Bad Commuting Stories
 

Didnt have time to post this on thursday when it happened...but I was curious if anyone has any bad stories about trying to catch a ride to work/home

I had to do a 2 leg commute on thursday, ISP-BOS in a Colgan 1900 and then BOS-PHL in an Airways 733. The Colgan guys were awesome...really nice guys. The Airways Captain??? Not so much...

Theres like 60 seats open on the the 73...I say hello to the lead FA and ask if I can run up to the flight deck to say hi...the FO was in there...really nice guy...as im leaving the Captain makes his way in...I introduce myself...shake his hand and thank him for the ride. He goes "Your with AWAC?"...i say "Sure Am"..he goes "Well Take That FREAKING ALPA Lanyard Off!"...I just kinda laughed and right away he snaps back saying "Im FREAKING Serious....If You Want a Ride on my Airplane, You'll Take that Thing off RIGHT NOW!"

Shocked I unclipped my ID and put the lanyard in my pocket..."Dont Let Me Catch You Wearing That FREAKING Thing When We Land" I thank him again for the ride and go back to take my seat....I can hear him cussing me out about how I should know better. The FA's apologized for him.

I mean I know ALPA screwed the East Side Guys....But that was just uncalled for. Anyway...rant over. Anyone else have anything to share???

Wow...

I had a CAL guy give me a 20 minute lecture, while JSing from IAH to SFO up front on a 757, about how ALPA isa good-for-nothing bunch of politicians. Needless to say, I looked him up later that night and sure enough, he's a member of "the list".

... eh, no skin off my back, it was a free ride home.

Never had a problem with flight crew, but did have a funny incident with a flight attendant.

J/S from Narita to MSP about 7 or 8 years ago. I meet the crew at the gate, do the paperwork with the Captain and he tells me to check in with the F/A's and I'm welcome to sit in the cabin. Usually they give us a seat in Business or First if one is available, but regs only stipulate Coach. Anyway, I'm waiting by the entrance to the aircraft in the jetway before boarding and one of the flight attendants says to come on in, that there is lots of room on the flight and it's ok for me to board before the passengers. So she takes me to a coat closet where the F/A's stick their bags and stuff and tells me to put my bag in there, which I do, then she escorts me to a seat in business class and says I can sit there. So I thank her and settle in. The passengers come aboard. Coach is packed to the gills, business is about half full, and First is nearly empty. I'm dozing in my seat just prior to pushback and I feel this tapping on my shoulder. It is the senior F/A, old enough to be my grandmother's 3rd grade teacher, motioning me to follow her. She leads me to the closet where my bag is and says, "This closet is for OUR bags. You are not allowed to put your bag in here. Get it out!" So I pull my bag out. Then she says "Follow me." She leads me back into the bowels of coach...way in the back, to the only empty seat, in the middle row. So naturally all the overhead storage is full and I have to cram my bag under the seat in front of me (it barely fit) and then wedge myself in to my new "seat". We take off and I am sleeping when I feel another "tap" on my shoulder. It's the captain. He says, "What the heck are you doing back here?!" I tell him the story and he gets this big grin on his face and says to wait just a min or two. About 5 mins later, that same F/A who initially escorted me into business comes back and apologizes and tells me to follow her and up we go to First Class. Me and one other person.

The rest of my flight was absolutely perfect. Turns out the senior F/A was a "pilot hater". She just took it out on me.

Oh well, the main point is to maintain your composure and don't ruin it for the rest of the guys at your airline by making a scene.

I had a CAL CA refuse to take a 2nd jumpseater THE DAY after Christmas... as in Dec. 26th. Any time other than that, I could understand but c'mon, Dec. 26th?

The good side of the story... as I was stepping off the a/c explaining to the FA where my wife was, a CAL FA in 1st Class gets up and tells me to take his seat and he'd sit in the FA JS.

World's Longest Commute
 

I started flying for Eastern Air Lines in November 1979. I lived in the DC area, but having no seniority, I got domiciled in NYC. I thought that commuting really sucked... felt pretty sorry for myself having to commute between DCA and LGA. This, at a time when the Eastern Shuttle operated every hour on the hour from 7am to 10pm and was a 30 minute ride. I didn't cry in my beer for long.

I soon met a guy who commuted from Chicago and several from Atlanta. I thought that was bad. Then I found that those distances were common. So with longer flights and fewer flight times, I quit pouting.

Then I met a guy who commuted from Seattle to New York. I figured that was about as far as anyone could commute. Right?

