PAX complain @ crew line-jumping

[Tripower455]

Another perfect example of what a joke ALPA is. How long have they been touting crew pass? Throw a crumb out here and there and the membership won't notice what a lame duck organization they are or exactly how much money they are raking in. This crap could be stopped instantly.

They've been "fighting" flight crews being screened as pax since 1988, when they first started requiring it.

Ironically, it is due to a ground ops type committing mass murder (PSA 1771) that pilots are searched for weapons, yet ground ops types are not always required.

Pilots submit to pax screening for one reason only. Eyewash. It makes the squeamish and generally ignorant public feel better if they see an easily identifiable "authority" figure being subject to the same screening as they get.

Look at it logically:

Why screen the only employees that don't NEED a weapon to take over the airplane (for weapons that could be used to take over an airplane), right before they TAKE OVER AN AIRPLANE?

It makes ever LESS sense when every ramper, fueler, provisioner, gate agent etc. waltz in the back door unchecked at the same time.

Either pilots are "trusted employees" or they aren't.

If they are, then they shouldn't be inconveniencing pax and diverting tsA resources from screening them.

If pilots aren't "trusted employees", then they shouldn't be flying the airplane, since regardless of how well screened they are, they still have complete control over a potential WMD.

 

[densoo]

Corporations change only if the bottom line is affected. Crew inconvenience will never affect the bottom line. Bad publicity will. The more the passengers get angry at crews jumping the line, the closer CrewPass gets.

The TSA isn't the villain here. They provide a rational and secure way for crews to bypass bagcheck. The airlines don't want to pay for it--right now.

One can only hope Schumer decides to make an issue of passengers' rights in these lines, and there might be some change.

 

[Tripower455]

Corporations change only if the bottom line is affected. Crew inconvenience will never affect the bottom line. Bad publicity will. The more the passengers get angry at crews jumping the line, the closer CrewPass gets.

The TSA isn't the villain here. They provide a rational and secure way for crews to bypass bagcheck. The airlines don't want to pay for it--right now.

One can only hope Schumer decides to make an issue of passengers' rights in these lines, and there might be some change.

Think about how many crews are unnecessarily screened as pax by the tsA. That has GOT to add up to millions per year in salary and benefits for people that otherwise wouldn't be needed.

It could pay for biometric ID and separate entrances for crewmembers a thousand times over, but then again, the object of the tsA isn't to save money, it's to make itself bigger.

Oh, and don't count on Chuckie to make our lives better. He'll come up with something far worse for us. Making us stand in line instead of cutting comes to mind, which would then lead to shorter overnights etc.

We should have had an SOS back when this nonsense started in '88. Unfortunately, the horse is out of the barn, and we're gonna have to live with this crap for a looooooong time.

 

[densoo]

Think about how many crews are unnecessarily screened as pax by the tsA. That has GOT to add up to millions per year in salary and benefits for people that otherwise wouldn't be needed.

It could pay for biometric ID and separate entrances for crewmembers a thousand times over, but then again, the object of the tsA isn't to save money, it's to make itself bigger.

Oh, and don't count on Chuckie to make our lives better. He'll come up with something far worse for us. Making us stand in line instead of cutting comes to mind, which would then lead to shorter overnights etc.

We should have had an SOS back when this nonsense started in '88. Unfortunately, the horse is out of the barn, and we're gonna have to live with this crap for a looooooong time.

Agreed.

But I have an unshakable faith that bad publicity can change anything.

 

[Tripower455]

Agreed.

But I have an unshakable faith that bad publicity can change anything.

Maybe, but be careful what you wish for. Pilots are always the enemy in the publicity battle.

 

[maru657]

Prior to the 80's, flight crew did not go through security and it worked just fine.

 

[NuGuy]

Heyas,

To be perfectly fair, I've been in line, in uniform, just pushing my stuff onto the xray belt when some fast food worker barged in line in front of me. And they weren't nice about it. I've also had a FA type push my stuff BACK from the xray without so much as an "excuse me, I'm running late", to which I would have been happy to accommodate them.

