I want to thank the pilots at Skywest for really helping me out to get home. After missing 3 flights home due to the airline overbooking, I became tired and desperate. The gate agent didn't even want to look at me let alone give me a seat on the next airplane. When the passengers boarded this 4th plane, I quietly went up to the gate without saying anything and she said, "no, you're not getting on this one, it's booked and over-weight." I asked if I could go down and speak to the crew. She said no, it won't matter what they said, I couldn't get on anyways. Well as I walked away I saw another Skywest pilot and he knew I was trying to get on that flight, I told him I wasn't even allowed to go down and speak with the crew. Well he was a team player, he went down to the plane, told the captain what was going on, and sure enough the captain made a phone call to the gate agent. I looked over at her, and she gave me the evilest look and said, "You’re on." The Captain, FO, and Skywest pilot that relayed the message are a great bunch of people and I thank them.

I know crews can get extremely busy sometimes, especially if they are running late. But if you have the time, see who’s trying to get home, because having a captain smile and say welcome aboard is a great feeling after being stranded.

 

Sometimes I really hate gate agents for this.

Good for you and good on the crew for getting you on.

 

Wow. A non skywest bash post! I must be drunk.

 

It's a great big little airline...in my opinion, although I base this on riding on them quite a few times this summer, not working for them.

 

File a complaint with your jumpseat coordinator. Your coordinator SHOULD forward the complaint to skywest, and the agent can be retrained in how to treat passengers (and especially crew) with dignity, and respect. A little better protocol with regards to sending the jumpseaters to the catain might be in order as well.

What station did this occur?

 

There is an AA gate agent that works at DFW and she is a commuter! Not something you see often, but when I see her working the flight Im trying to get it makes me smile because I know Im going home!

 

Was this in SLC? Unfortunately, customer service there is under the impression they own the jumpseat. Even our own pilots have had a hard time getting the jumpseat.

 

I'm betting SLC too, they are pretty much the worst. Both ops and the gate agents think they own the jumpseat. Had it one time where I knew a jumpseater was waiting, called ops to tell them to come down, and they said that we are not accommodating jumpseaters today (mind you, we were still 10 minutes early at this point) Well, we basically told them that we were not accommodating brake release until jumpseaters are once again accomodated. Turned into a standoff, delayed the flight quite a while. Eventually the chief got involved, and low and behold the jumpseater came and off we went, over a half hour late. It was pretty ridiculous.

 

This happened in Lax, and I know not all the gate agents are bad. I did manage to make friends with one of the gate agents there, he actually understands how things work and has been great to work with. Unfortuntently he left right before all this happened. I also think what airline you try to fly on makes a huge difference. Alaska Air had extremely friendly gate agents and pilots at both airports we went to.

 

SKW crews in LA are usually great flexing the numbers to get commuters on. Other than that, they're punks! always on our tailpipes flying up and down ksan.. Don't you people know we only cruise 180kts!!!