Professional Courtesy

[Old School]

Kudos to the Delta Captain and First Officer who supported me yesterday in Orlando after the gate agent accidently deleted my cass entries and lost my paperwork at push time. Not sure exactly what they did to drag their feet until it worked out but with the rest of the flights oversold, I got a lot of extra time with my kids because of these two pilots.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

Awesome.

Hopefully, you expressed this gratitute personally towards them as well.

 

[macdu]

I am not Delta but am glad to see that there are some stand-up folks out there still willing to see a wrong, righted.
I had a Eagle captain come out to the podium about a year ago now and have quite an argument with the agent about his takeoff weight that he was going to adjust to get me on the flight home and to give me a ticket. The weather had improved dramatically and he could fill up the plane. He of course had to get dispatch to do all this, but he could have easily blown me off and pushed, but he didn't. The agent was not a happy camper seeing me get on that plane. It was very cool and I thanked him profusely.

 

[Flying-Corporal]

did they end up delaying a flight with paying paxs?

 

[pullmyfinger]

In 1998 I was flying a Baron for Airnet. I was based in Omaha and was fortunate to be able to jumpseat on Southwest and get home to Houston on the weekends. It was a major deal for me to be able to get back to the family and a wife who was just completing school at the time, even if for a couple of days.
One such trip home really stands out to this day. I completed my run at around 6 am after having flown 6.8 hours with over 10 hours of duty. I rushed to the terminal to get home only to find that the flight was full and there was already a jumpseater there. The Captain welcomed us both on board and I was thrilled at the thought of getting home.
As we were getting strapped in there were introductions and it turns out that the other pilot was a 757 driver for XXX airlines. The Captain asked me what I did and I told him that I was a BE58 Baron pilot. The 757 guy, who had a very large build to put it nicely said "man, its already cramped in here. I can't believe that Im sharing a jumpseats with a friggen Baron pilot..."

The Captain didnt skip a beat, turned around and said to Mr 757, "well then..why don't you get the f$@k off of my airplane..." Which he did, grumbling the whole way.

I got to go home.

 

[CA1900]

"... I can't believe that Im sharing a jumpseats with a friggen Baron pilot..."

The Captain didnt skip a beat, turned around and said to Mr 757, "well then..why don't you get the f$@k off of my airplane..."

:laugh:

Beautiful!

 

[jimcav]

Dont forget who controls the parking brake. Nice to see captains act like captains.

 

[FmrFreightDog]

did they end up delaying a flight with paying paxs?

If they did, it's unfortunate. Unfortunate that it has gotten to the point that a Captain has to drag his feet to delay a flight just to make sure he takes care of one of his own. Not so long ago the agents looked after the crews, and the crews looked after the agents. Then the bean counters and numbers people got in the mix, and now all you hear about when there's a delay is, "OK, who's going to take it?" Good for you, Captain and crew. Always happy to hear about a crew who is willing to take on the agents/gatekeepers/ops people to make sure the right thing gets done. It does my heart good to hear about people taking care of their own. You can make bank on the fact that nobody else will.

Flying Corporal... Obviously,
1) You don't commute.
2) You haven't been in this business long enough to understand what we have all lost in terms of "being on the same team" in the past several years.
3) So what if they were 5 minutes late off the gate? They more than likely still blocked in early, and a fellow wayward traveler got to spend an extra night with his family. Well worth it in my opinion, and I would be happy to defend my point of view to a Chief Pilot any day of the week.

Good on you, Delta crew. And, might I add, as a group you have always gone way out of your way to make this particular NWA commuter feel very much at home. I have never felt the slightest bit unwelcome in your jumpseat, even in the most stressful of times over the last year or so. I thank you, and my family thanks you. I can only hope that the commuters among you have had similarly positive experiences on our aircraft.

 

[Cardinal]

did they end up delaying a flight with paying paxs?

If so, good. The crew didn't delay the flight, the bumbling agent delayed the flight. The crew simply refused to make sacrifices to cover for the agent. As it should be.

