Commuting...no matter the distance...is a fate worse than death. I'd rather kick myself in my special place everyday for the rest of my life than commute again. I'm one month away (hopefully) from being able to drive to work and I'm greatly looking forward to the increase in my QOL.

 

I'm gonna call you out on this one. You're the uninformed one my friend. FA's do indeed do W&B. The lateral bit is important too. They need to know how many bags of peanuts and how many bottle of water they can store in the galley by the side there

Good show though. I hope if that ever happens to me, I'll be quick enough to give a similar response.

 

Ok, that's one of the funniest things I have read in a really long time!

I don't commute, but this is my best jump seating story... Living in CLE, trying to get to FLL for a wedding...

Direct flights from CLE - FLL were overbooked. So I flew Continental from CLE - CLT, just to find out that all of the USAir CLT - FLL flights that had been wide open the night before, were suddenly oversold. Something was going on in CLT that day, because every option I investigated was oversold...

Now in a panic to get out of CLT before the push was over, I asked the USAir agent closing the flight at the gate next to me if there were any seats available. She said yes, and I found myself on a flight going to BWI. Thinking myself quite clever, I called a friend and asked them to find me a way out of BWI once I landed in the next hour and a half.

I land in BWI, to find out there are no available seats direct to FLL (apparently half the darn country wanted to be in FLL that weekend!!!). So I took Southwest to BNA, and then BNA to FLL.

I started out at 6:00 that morning - and made the rehearsal dinner a little late at 7:30 that night. 5 cities, 4 legs and 3 airlines in over 12 hours. That's when I learned there is no way I could ever tolerate commuting. I honestly have no idea how you guys do it.

 

E1,

I feel your pain!!! I once did Minneapolis to Denver to LA to Washington DC (Redeye). Trying to get home. Glad I don't have to commute any more! There's something to be said about a 10 minute drive!

 

Sure I'll bite
I was commuting home from GSO to DAB via ATL with Delta...got in a bit of a tussle with an FA. I was a fairly new FO, had not commuted much before. Leg from GSO to ATL was uneventful. Got on a mainline Delta MD88 heading to Daytona, the flight was full with all the standby listers, but I managed to get a seat. The gate agent told me as I walked down the jetway to ask the gentleman in my seat to move...odd, but OK. I was back in row 35 or thereabouts, and found my seat occupied as expected, and I showed the gentleman my seat assignment. He explained that he was a first class passenger, but wanted to sit in the back with his wife, and that I could take his seat. I was in the back of the airplane at this point, so I asked the closest FA if it was OK for me to sit in the guy's first class seat. He said it was fine, so I waited for the rest of the pax to board, then walked back up front to first class, where the guy's seat was open next to the window, with the aisle seat occupied. The lady in the aisle seat got up, I sat down. Just sat down when the lead FA came storming back and said "Where is your assigned seat?"
I explained to her what just happened. She interrupted me and said "No, sir, you need to go back to your assigned seat." She was pretty rude about it. Of course all of first class was being entertained by this at this point. Being a pretty patient guy, and not wanting to make a scene, I apologized to the aisle seater for making her get up again, and walked back to the back again. Lead FA followed me this time, and the first class guy explained to her the same thing I had just told her, to the laughs of the pax all around us. She just said "OK!", and stormed back up front, not saying another word to me. I walked baaack up front again, promised the aisle seater this was the last time, and sat back down in first class. Got to Daytona on time and all was well! Amazing what a little lack of communication can do. She apologized to me at the end of the flight, but that was not the most pleasant commuting experience!

 

The last pilot that dated her probably told her that "third pilot lie"...

Lot of pilot-haters out there...

She'd never talk to a paying passenger like that.

 

I had a captain tell me the other day about an Eagle guy who got on jumpseating and saw that the crew was busy so he didnt check in with the captain and in some sort of conversation the FA mentioned that there was a jumpseater in the back. Captain got up and kicked him off for not checking in with him. OUCH.....I ALWAYS check in now. Not fully understanding how big most captains are about that, I sometimes wouldnt check in if I noticed the crew was running a checklist or was busy and there were people behind me. I just think that was going a little bit far.

 

Generally its the Captains who commute that are the ones who get really upset when a fellow commuter doesnt say hello. Im the same way....I always say hello...generally the Captains I fly with tell the gate agents to make sure whoever is commuting, that they come up and introduce themselves.

 

Hey wanker, why dont you drive to work, Id prob save you like 5 hours..... I drive Philly to JFK.... ISP wouldnt be THAT much further

 

I have an uncle that commutes from Frankfurt to EWR......