Worst Crew Scheduling Story....
07-20-2009, 03:27 PM
#21
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2008
Position: Switch, Lever & Light Specialist
Posts: 1,065
Originally Posted by hockeypilot44
I was with a buddy in Florida. He was called by crew scheduling to pick up overtime. He gladly told them he would be at the airport in less than an hour. An hour and a half goes by, they call him back to find out where he is. He then remembers that he quit that company over a month ago and then proceeds to let the schedulers know what he remembered. They are ****ed. We laugh our asses off.
07-20-2009, 03:37 PM
#23
Che Guevara
Joined APC: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,408
My absolute worst:
Flew from HOU to STL on SWA. Arrived but a storm was on the field with lightning around so they closed the ramp. After a few min I called crew sched to let them know I would be a couple min late. Shortly after we were able to park so I called them 23 times before they picked up. By that time I was standing on the aircraft, just starting to board, looking at another FO. A reservist that was already at the airport. According to our contract I should have been given the flight back. Crew scheduling said "We know what's in your contract but we can't afford a late flight so tough". I said "I've been calling for the past half hour and no one ever picked up, I was here in plenty of time." Their response was that they can't help it they coudln't get to the phone. So i sat in base for 8.5hrs to wait for my flight to do a round trip to EWR. Lost 6hrs of pay on that one.
Flew from HOU to STL on SWA. Arrived but a storm was on the field with lightning around so they closed the ramp. After a few min I called crew sched to let them know I would be a couple min late. Shortly after we were able to park so I called them 23 times before they picked up. By that time I was standing on the aircraft, just starting to board, looking at another FO. A reservist that was already at the airport. According to our contract I should have been given the flight back. Crew scheduling said "We know what's in your contract but we can't afford a late flight so tough". I said "I've been calling for the past half hour and no one ever picked up, I was here in plenty of time." Their response was that they can't help it they coudln't get to the phone. So i sat in base for 8.5hrs to wait for my flight to do a round trip to EWR. Lost 6hrs of pay on that one.
07-20-2009, 04:03 PM
#24
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2008
Position: Seat 0B
Posts: 1,214
STL to IAD...got in IAD at 1:05 a.m. local time. I hadn't eaten since about noon and was dizzy I was so hungry. Tired and hungry, I get off the plane to walk around it and make sure I didn't break anything, I turn on my cell to find 7 voicemails. I think the worst has happened at home or somthing because I figured scheduling would be smart enough to know I was flying. Nope, I had 3 normal voicemails and 4 very angry voicemails from scheduling informing of my duty to be reachable by phone and time requirements to call them back. I finally called them back. Left IAD for DTW at 1:50am and got a stern lecture from scheduling. I let them lecture me for about 5 minutes before I gave the smarta** reply..."Sorry dude, I was flyin"
07-20-2009, 04:03 PM
#25
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2008
Posts: 161
Originally Posted by thepotato232
Crew scheduling in Indy calling me at home - 0448 local time - to tell me they were short-staffed and needed me to report to my base airport ASAP for a trip... two days after my furlough.
"...Oh *giggles*, never mind."
"...Oh *giggles*, never mind."
"FO Smith, the captain called and said you weren't at the plane yet"
"Oh yeah, I remembered right after I hung up I was furloughed so I went back to sleep".
07-20-2009, 04:13 PM
#26
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2007
Position: retired
Posts: 992
Originally Posted by ToiletDuck
My absolute worst:
Flew from HOU to STL on SWA. Arrived but a storm was on the field with lightning around so they closed the ramp. After a few min I called crew sched to let them know I would be a couple min late. Shortly after we were able to park so I called them 23 times before they picked up. By that time I was standing on the aircraft, just starting to board, looking at another FO. A reservist that was already at the airport. According to our contract I should have been given the flight back. Crew scheduling said "We know what's in your contract but we can't afford a late flight so tough". I said "I've been calling for the past half hour and no one ever picked up, I was here in plenty of time." Their response was that they can't help it they coudln't get to the phone. So i sat in base for 8.5hrs to wait for my flight to do a round trip to EWR. Lost 6hrs of pay on that one.
