Long time lurker, first time post....
So I work for a small Part 135 company that has a cabin-only jumpseat agreement (we are non-CASS) with Skywest. Most gate agents always seem to be bewildered by this anomaly and start to panic when they see I'm not CASS. They eventually figure it out....
So when I approached the agent this morning in MEM to get my seat assignment, I wasn't surprised that I ran into trouble. I had listed the night before on 800-UAL-LIST with no problem. However, when he tried to pull up my information, his computer was telling him that I needed a paper ticket to board and he couldn't let me on without one. I said, I'm an offline jumpseater and I had never been issued a paper ticket (besides prior to boarding) nor have I ever required one to jumpseat before. I pleaded my case but to no avail. Even asked for the supervisor but unfortunately that was he. So then I asked if I could speak to the Captain which he immediately denied me of doing so....
I had to get crafty here and fortunately for me there was a mainline United guy commuting to work who got a seat. He offered to grab the Captain once he got into the aircraft to tell her of my plight. So much to the dismay of the gate agent (he knew I went around his authority and he was ****ed!) up comes the Captain. With only 10 minutes until departure she immediately started making some phone calls to try and figure out how to get me on board. All the while, the gate agent kept bugging her that the flight was going to be late...she didn't seem to care what he said, she was going to get me on board the flight. After a little argument between her and the agent, he issued me a hand-written jumpseat request form and I was on my way to Chicago. The flight was nearly on time afterall...
I just want to give a shout out to Captain Kathy and FO Preston for going above and beyond the call of duty for not leaving me behind at the gate. You guys did a superb job! I wish more Captains would use the authority of their 4-stripes as Kathy did today. Thanks so much guys, keep up the good work!
That is all.
KP