Warhawker

As somebody looking to do my first ever jumpseat + observation flights, this worries me slightly. I know our gate agents aren't great- but jeez.

NavAccuracyHigh

make sure to print out a jump seat form because the gate agent probably won't have one

ProperMike

Normally, I try to be pleasant and complimentary to our gate agents. You always get more with honey. But in this instance, out of breath and emotionally exhausted, my only goal was to board an aircraft that they had already closed the door to. It’s always an uphill battle to have them reopen the flight and only the captain has the power to ask the gate agent to do that. Even as a captain here myself, my authority is derived from the flight crew manifest. You’ll be fine, just remember to be pleasant, be early and rely on your peers for help!

ProperMike

This is actually a great point. So that there’s no confusion with who you are or what you’re trying to do, walk to the side of the podium and ask the gate agent for a Jumpseat Request Form. They’ll continue to help customers in line but they will eventually open up the drawer and pull one out for you. If they say they don’t have any, they can print them out from the CASS Verification Portal or you can look in the drawers of adjacent gates for some. Once it’s filled out, tell the gate agent that you’re going down to the plane to get it signed by the captain and then stay in the plane until they come to close the door. That’s when you hand the signed form back to them. If left up to them, they’ll have sized everyone’s bag and closed the door before they ask you for what you needed a second time.

HSCompressor

Well more importantly, don’t show up at the gate 5 mins prior to departure. The sooner you get there the better.

usually you go through all the preflight duties with the crew, including the walk around.

CaseTractor

Truly a sad story to hear that happened to you given you all worked on the same team, if if you were offline this would have been unforgivable too. I don't get the hangup on the technicality of being a dead header. If they are waiting for the DHer for ops needs even more reason to get you on as now there is time. Plus, open seats in the back... this story just seems unbelievable. That CA needs a firm solid mentoring session with senior commuters in the company. I'd say those actions were borderline embrassment to the responsiblities of the job.

as a commuter, it feels good to get a seat. Being a captain, it feels even better getting a fellow commuter on your jet!

If I screwed up that badly I'd never forget seeing you in the terminal and I'd feel shame for the rest of my life anytime it crossed my mind.

Warhawker

Thanks all for the help, still a week off but I really appreciate the insights.

Gary et al

The flight the OP suggests he tried to get on is part of a LAS trip that started yesterday. Easy enough to look up who it is in flica.

ProperMike

This happened to me and if anybody is going to talk to them, it’ll be me. The first step is to report this incident to the jumpseat committee and go from there.

Final thoughts: I didn’t expect the gate agents to roll out a red carpet for me but it’s clear that with lots of turnover, they have no intention of learning how important commuting is for us. At the same time, when I walked up to that gate, I knew that me getting onto that aircraft would be the exception, not the standard. I fell right into that grey area where a real nice gate agent would have called ops to reopen the flight for me or a seasoned one would have pulled out a JSRF and told me to run down there. There was no right answer and that’s the part that we need to be forceful about with gate agents.

As Stephen Dubner would say, take care of yourself, and if possible, someone else.

Mugatu

There’s your break in the chain. You assumed the gate agent told the pilot. $100 they walked down to get away from you and never said a word to the captain. They just want to close the door and don’t care about anything else. Sorry about the experience. Sucks.