Sometimes we do it to ourselves.

Nu

 

[tomgoodman]

The real reason

Pilots submit to pax screening for one reason only. Eyewash. It makes the squeamish and generally ignorant public feel better if they see an easily identifiable "authority" figure being subject to the same screening as they get.

An FAA official privately admitted this years ago. He said they knew that properly-identified crewmembers were not a threat, but that making them go through screening had a beneficial impact on "public compliance" with the program.

 

[BLUE BAYOU]

And this will all stop that FFDO from going postal too... Flight crew screening is a waste of taxpayer money. Doesn't the traveling public already entrust the flight crew with their lives?

 

[ultrarunner]

Flight crew screening is a waste of taxpayer money....

Sure is. We're wearing a frigging SIDA badge for christ-sake.

Of course at some airports the crew bus will take you directly to ops, bypassing the mess, right? Or has that stopped now too?

Wish it was all standardized.

 

[The Drizzle]

Heyas,

To be perfectly fair, I've been in line, in uniform, just pushing my stuff onto the xray belt when some fast food worker barged in line in front of me. And they weren't nice about it. I've also had a FA type push my stuff BACK from the xray without so much as an "excuse me, I'm running late", to which I would have been happy to accommodate them.

Sometimes we do it to ourselves.

Nu

Excellent point, the entitled attitude is everywhere.

 

[Mike man]

I seem to recall an American Airlines pax complain a few years ago about a pilot cutting in line and American Airlines management (I'm sure in a rare move) actually stood up for the pilot and other crew members.

 

[Raoul Duke]

If this spreads, the airlines will be shamed into getting CrewPass. They don't want to spring for a separate entrance for flight crew, and instead want the crews to trample over first class passengers, disabled passengers, elderly passengers, moms with babes in arms.

It is shameful and has got to be very frustrating to be told to get to the airport three hours early, wait in a line to check bags, then wait in another line for security, only to watch a 19-member international crew get off a bus and jump to the front of the line while you may miss your flight.

If 60 Minutes did a story on this there'd be a CrewPass line next week.

It does not bother me in the least to walk in front of passengers - actually I sort of enjoy it.

 

[CFIT]

I seem to recall an American Airlines pax complain a few years ago about a pilot cutting in line and American Airlines management (I'm sure in a rare move) actually stood up for the pilot and other crew members.

That's because it benefits the airline.

As soon as we all go to the back of the line with all the passengers, this will get fixed. But some company minded richard will try to get there on time and nothing will change.

CrewPass will never happen.

 

[chimichanga]

It does not bother me in the least to walk in front of passengers - actually I sort of enjoy it.

Don't try it in the food court, though. They get mighty pissed.

 

[Nixon]

Don't try it in the food court, though. They get mighty pissed.

They get even more pissed when you won't allow them on your airplane afterwords. Or so I hear.

 

[SennaP1]

If I'm getting this straight, some of you feel BAD? about cutting in line. HA!
It's one of the few "privileges" we still have.

I'm always bolting to the front, with an "excuse me" if necessary.

 

[CheapFlyer]

I wonder how they'll feel when their flight departs an hour late because the crew couldn't get to the airplane in time.

Get this. At GoJet airlines they make the report time :45 prior to departure at the gate. This means, every time you see a GoJet crewmember hustling it through the security point they are on REST. They are so scared of being late they will climb over anything and everybody.

 

[Abernathy]

My guess is if it were a uniformed flight crew member who bypassed this whiny d-bag, he wouldn't have been complaining like a little girl.

 

[ERfly]

Don't try it in the food court, though. They get mighty pissed.

I've had the reverse happen. I was standing in line at McDonald's in IAH. I had a Blue Carpet Walker approach me and say, "I'm Elite Access, can I go ahead of you?" I was laughing so hard, I was unable to answer.