"We'll leave only when [whatever] is taken care of." It's amazing how fast stuff can get done.

 

[Full of LUV]

Fwiw.....

If so, good. The crew didn't delay the flight, the bumbling agent delayed the flight. The crew simply refused to make sacrifices to cover for the agent. As it should be.

"We'll leave only when [whatever] is taken care of." It's amazing how fast stuff can get done.

For what it's worth, I have noticed in MCO and other DAL locations that they are down to one gate agent to board a 767 aircraft, by themselves. It appears to
be no small feat to answer all the questions, keep the que moving by zones and try and ensure the nonrevs and jumpseaters are accounted for. They have my respect, I'd say on a daily basis, their job is far more stressful than the average pilots trip!
Merry Christmas, and by all means, Happy Festivus!

 

[jetflier]

As a MCO commuter myself, I have to say that the NWA staff in the airport has always been jumpseat friendly and do go out of their way to make sure everyone gets to go. After going through a few airlines myself over the years, I fully understand the stress and not to have to worry about jumpseating is so very important.
We all need to do our part to help eachother as much as we can, because if we don't look out for eachother, who will?

 

[spudskier]

For what it's worth, I have noticed in MCO and other DAL locations that they are down to one gate agent to board a 767 aircraft, by themselves. It appears to
be no small feat to answer all the questions, keep the que moving by zones and try and ensure the nonrevs and jumpseaters are accounted for. They have my respect, I'd say on a daily basis, their job is far more stressful than the average pilots trip!
Merry Christmas, and by all means, Happy Festivus!

As well in ATL at the end of the D concourse, 4 gates, each with 6 flights and 1 gate agent... understaffed? maybe a lil. Last week all 4 gates had 6 flight each, ALL delayed or late... was a disgusting sea of humanity.

On another note, HUGE amount of thanks to the CHQ and XJT crews that have gotten me home so many times and the ASA crews that regularly add hundreds(sometimes over 800lbs) of pounds of ballast just to get me in the jumpseat. Means the world to me to get home. Trust that when I get the chance to return the favor, I surely will.

 

[ReverseSensing]

They have my respect, I'd say on a daily basis, their job is far more stressful than the average pilots trip!

Respect is fine, but let's not compare the stressfulness of their jobs to the high stakes nature of ours. If they dork up something at the gate, what's the worst that happens?

 

[Flying-Corporal]

Flying Corporal... Obviously ...

Obviously, you seem to know everything about me and the airline business. :laugh:

 

[BORAT]

Funny, I had a Delta Supervisor in MCO inform me I couldn't jumpseat to ATL with them because the computer wasn't getting into CASS. The flight had seats in the back but he was determined to deny me because of an "internal memo" that said we had to clear CASS to ride in the back as well...

After about 10 minutes of explaining to the guy I wasn't requesting the actual cockpit jumpseat because there were seats in the back, the captain came up the jetway saw me in uniform, looked at my id and said "Let's go!".

Wish I could have bought him a beer for coming up the jetway and getting me on my way.

 

[Mike man]

...the captain came up the jetway saw me in uniform, looked at my id and said "Let's go!".

Great success!

 

[another cfii]

For some reason, DL MCO ops has recently switched to a different system than used system wise. Gate agents told me they even have trouble finding things on that stupid "box"... It took them a few minutes, and still couldn't help me look at enroute wx. They are always understaffed over there... As a courtesy, I always try to grab the UM or wheely down the jetway if I can.

 

[mnboyev]

i had a very rude agent in ATL last week... grilled me about not knowing my PPR... WTFO ? I guess its my clock no. employee no.. .. whatever.... made feel like sayin screw it, I'll go find another flight home.. i mean, really.. cripe I just wanted to go home ... why the crap..? What a Biatch... Delta has been great.. but it just take one arse to piss ya off...

Thank you Delta Crew to MSP for being nice and makin up for the pissy agent..

EVV AirTran