When I used to commute, I was never able to get the 'actual' jumpseat on a SkyWest flight out of SLC, because of the gate agents. Thanks to Southwest I always made it home somehow. I've been avoiding SLC all together now, and have been going through DEN, where I have more luck with the SkyWest gate agents letting me ride the actual. I'm just glad I don't commute anymore.

 

What!? Are you kidding me? How is it that we can run a successful campaign to fix the mainline jumpseat issue but we can't even get our own gate agents and ops people to understand that jumpseat authority belongs to El Capitan? Thats just asinine. I hope you emailed our JS guy. Good job on helping out the commuters, thats commendable.

 

Yes, it’s great flying behind you guys with the torque set at 40%. It's kind of like "Slow Flight."

The worst is when we're headed home to KFAT and we're squinting to get you guys in sight so we can blow by and make our connections home.

Best of luck to all you SF3 pilots over at eagle.

Take Care.

 

As a SkyWest pilot, I am sorry to hear that happened to you, b/c those gate agents working our flights are all SkyWest employees (correct me if I am wrong about that).

Anyway, I have been through LAX a lot recently, and while we have some great folks there, we unfortunately also have some not-so-professional individuals working those gates. 4 weeks ago we were leaving for TUS, with 60-something PAX for a 50-seater, but 11 of those were non-rev's. I was not upstairs, however one of our dead-heading pilots got on and described the gate situation. From what it sounded like, the gate personnel had made a complete mess of things and were being quite rude about it. We ended up leaving with 3 or 4 open seats, and no non-rev's. I guess an agent had made a comment that they didn't want to deal with the extra hassle of working in non-rev's for the flight. I tell this because I can understand what your experience might have been like, and I hope you follow the others' advice as well and make sure you contact your jumpseat coordinator.

 

Once I was at LAX and a gate agent wouldn't let me on and I was a must ride. The flight was oversold and she refused to bump a pax to get me on.

 

Happens in ATL all the time. Had a two day trip out of ATL once that began with a deadhead (on the last DAL FLT to ORD) the night before and we were the first FLT out in the morning. The plane was oversold and we didn't have "seat assignments" so they wouldn't bump rev for us. I told them that if they could find 3 PAX willing to get off I'll ride the JUMP and let the other 3 crewmembers sit in the back. She refused and told me it wasn't her problem. I then enlightened her that if we didn't make it to ORD then 76 of DAL passengers/rev won't make it back in the morning..................she then said it wasn't her problem and basically told me to scram. We called crew support, they called the gate and we all ended up going home with full pay for the 2 day. I don't know if the passengers ever made it down the next morning, but since ORD is a large base for SKW (UAX) and Jerry wants their F4D they probably called out a few reserves. Hey I didn't care.................I ended up with two paid days off.

They (ATL Gate Agents) have told me several times that if we don't have an actual seat assignment (even though we are must rides) then we are no better than high priority nonrev's and any rev misconnects will/can bump us.

 

I thought at LAX all the gate agents are UAL agents not Skywest...
I had one gate agent, after asking to ride in the jumpseat to PSP tell me I could not ride in the actual jumpseat since I wasnt in uniform. Even after showing her my SKW badge and pulling me up in CASS. Not until she talked with the capt I was allowed to jumpseat. Its weird on all the different "rules" gate agents try to apply when it comes to jumpseaters.

 

Flyer2000
Did you write something, I missed it <bg> TIC

 

Had a trip from ORD-STL on AA. Flight was already late. Some lady with a power trip decided that she didn't want to let anyone else on. Of course there were only non-revs left and myself looking for the cockpit seat after being bumped on two other flights. The FO knew I was at the gate, and the one gate agent went down to close the flight let the CA know what was going on. Everyone got on. I was "scolded" by the CA for thanking him too much!

Also happened on UAL out of Vegas to ORD. Gate agent comes down with me in the jumpseat and a few seats open in the back. This occurs six minutes early and she is trying to get us to push. I mention there are pax upstairs, as well as the flight attendant mentioning something about seats being open. CA uses his authority, people get on.

What is it with these gate agents? I wish I had everyone of their names so that when they or their families non-rev, we could be "weight restricted" or have a seat magically break. There should be a list out there like the scab list.

On a brighter note, there is an AA agent in St. Louis whose name is Sharon Cox...

 

I think it's generally the captains that have never commuted themselves that don't use their authority or even bother to care. The last SkyWest flight I tried to get on didn't turn out so well. The gate agent said it was weight restricted. The captain came speed walking up to the gate, 40 minutes early, and tried to ignore myself and some mainline pilots trying to get on. He just said, "whatever the gate agent says" and kept strolling on down the jetway.

Well needless to say I didn't get on and after the plane had boarded and pushed off (with 5 open seats) the agent giggled and said, "oh geeze, it looks like you could have made it afterall. the weights are fine."

This isn't a SkyWest rant. Every airline has their share of douchebagery. It was just frustrating because I had been at the airport for 6 hours at that point. On a strong SkyWest note, the FA was hotter than bejeezus.

anyway - that's my vent for this week.