No problem, Carl. Even though you two are entirely different, you should try to get along. :D

I was told that this week at the LCP meeting RA said precisely that. We have to get the aircraft manufacturers to compete. Kinda like going into your Ford dealership and declaring you only buy Fords - their reason for negotiation just went way down.

I'm frankly shocked that we're not getting more movement out of Boeing. You'd think they would want to keep the World's second largest airline as a customer especially after the abortion they're calling the 787. Of course, that would require the same company that thought global outsourcing was a good idea to recognize that customer service matters.

Attention former CRJ 50 seat drivers: Quick question. Have you ever heard of being weight restricted to the extent that you had to go out with 6 empty seats? The segment was PIT-ATL, today. Wife has a friend on a buddy pass (yeah, I know, we tried to talk her out of doing that) and the agent told her she couldn't get on the flight because of weight restrictions. I checked and the flight went out with 6 empty seats. What do you think? Legit?

As a frequent RJ commuter, I have seen this many times. It is usually because of a long leg with an alternate. A quick look at the weather map shows rain along the route so maybe there are some storms they are building in diversion fuel for.

Possible, depends on how far the alternate is and how many bags. Also depends on the agent, maybe she didn't want to wait for the crew to crunch the numbers.

Also, I know my former company (comair) would send a max pax load to the gate agents. It usually accounted for way more bags and we could usually take more pax than listed.

However, sometimes gate agents don't listen to us. When I was JFK based me and a DL were trying to jumpseat to dtw on comair. WX was garbage and the alternate was Toledo...There were also 4 revenue standby's waiting for a seat and 5 empty seats. The gate agent wouldn't board any of us because of the max pax load that she had on our computer even though operations was on the radio saying the CA said he could take a full load plus a js. Eventually the CA said he wasn't leaving til he saw the JS'er. She started swearing in front of gate 25 and she begrudgingly filled up the plane with all of us. That was pretty much standard for JFK.

Thanks, guys!

88, yes. If you need alternate fuel on a short flight you will leave with seats open for CG.

FWIW... we've been ordered NOT to "crunch" numbers any more, due to the delay game. If the agent asks us if we can carry more folks, we are supposed to tell them to ask control.

Why? Probably because when we're short on time and trying to get folks on, many gate agents put the delay on crew after we attempt to accommodate them and the pax. Since the company wants to avoid delays, we just leave the answer to control. If the flight says weight restricted 45 pax / 1470 bags, that's probably what we'll go with at most.

Unfortunate that it has come to this to ensure we don't get dinged for performance, but that's the nature of the beast I suppose.

Thanks, ACL. I understand that. In all the commuting I did on those things between LIT-ATL, which off the top of head I'm thinking is not a lot shorter than PIT-ATL, I've seen them go out with a couple of empty seats for weight and balance. Just never seen 6 empty seats for that. Sounds like it's possible from what you guys are telling me. Anyway, it's not a big deal... I just thought it was odd and I was curious. I appreciate everyone's insight. I think my wife's friend (ex-friend? :) ) now understands why we tried so hard to talk her out of using a buddy pass! :eek:

Did you enlist 80 to help guide you through the airport incognito?

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