Flew from HOU to STL on SWA. Arrived but a storm was on the field with lightning around so they closed the ramp. After a few min I called crew sched to let them know I would be a couple min late. Shortly after we were able to park so I called them 23 times before they picked up. By that time I was standing on the aircraft, just starting to board, looking at another FO. A reservist that was already at the airport. According to our contract I should have been given the flight back. Crew scheduling said "We know what's in your contract but we can't afford a late flight so tough". I said "I've been calling for the past half hour and no one ever picked up, I was here in plenty of time." Their response was that they can't help it they coudln't get to the phone. So i sat in base for 8.5hrs to wait for my flight to do a round trip to EWR. Lost 6hrs of pay on that one.
07-20-2009, 04:42 PM
#27
West Coast livin
Joined APC: Mar 2007
Position: Captain
Posts: 984
Originally Posted by Spoilers
Oh, I got plenty of stories of how stupid and inefficient my company runs. But here are two stories that'll keep you entertained for now. I got more if you want them....
It was another beautiful day for flying on reserve and an even better day for crew scheduling to “F” it up. My pager goes off, and the uneducated folks at screw scheduling tell me to come in to fly CVG-LGA-JAX with a nice reduced rest overnight. As always, before I pack my crap and head to the airport, I do some digging and calculating to see if it was legal, crew/aircraft status, etc. Basically trying to find a way to get out of it, but no joy. I get to the airport and the CVG-LGA flight gets canceled. Whatever, scheduling decided to put me on ready reserve/hot reserve/airport exploration time or whatever you want to call it. I knew my roommate was in JAX on reduced rest and was operating a flight to LGA (keep this in mind for later). I get paged again and now get to deadhead to LGA on a later flight to overnight in LGA and then finish out the last 2 days a 4 day trip. What a productive day! Not sure where they’ll get another FO to operate LGA-JAX, but not my problem. In the meantime, my roommate gets to LGA in hopes to deadhead to CVG and be done. But No, we can’t let you go home, yet. While I was waiting in CVG for my deadhead, scheduling decided to put my roommate on the LGA-JAX flight. I call scheduling and tell ‘em to put me on the LGA-JAX flight and let my roommate go home, as he needed compensatory rest and would delay everything the next day. No, no, no. We can’t do that! I even talked to Flight Control and told them everything would be delayed tomorrow because of this. They wouldn’t listen. Idiots! I get to LGA and the fun continuous with overnight accommodations. I get send to the wrong Hotel by Corporate Travel, so off I go to another hotel by the ballpark only to see that my room for the night is costing the company $399. Oh, did I mention it was the day before the All-Star Game?
After another lovely night of reduced rest, I check the computer in the hotel lobby to see what kind of surprise scheduling has in store for me today, because I’m sure the original schedule of flying to LGA and deadhead home and be done wasn’t going to happen. Sure enough, once I get to LGA I was suppose to deadhead to BUF and then operate a flight to JFK where I’ll be overnight. So much for going home! However, after looking at my DSL again, something odd struck me. Since when does Delta offer flights between LGA and BUF? Again, after doing some digging and talking with my crew, we found out it was a USAirways Express flight they wanted me to deadhead on. We can only deadhead on our own metal or mainline. It is right there in the contract. Ok, I’ll play along
I get to LGA and decide on how I’m going to play this. 1) Play stupid and actually go to the USAirways counter and try to deadhead to BUF, 2) Be nice and call scheduling and let them know. After getting talked out of going to USAirways I decided to call scheduling, which will later bit me in the rear again. To keep this story somewhat short, the lady at crew scheduling didn’t get it and didn’t know what to do and had no idea what I was saying, which drove me to the point of telling her, “Well, why don’t you go to www.orbitz.com and buy me a ticket to BUF?” I was told to hang tight and they’ll figure it out and call me back in 10 minutes. Ok. Almost an hour later my phone rings, and scheduling has arranged ground transportation for me to JFK, where I get to deadhead to BUF and then operate the flight back. Life on reserve continues….
