Originally Posted by
Taco280AI
Just wondering if this could be legit or just gate agents not wanting to do any work.
Was trying to get home, full flight, open cockpit JS. Gate to gate, a 90 minute trip, wouldn't expect a heavy fuel load since both airports had good weather - but I'm not familiar with the Q or Horizon. Gate agent said we're full, not taking anyone in the JS for weight and balance. We (Skywest Captain was also trying to help me get on since he was there waiting as well) simply asked them to ask the captain if he knew there was a pilot trying to JS. They said they'd ask.
Some supervisor, Andrew, showed up and said the same W&B issue, we again asked if they could simply talk to the captain. "No, the plane is already late... W&B... we're not going to ask..."
Is this standard not to simply speak to the captain? Legit excuse for W&B Or a bunch of BS?
Not to get this mixed up, if they had spoken to the captain and he said "sorry, I wish we could, but we can't take you" then no problem. But refusing to even ask, that's the main issue.
It's rare, but it does happen. Some of the most common reasons include:
(1) Performance problems at departure airport (i.e., Sun Valley @ 84 degrees F and a 10-kt tailwind).
(2) Performance concerns at the destination airport. I earned the "tool of the month" award when I had to boot three non-revs off of a flight from Los Angeles to Mammoth. One of the non-revs was a disabled vet. :-(
(3) Short, heavy leg. Your takeoff weight is probably burn limited (the Q400 can take off at 65,200 lbs, but only if you burn off 3,200 lbs of fuel before you land). YVR-SEA and SEA-PDX are frequently burn limited. We were exactly one pound under our maximum on a recent SEA-PDX flight, but got both jumpseaters on board.
(4) Longer flights were you have to take lots of gas, because of weather. You said that this was not a factor here. However, it's possible that Central Load Planning and Dispatch made the decision to tanker fuel.
Hope that helps.