Originally Posted by
AiRegency
Gee, um, I'm really not quite sure I do understand you here. Could you put it in clearer terms perhaps?
My favorite deadhead was when I was sitting home reserve (for one of our favorite regionals) and got the call from scheduling asking me to make it to the airport ASAP for a deadhead. I said "No problem. I'll go as quick as I possibly can. I ought to be at the airport in, oh, about an hour and a half". (per contract) Keep in mind the flight I was deadheading on was a mainline 75 going to a major midwest city and is scheduled to leave right about the very moment I was walking into the airport. So I get to the airport and proceed to meander down to ops to check in, check v-file, get flight kit, etc. etc. and then I meander on over to the gate where the 75 is parked. Dang, it hasn't left yet. It's 20 minutes late and hasn't left yet without me. Bad luck perhaps. So I grab a coffee and find a window seat with a view of the departure gate and to my horror I see that the dang airplane still hasn't left. Must be having some kind of mechanical. I'm supposed to check into the gate for departure (per contact) 45 minutes after "check in". So now I have to go on over and fulfill my end of the agreement and check in at the gate. I polish off the coffee and step up to the corner wall just next to the gate. I begin to breathe real hard to make my face a little flush so as to appear out of breath and then I turned the corner where the agents are standing. As soon as I turn the corner the agent sees me and excitedly blurts out "Are you Capt. *******?"
"Yeah," I said. "I'm surprised you guys are still here. I came here as quick as I could thinking it would all be for nothing."
She says,"We were told by ops that we absolutely could not leave without you!"
WTH?!
I get down the bridge and the lead FA is standing there and says "I don't know who the heck you are but you must be real important!"
I just said "I'm really not that important at all, they just hate me that much."
As I'm hopelessly looking for a place to put my bags I am getting the most serious evil eye from over 200 ticked off pax. Just about that time the lead FA gets on the PA and makes the nastiest, seething PA saying "As soon as everybody takes their seat we will finally be able to go!" Of course I'm the only guy standing. You could hear angry comments coming from every direction.
I finally stow my bags and take my seat next to the isle and attempted to "blend in" as much as a guy in uniform can. Throughout the flight I couldn't help but wonder if there was a higher percentage of people then normal suffering from poor vision or if the extraordinary number of people bumping into me was a sign of something else.
Yep, I managed to single handedly delay a full 757-300 for 45 minutes.
Funny thing was, half way through the flight I feel a hand on my shoulder. I'm thinking, oh great, here we go. I turn around and I'm looking at a good family friend of ours. He smiled and said "I thought I recognised you." He and his wife were on their way to Germany via this midwest city. He told me later that he was glad I showed up late. They got to enjoy an evening out east at the companies expense with a travel voucher and it split up his trip some. He said he didn't think his wife had it in her to do both flights one right after the other. He also said there were about 60 international misconnects due to that delay.
All this expense for what you may ask? I was sent to this city so as to operate a highpeed with 18 pax on board. I could only smile and think, yep, that will be the last time the Major ever lets the Regional tell it what to do. Unbelievable.
YESSS!!!!! LOL!!!! Classic....I love a great "stick it to the MAN" story....
