YES, watch out in SLC and in UTAH for that matter, they're really anal about rules, wonder why.... I just came out of the airplane on the ramp, I asked the agent if they could open the door for me to go inside the terminal. I was the only pilot there, I couldn't have sneaked from anywhere, the airplane was no more than a hundred feet away, and I was going from the ramp which is more secure than the terminal, yet the guy still asked for my I.D.

 

Sorry to thread jack...

http://www.tsa.gov/blog

this blog is TSA's newest site to help better TSA and where anyone can vent about the inconsistancy and obvious problems with TSA. But be aware TSA does delete blogs that it doesn't like (no suprise there) but top managment *does, at least, read them....

Furthermore, the team of officers that try to get pilots introuble in Salt Lake, known as the Lemonade Stand, are not even liked by thier co-workers for the crap that they pull not only with the pilots but with them as well. As for the Thought Police, the TSA group that pulls you based off of how you are looking or acting are no better. Apparently they all get paid much more than the regular officers and have a week long training course in how to watch facial expressions.

As far as the comment about the power hungry FSD (Earl) has a terrible temper and holds the most unbelievable grudges. As I understancd it if the officers are grouchy it's probably because they just barely started getting a 1% raise a year after 5 years of service and thats it. I'd be pretty PO'ed to if I hadn't had a raise in 5 years. I guess that the Salt Lake City Officers get some of the best compliments in the country which makes me wonder how bad all the other airports really are.

Ok, back to commutes...

 

I understand, no offense intended to the pilot group or the airline, thus the 'commute' in quotes. I went through the rent a car and hotel room BS and just didn't want to put up with it. My BS tolerance was quite low that week especially to apply for a job that pays 90% less than other things I could be doing. However, it is much cheaper to get paid 90% less than it is to rent a jet for a few hundred hours.

As for CAL, one crew let me zonk out in the jumpseat on a LAX-EWR red-eye. The FAs rotated through the cockpit zonking out for a half hour at a time in the 2nd jumpseat on that trip. I don't recall if the pilots took naps, nor what flight it was, when it was, or even why I ended up there instead of in the back, but much obliged for the ride.

 

If you bought a ticket, why even bother introducing yourself to anybody? You're just a passenger at that point, uniform or not.

 

Simply because I had already talked with the FO out in the term and told her I was going to jump...

 

O.k., I re-read your post now and I think I understand what happened. I would only add once again that once you by a ticket your a customer and not a jumpseater. Beyond that, smile and show them the ticket and ask them if they treat all of their customers like that.

 

I agree but playing nice is important especially with what may one day be a potential employer. I thought it was a little much on both the FAs part feeling neglected and the FOs attempt to resolve it and it put me in a bad mood but I was going to Disneyland with my family so I got over it fast

 

I was traveling on a CO mainline from Houston to Laguardia in a 738. When I reached my seat there were two people both trying to take one seat just behind me. An older gent and a laidy that had to be 8 months pregnant. I offered the laidy my seat but they were both hell bent on the assigned seat. After five more minutes the gate agent came down and told the guy to take the last first class seat. The man looked at me and then at the laidy then asked me if she could take his seat in first. I told him I did not see a problem with it at thanked him for his generosity. Long story short, this ****ed off the FA's so bad that I got sent to the perverbial principals office and then they proceded to verbaly abused me the whole flight. One guy actualy took the drink cart and ran it straight into my leg while I was passed out. The messed up thing was he backed up and did it agin. It left a nice bruse. I learned real quick that people look to you when your in uniform to resolve there issues when it is not your place. And also those main line FA are a pain in the but.

 

Yeah, she would. I had a terrible experience as a full-fare first class passenger on United (IAH-ORD-FRA-Kuwait). I sat down and started to read (while the flight continued to board) on the ORD-FRA leg when the flight attendant came up to me and just laid into me about moving to the back. "Who do I think I am?" Etc..., for sitting in first. Get my stuff and get out of "her" cabin. Turns out she saw my crew tag on my bag in the overhead and decided (without asking me anything) that I upgraded myself and she was sick of pilots doing that. I tried to explain that I was on a revenue ticket and was in my assigned seat. She threatened to have me removed from the flight, and went and got the CSA before I could even show her my boarding pass. He came back and promptly told me I needed to move. At this point, I was sick of being nice. So, I just held up my ticket under his nose, and asked him if anyone in Chicago can read. He pulls it out of my hand and reads it with a sneer. However, after 3 seconds, his sneer turned into a very worried frown to nearly crying. Apparently a full fare first class walk up ticket to Kuwait is in the neighborhood of $18,000. He suddenly became very nice and apologetic. I could stay in my seat (gee thanks...). He laid into the F/A and eventually wrote her up, but I found out (through an F/A friend still flying there) that nothing happened. I wrote a letter to customer service after I got home a month later, and they responded that they were sorry, but here was 1000 miles to make up for the experience. (Again, gee thanks... That's useful...). I haven't been on United since, and hope to never be on them again. Four int'l trips at Southern I flat refused tickets on United, opting for Northwest and Delta because of the incident.

Fire some of those 90 year old hags, and maybe (just maybe) the customer service reputation will go up...

 

What I don't understand is, we're all in the same business here. If those crewmembers/gate agents that give us a hard time when we're trying to JS were trying to get somewhere themselves, the vast majority of us would have no problem with it, would try to get them on board however we can. And yet they still get bent out of shape when we sit in a different seat, or wear a lanyard they don't like. Just doesn't make sense to me...then again, maybe I'm just too nice