight, i am just working on it" a little smile, and walked away.

The gate attendant comes back on board and asks for a volunteer to get off the plane and they will give them a free roundtrip ticket, freee hotel , blah blah blah. they get one volunteer, that volunteer goes off board, and the deadhead gets on. problem solved right? wrong

we are getting ready to push when the f/a phone dings. i hear her say "are you kidding me?" she then opens the door and motions for the deadhead f/a to come up front. she then told her "the captain told me that you need to get off the plane and call dispatch". Meanwhile you can hear them opening up underneath getting her luggage off the plane. she gets off the plane, here we go again finally off to el paso. wait ..........not yet.

five minutes go by and the SAME deadhead gets back on board laughing HYSTERICALLY as loud as she can saying "i made it!! i made it back on!!! woohoo." the plane wasn't amused as we are now over an hour after being boarded and now we won't get home in el paso till about 4am, most people having to work 3 hours later. she saw that we were not amuzed and said "im sorry guys, i know yall hate this, im sorry". and yes, again they have to open up the cargo bay, throw her crap back on.

This is absolutely ridiculous. i have read most people criticizing mesa on here and only believed half of what i read but for christs sake, how do these people stay in business? how do they fly under aw/us air's banner conducting business this way. i will admit, i know very little about the 121 side of things, i am a freight dog, but i do know when customers are being taking for a ride.

a few questions for you 121 guys. in a situation like this who is suppose to take charge? i would think the captain would have the balls to say "hey we have to get these people where they need to go" and take charge, is this not true or does dispatch have a trump card over him? do airlines really hold an entire sold out flight over an hour to facilitate a nonrev crew member?

im not criticizing the flight crew in the cockpit, once they got the green light they hauled ass (i think we were taxiing at 50 knots) and were hauling ass into el paso, seems like they were doing the best they could when they got the green light.

needless to say, i won't be flying on a mesa airlines flight anytimes soon until their management can learn to manage something. thanks for listening to me vent! (*oh, and btw, that 900 was nice, im jealous!!!*)

The captain should have demonstrated some authority and handled the situation. He should have started as soon as he knew it was full and there was more crew coming.

 

[38tango]

and.........here is where the threads contents gets changed by kids. thanks for the educated replys guys, was curious about some of the 121 stuff.

see below

 

[38tango]

p.s. here is how 121 works, at least at the regionals.

There are 15 (random number, you get the point) different groups that have to all do their jobs to make a flight happen. Each one thinks that they are in charge of the other, and management purposely keeps it that way so when something goes wrong everyone points their finger in a different direction. Nothing is ever done about problems with the exception of bickering amongst all of these groups about who messed up...nobody ever stops to think about how to prevent the snafu from happening again. Here's the really funny part: Of all the groups and all the people that are involved in pulling off a flight, the only ones that are truly held accountable for their jobs are the PILOTS.

 

[bailey3083]

T The beautiful part was the flight was OVERSOLD and they had to pull two paying passengers OFF the flight so we could get on. The same thing has happened at my current airline.
Later

How is the beautiful?

 

[igneousy2]

How is the beautiful?

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/sarcasm