Just to let it be known...I was way gone from 9E when this happened to you! I fought to get FedEx pilots on because I had to use the DC10/MD-11 to get me to DTW every time from MEM.

Rick

Dude I think your explanation is over a year late. Holy post resurrection batman!

Don't forget too that our highly trained fuel personnel sometimes overfuel the airplane by as much as 500 lbs. Add that to some tanker fuel on a short flight and you can be in a real bind weight-wise.

I personally will do what ever is in my power to make a jumpseater able to come with us. Even if it is bending/breaking the rules, At my old airline we would do all kinds of stuff to get guys on and 99 percent of the time it worked, the very few times it didnt atleast the guy trying to jumpseat knew that we did all in our power to make it happen.

I am now a commuter and know what it is like being bumped off a flight esp from a crew that didnt help trying to get him on.

There lies a whole bunch of issues here, Dispatch being dispatch , weather, ballast, gate agents being gate agents, lifer captains that live in base now and have no clue what it is like to commute.

Just last week it took me 14 hours to get from MSP-TPA, I got bumped off of Delta too many times so ventured to Southwest and as always was a amazing experience. At the last minute the Southwest Captian came running out just to make sure there were no remaining jumpseaters and they were even restricted ! And he was still making it happen.

We need to all stick together and remember that even though you may not be commuting anymore and your life of living in base is so amazing , there are however still guys that are desperatly trying to get home for those 2 days only to do it all over again.

For whats it worth, If it was allowed I would throw the ballast back there myself , blood sweat and tears before kicking someone off due to no ground crew.

CRJ, MD11, 727, 737 etc we all need to remember what its like to commute and help our fellow pilots.

Just my two cents....

Wait, you guys aren't even allowed to throw ballast in the back? Man, you 121 guys have it good compared to us 135 freight dogs! :D

I feel you are true to that statement. However, A guy I work with his wife is a former NW now DL f/a she saw an FX pilot ask 9E for a jumpseat for a flight to MCI pilot came out and gave the FX guy a bunch of grief because he wasn't in uniform and denied him the jumpseat even though he explained he was in a guard unit and had to get there. Nice... I always thought pilots were *******s to the mechanics but I see you are that way to each other too.

Not all of us. Every airline has it's DBs, and I apologize for the ones we have here at 9E. I live in base, but who knows what's coming down the road for me, so I try every trick I know to get jumpseaters on. For a while, it was a fight with the gate agents since their response was always "Ops said no jumpseaters." Sometimes they need to be reminded that ops doesn't have the final say so on the jumpseat.