It was another beautiful day for flying on reserve and an even better day for crew scheduling to “F” it up. My pager goes off, and the uneducated folks at screw scheduling tell me to come in to fly CVG-LGA-JAX with a nice reduced rest overnight. As always, before I pack my crap and head to the airport, I do some digging and calculating to see if it was legal, crew/aircraft status, etc. Basically trying to find a way to get out of it, but no joy. I get to the airport and the CVG-LGA flight gets canceled. Whatever, scheduling decided to put me on ready reserve/hot reserve/airport exploration time or whatever you want to call it. I knew my roommate was in JAX on reduced rest and was operating a flight to LGA (keep this in mind for later). I get paged again and now get to deadhead to LGA on a later flight to overnight in LGA and then finish out the last 2 days a 4 day trip. What a productive day! Not sure where they’ll get another FO to operate LGA-JAX, but not my problem. In the meantime, my roommate gets to LGA in hopes to deadhead to CVG and be done. But No, we can’t let you go home, yet. While I was waiting in CVG for my deadhead, scheduling decided to put my roommate on the LGA-JAX flight. I call scheduling and tell ‘em to put me on the LGA-JAX flight and let my roommate go home, as he needed compensatory rest and would delay everything the next day. No, no, no. We can’t do that! I even talked to Flight Control and told them everything would be delayed tomorrow because of this. They wouldn’t listen. Idiots! I get to LGA and the fun continuous with overnight accommodations. I get send to the wrong Hotel by Corporate Travel, so off I go to another hotel by the ballpark only to see that my room for the night is costing the company $399. Oh, did I mention it was the day before the All-Star Game?
After another lovely night of reduced rest, I check the computer in the hotel lobby to see what kind of surprise scheduling has in store for me today, because I’m sure the original schedule of flying to LGA and deadhead home and be done wasn’t going to happen. Sure enough, once I get to LGA I was suppose to deadhead to BUF and then operate a flight to JFK where I’ll be overnight. So much for going home! However, after looking at my DSL again, something odd struck me. Since when does Delta offer flights between LGA and BUF? Again, after doing some digging and talking with my crew, we found out it was a USAirways Express flight they wanted me to deadhead on. We can only deadhead on our own metal or mainline. It is right there in the contract. Ok, I’ll play along
I get to LGA and decide on how I’m going to play this. 1) Play stupid and actually go to the USAirways counter and try to deadhead to BUF, 2) Be nice and call scheduling and let them know. After getting talked out of going to USAirways I decided to call scheduling, which will later bit me in the rear again. To keep this story somewhat short, the lady at crew scheduling didn’t get it and didn’t know what to do and had no idea what I was saying, which drove me to the point of telling her, “Well, why don’t you go to www.orbitz.com and buy me a ticket to BUF?” I was told to hang tight and they’ll figure it out and call me back in 10 minutes. Ok. Almost an hour later my phone rings, and scheduling has arranged ground transportation for me to JFK, where I get to deadhead to BUF and then operate the flight back. Life on reserve continues….
07-20-2009, 05:03 PM
#28
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Aug 2008
Posts: 326
Last Monday a fellow future furlough victim just finished his second round trip when the chief pilots got ahold of him to give him the good news. About ten minutes later, scheduling called him to notify him that they were extending him for a third round trip. When he told them that he was upset about the furlough and was not fit to fly, they just said, 'ok, no problem' but promptly inserted an 'Unavailable on Reserve' onto his schedule. The chief pilots quickly removed it, but still!
07-20-2009, 05:10 PM
#29
West Coast livin
Joined APC: Mar 2007
Position: Captain
Posts: 984
Originally Posted by Speedbird172
Bad crew scheduling stories? I see this thread overtaking "Comair updates" in number of replies....
I think I've blocked a lot of the bad memories, lord knows there are plenty to choose from but for now how about wanting to throw my phone at the wall last summer every time they called me up while I was on long call reserve (9 hour call out), on the last day before a day off, just to go to JFK to sit ready reserve and be there too late to catch a flight back. Love on my day off waking up at the crack of dawn to catch a flight home. Man I don't miss that BS one bit...
I think I've blocked a lot of the bad memories, lord knows there are plenty to choose from but for now how about wanting to throw my phone at the wall last summer every time they called me up while I was on long call reserve (9 hour call out), on the last day before a day off, just to go to JFK to sit ready reserve and be there too late to catch a flight back. Love on my day off waking up at the crack of dawn to catch a flight home. Man I don't miss that BS one bit...
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