Originally Posted by
texaspilot76
OK, time for me to vent here.
I tried to catch a Eagle flight to DFW this morning. The gate agent informed me the flight was wieght restricted. When everything was on, she only had 20 lbs available. Evidently the gate agent does the wieght and balance, not the crew. I asked to speak to the Captain, so she called on the radio to one of her cohorts and asked him to speak to the captain for me. He called back saying the captain could get me on. She finished what she was doing and then said she couldn't get me on because it required her changing numbers and it would delay the flight. She said she would get in big trouble if the flight was delayed. So I asked to speak to the Captain again and she went down to get him. I waved at the Captain through the window and he waved back. Next the gate agent began pulling back the jet bridge. The Captain waved at her to stop, but she wouldn't. He sort of threw his hands up like, "Oh well, sorry."
I don't know what Eagle's policy is, but I know at PSA we care about getting our jumpseaters on. If it meant burning the extra 160 lbs. of gas they would have had to burn for me to get on, we would do it. The gate agent was wrong to do that to me, and the Captain should have got out to help me. After all, he told the agent he could get me on. Guess he didn't want to delay the flight 2 minutes to let me on.
Eagle pilots are always welcome on our jumpseat, but I hope this is not a practice among Eagle to treat their jumpseaters in such a fashion.
A year or two ago AE went to an electronic weight and balance system which is completely done by operations/gate agents. The flight crew has no idea or influence in the process, as opposed to the old style of filling out the load manifest. We really do try to get everyone on the plane, but many times we cant visually see the gate area to know if a jumpseater is trying to get on. Sadly, the flight crew doesnt have any control anymore. The gate agents at AE are so afraid of a flight going out 1 min late that they wont do anything to help anyone, pax included. I have no idea what the penalties would be to a gate agent if the flight was late, but knowing AMR they would probably lose a limb.