But then I met Captain Bob Alexander. He was one of those suave, old-school airline pilots, with a flashy handle-bar mustache. A very sophisticated gentleman. He had married himself a Baroness, real-life royalty. She had a big spread in Australia. Bob was 58 and a half and decided to commute for his last year and half to get his full retirement. So, he moved to her ranch in Australia. And commuted to NYC.

I joked to him one day, "Which way do you go?" He said that it depended on the connections and sometimes he went east and sometimes he went west. Sometimes he went east from Australia to NYC and then continued east to go home after his trip.

Which means that he circumnavigated the globe to get to and from work. I submit that as the longest possible commute that any airline pilot has ever endured. You can't beat it, really.

From then on, for the rest of the ten months that I had to commute, I just shut up about the "rigors" of commuting and enjoyed the convenient hourly service on the Shuttle.

There's nothing like a little perspective every now and then. Thanks for the story.

Wow, that is a long commute. I knew a guy who commuted from Madrid to PHL, I thought that was bad but at least it's a one legger! He did have to ride in the J/S from time to time as well.

yeesh, now I'm never leaving Portland. I just walk 5 mins to the train, take a nice relaxing 30 min ride and voilà, I'm at work.

haha i am the same way... I commute MCO to NYC and complain about it all the time... even though there are probably 30 flights daily to any of the 4 airports close by...

i heard about a fedex md11 guy commuting from delhi...........india.

I don't know about that but we do definitely have an Airbus Captain who commutes from Mumbai (Bombay).

Oooooh...Delhi, INDIA! For a second there I thought you meant the place down the street with the tasty sandwiches:D

I thought I heard one time that pre 9/11 a very senior UAL 744 FO commuted from AKL. I guess if you think about it, he probably spent more time at home than you would think since they USED to fly down there.

I wonder what he did when they gave the route up.

having done a two leg commute from PIT to SJU i thought that sucked. The worst expierence ive ever had took 26 hours from start to finnish. Got on the last flight to the US which took me to CLT. Got to CLT and found that I was number 80 on the standby list. Found a flight to SAV to crash at my brothers for the night. The next day got up at 430 to catch the first flight back to CLT. Got to CLT and was bumped by the FAA for the jumpseat, the only open seat left. Got sick of usair and jumped on a flight to atlanta to try my luck on delta. Got to atlanta and was bumped again by the FAA. Finally I was able to get on a Skywest CRJ-700 or 900 cant remember and ride the jumpseat back to PIT.

I have met one guy with a long commute, not nearly as long as that guy from austrailia but still long. This one guy commutes from st thomas to salt lake city to work for Skywest.

I don't commute at the moment, but Im pretty sure I will have to at some point, and Im not looking forward to it.

Builds chracter

What's your record for most jumpseaters in line?

I used to commute back and forth between DC and Grand Forks, ND for guard drill. GFK being the home to UND, there are always jumpseaters headed up there from MSP. One weekend before homecoming, I saw my record... 47 jumpseaters trying to get onto one mesaba flight at the end of the day! (Fortunately I had the foresight to purchase an ID90 for the leg up and back!)

Can anyone tell me what commuting is like between the DC area (preferably BWI or DCA) to the NYC area (preferably JFK or LGA) or to MCO? I see lots of flights, but didn't know if I would be facing a lot of competition.

Builds patience!

I currently live in ATL and I'm base in ATL but I've commuted PHX to TUS, LAX, FAT, SFO, SLC and DEN. I'm about to upgrade and if I get the RJ then I'll have to commute from ATL to ORD or MKE and if I get the EMB then I'll have to two leg it to FAT or I'll be taking the "deadhead express" to SLC.

Best commuting story I have was from a Mesa CR9 flight from PHX to FAT. It was about half full and for some reason a passenger decided that he had to sit in his assigned seat that was next to me even though there were open seats all around me. After the FA took her PIN she was walking to the front when I moved across the isle. Almost exactly when I was about to sit down she turned around and from about 7 rows in front of me started b1tching me out, telling me that she had already done the PIN and that I was going to screw her W&B up. At this point I couldn't resist so I said rather assertively:

"Lady, have you ever done a W&B, no the pilots do? Have you ever even looked at your PIN sheet? If you have then you'd know that we do W&B's longitudinally and not laterally!"

She said "whatever that means, just don't do it again!"

Mesa, now they have some quality FA's! I swear if you're ever in an accident with some of MAG PHX FA's, watch out because they'll run you over trying to save their own asses. Most of MAG's PHX FA's look a lot like Ogres.

Whenever I jump USair I always take my ALPA pin off and put it in my pocket in order to prevent an uncomfortable experience like that. Hahe glad my theory in taking it off pays off.

