NJA guy wouldn't have had much recourse either. We're (were) paid to be professional pilots not only on our own aircraft but on yours as well. Some forget that from time to time and there was at least one case of a pilot being extremely rude to a gate agent and getting the CRPET1 Arrival over it.

I had two occasions where I got really peed off at a gate agent and had to bite my tongue. Another few times where a gate agent would have peed me off had I not had ulterior motives. My favorite one was getting to ATL late and the gate agent had given my seat away to a non-rev 15 mins before departure. Had I been going home I wouldn't have been happy. Starting the tour however is a different story.

I dealt with two flight crew tools while riding the airlines. I posted about the DAL 737 captain who hated my existence on his jet, and the other was one of our own.

I saw him standing around the gate area trying to look important. You've seen the type. He's standing a few feet from everyone else, but close enough to the crowd. He WANTS people to notice him so they will ask that stupid question: "Are you a pilot?". He might as well be standing there on a podium under a spotlight polishing his wings and cleaning the fingerprints off his Seiko World Time Watch with the flux gate compass, GPS and ELT in it.

As luck would have it, not one soul spoke to him in the gate area. Further, as more luck would have it, I have a middle seat on a 4 hour flight in another Boeing torture tube, and he's got the aisle next to me..... This isn't going to be pretty.

This was a new at the time DAL 737 that had the screens in the seat, and some expoliring at the gate led me to the music page which had Jimmy Buffett "Live in Anguilla". Sweet!

Before we left the gate, this overweight rectal cap starts asking me "what fleet?", "how long have you been here?", "I'm the most senior guy in the _____.", "what's your background". I gave him the answers, he seemed satisfied and dozed off.

About 20 mins after takeoff with me fully involved in hearing the Buffett, "They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More" for you fellow Parrotheads, the Sloth awakens..... He begins telling me that he decided not to go to the airlines and went to NJA instead, and that airline life was too easy, et. al. I asked him if he had ever applied to any airlines, which he replied to the affirmative, upon which I replied "none wanted you, huh?".

At the time of his hire, NJA was pay for training and all you needed was an ATP and a pulse. The rest of the ride home was pleasant and peacefully filled with my own personal Buffett concert. Bought the album on the drive home and listened to it again.