Originally Posted by
CTIIpilot
I get that. I understand about them not holding the flight. Still, they were there 5 minutes prior to departure and it was the last flight of the night which took off early. With the information technology we have today, this shouldn't happen. No reason except the agent wanting to make sure she closed it out on time. They can see that that have tight connecting customers and therefore delay in releasing the seats until the last minute. So in this case, 48 minute delay out of Denver which leads to 20 minute layover. They run, sprint, do everything they can to get there...get to the gate 5 minutes early and told thanks but no thanks. Doesn't make sense to me, they should change the policy. No amount of me citing company policy is going to calm down my sister who just dropped more f bombs than I have heard in 5 years.
I probably am biased because this same scenario has had me sleeping in the pilot lounge more than once. But that is different, I am a nonrev and they weren't expecting me. We have to value our customers or in the long run we are going to pay the price.
I've been noticing a push to get the planes out a few minutes early, especially with the new pushback procedures.
I think it has become a primary objective by management to drastically improve our on time performance.
I think you are kind of preaching to the choir here, it sucks we have all been there, but I don't think you are going to get any sentiment from the management side of the operation.
Even the slightest delay needs to be put on someone, and odds are it will fall on the gate agent.