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:D:D

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"...:rolleyes:

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......

Wanker eh?..lol havent heard that one in a while....usually i dont have to 2 leg it....that day the 7am direct cancelled because it never made it in the night before.

Driving would be too much in gas....aside from having a lease...id get screwed. I live 15 mins from ISP...and the parking is free...for a 45 min flight on my company or an 1:05 in a PDT Dash 8...its well worth it.

Luckily LGA opens for us in May...im the # 2 FO there, so i wont have to worry about commuting for a while :D

Stuck in STL for 2 days during an ice storm. That sucked.

I was checking to see if there was a seat on a United mainline flight from STL and as I approached the gate there was this pricey looking blond yelling at the gate agent about missing her connection and that she had to get on the flight to DEN. She was demanding that she kick people off of the flight and everything. The gate agent repeatedly told her the flight was completely full. I was standing there thinking, "Oh crap. Just what I need, somebody to prime the gate agent up for a jumpseat request." Finally the bizach turned on her heel with her cellphone to her ear and stormed away from the gate. I approached the gate agent and she let me stand in front of her for about 5 full minutes before she acknowledged me (I thought I would let her go first). To my surprise she handed me a window seat in the back of the plane.

Ok, I'll give my stories. Only jumpseated 3 times. Number 1-was right out of IOE and going home for a little while. I was in PHX going to ICT, flight was full I had the jumpseat and was bumped off. Got the last open seat on that flight. Number 2-Going from LNK to ORD to PIT. Was all set up for the jumpseat in LNK and was bumped off. Ended up going to DEN, then PIT. Number 3-Went from MCI-SAN, no problems. Keep in mind the first two were within a week and a half span, so I didn't think commuting was the way to go for me. Now I have a new job and am considering commuting from OMA to either MSP, DTW, OR MEM. Good or bad idea?

PCL, XJ, Compass, or NWA?

Badges???
 

I'm at compass

The two-leg commute out of RAP hasn't treated me too badly. In another month I'll be SLC-based, so that should cut down significantly on the time spent getting back and forth.

I've posted this before, on the thread about gate agents from hell, but the worst commuting experience I've had was FAT-DEN, three days after Christmas. The inbound was late, and was going to be full because the previous flight that day hadn't made it in either. I was the only standby listed though, to my surprise, and thought for certain I would be able to sit in the JS. I never even got the opportunity.

I checked in plenty early in uniform and let the agent know I could sit OMC. Once it looked like nobody else was getting on I approached the counter again and asked her if I could go talk to the captain about sitting up front. She says "Sir, sit down and I'll get to you in a minute,". So...I sit a couple seat away from gate for a few minutes, she's frantically working away on her computer. Two more people run up, throw her their boarding passes, and head down the bridge. Right behind them, the agent closes the door and radios down to ops that the flight's closed and reads the numbers to them. I jumped up and asked again if I could talk to the crew. This time she says "No, I'm sorry, the flight's closed, I can't let you down there." I never lost my cool, even though I was fuming inside. I finally just walked away when she said "Look, this was a quick turn and we didn't want the delay code going on the gate (even though the flight was like an hour and a half late coming in???), besides, they were weight restricted and they wouldn't have let you on anyways." I've never been so angry. Normally I would have just shrugged, since you expect this kind of stuff to happen, but that was one more day since Christmas that I wasn't going to see my kids. This lady is a customer service MANAGER too, for crying out loud.

That one still grinds my gears.

Agent + TSA = nightmare
 

Trying to jumpseat out of some place in Nebraska from the weekend. Was running late and was at the counter doing the patient wait for the agent to recognise you routine. There was already a jumpseater on the flight and the agent was having a hard time finding my company in the computer.
Long story short, told me to call the 800 number to list, as she didn't know how to find our company. I made comment that do this regularly so i know we have an agreement with said airline.

Next, what happened will never leave my memory.... some TSA jerk was hovering behind the seats to my rear and then approached me and told me that i was a security risk and he had to "re-screen" me. Nearly karate chopped him in the head as i was in full uniform (leather jacket however). I complained and then he informed me i fit the bill for a security risk and had to go with him (or else).

Think it was lincoln nebraska. Never want to go back.

GED + badge = are you kidding me?
 

OMG:mad: I would have been sooooooooooo pi$$ed off. We have a "program" at SLC where those TSA idiots are supposed to try to "sneak" through coded doors that we open behind us. If they make it through we can get fined personally. I swear of any TSA weenie tries that on me they are going to get hurt. You want to "simulate" a security breach? Okay, I'm going to simulate a beating.

Best post I've seen on here in awhile.:)