Originally Posted by
Holy Toledo
I've had a few....
Jumping on Comair from CVG-MYR, I get on and there are 3 people booked on the flight. The captain was very gracious and signed the form and welcomed me aboard. I always make an effort to thank the FO as well, but this FO was buried in his jepps with his huge DC headsets on. As I turn to leave the FO whips around and snatches the form from my hand! In awe, I turn around and myself and the captain are now staring at this guy with a look of shock. He tells me "You'd better not leave with MY copy of the jumpseat form." At this point both myself and the captain are looking at eachother going "WTF!?".
This FO then proceeds to flip open his FOM where he checks my airline against thier Reciprocal list. When he sees us there, he tells the captain "They're on there....I'm suprised...I didn't think we let freight guys ride."
As I'm about to just clock this kid across the face, he then CHECKS THE SCAB LIST. Then says "Ok, you're cool...go have a seat." The captain looks at me and says, "I'm sorry". As I turn and walk out he reaches out and closes the cockpit door to chew this guy out.
When we arrived in MYR, I was paying for parking and he came up to me and apoligized again, and told me the FO was a new-hire on probation from Comair Academy.
My other favorite is less involved. I was jumping on a Mesa E-145 from DTW-CLT and The FO turns to me and says "You fly freight? Man, why don't you get a real job flying passengers? That freight sh*t is a dead-end." I hope he enjoyed his 18,000 and 8 days off that month.
I used to have a lot of similar experiences commuting on a mainline carrier. The CA was always cool but the FO was always a little off. Post 9/11 when the only people allowed in the cockpit were the airlines people or the codeshare (express) carrriers was a fun time. I remember frequently asking the CA for a ride and CA saying no. I would always politely say, "sir, I work for express and have a K priority on my pass, any chance you could look in your FOM to be sure?" While the CA is looking in his book, the FO is popping off "We don't have anythiny like that, you can't ride up here." Meanwhile, the CA has found it and given the OK. Like it's the FO's call to decided who rides anyway.