My argument exactly! What diff did it make if someone takes that empty seat at departure time. It was still going to b empty, if you didnt. No sane person is going to walk up at the last second and buy it for $500 or what ever. As a gate agent, I wanted to move connections to earlier flights for that very reason of a "cascade" event. And dont give me that argument of "supply and demand". I hated that when a Sup or fellow agent would say thats the reason we collect fees. No. Its just to raise more revenue thats all.

(Written on 07/03/2013)(Permalink)

Policy is and has been, to charge for an earlier departure. It used to be, you could standby same day w/o an fee. While working down here in CRP for COex/UAX CRP-IAH I would usually waive the fee for an earlier flight, since we had 11 flts a day to IAH. If say the 1pm flight was oversold, and the 11am had 10 empty seats on it, or we were expecting IAH weather issues, you bet I was going to move people earlier an no fee. However if I got a pissy demanding customer, woops! The policy book kicked in, thats $25 to stdby plz. A smile goes a long way, IN BOTH DIRECTIONS! Customer is nice, then youre Damn right I will be too. Get nasty? Then dont expect much. Many a time, I would come right out and ask a customer. "And what part of yelling at me, makes you think it will make things better?" That usually threw them off and they would back down. BTW, I hated working next to another agent who would not waive the fee, piss off the customer and then fellow agent would look at me and say "I dont kno

(Written on 06/30/2013)(Permalink)

You nailed it right on the head, Dee. I was in the biz for 28 years as a customer service agent for both CO and AWA/US. The lower the fare the bitchier the customer. Even tho policy was to charge a change fee for pax to go earlier same day, I usually waived it because in my view it didnt matter when that empty seat flew between 2 points. 7am or 12noon it was still an empty seat. And as for smiles. I loved my job, and for the most part didnt have a problem helping out customers. However! When a customer came up and was snappy/demanding. Well they got the same treatment back. My managers always said, any complain against me, I was usually right. Get ugly with me, and I go strait to the book, and follow policy. Be nice? And I can bend the rules. As a former instructor at AWA I always told employees. Policy is actually guidelines. Use some common sense, and everything will go smoothly.

(Written on 06/30/2013)(Permalink)

Part of the problem is that the airlines have flooded the markets with RJ flights. When I worked for HP in ABQ all our flights were mainline at the time, but the 9am flight was never O/T, because of flow to PHX coming in from the east coast/midwest. Then when I had a job with COEX/UAX in CRP, all the flights would push back O/T but sit on the ramp/end of rwy for an average 30 mins then depart to IAH. CRP-IAH was up to 12 flights a day at one time. Now, if they scaled it back to 5 or 6 with mainline a/c and do the same thing in other markets, I bet ATC would improve. I know the airlines say "Its for customer convenience". What good is that convenience when the flight is consistently late, and connections are being missed? The whole system is blind to its own hypocrisy.

(Written on 05/31/2013)(Permalink)

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE403/history/20130104/1200Z/KIAH/KPHX I stumbled onto this one Fri morning the 4th, when checking out the ABQ action. On closer look at all west bound traffic, across TX, NM and other states, they were really bucking a strong headwind, while east bound traffic has been whistling along, over 500kts. I flew HP ATL-PHX in Dec 2002 and it took us over 5hrs to complete the trip due to headwinds. All the way across TX it was like riding on buckboard roads.

(Written on 01/04/2013)(Permalink)

Those of you not getting to work. I found it on Youtube as well.

(Written on 10/26/2012)(Permalink)

Was reading the remarks thread after the report. Once again, reporters interview passengers who have no understanding of the complexities of flying, or engine failure. Not to dismiss the passenger who said "We could die". In her estimate.....yeah. But to the professionals it was an event that was out of the norm of all the flying that goes on in a single day. RR PW and GE go to great lengths when developing engines to ensure that containment is assured should there be a catastrophic failure.

(Written on 10/24/2012)(Permalink)

Well since I missed it the last time it was posted, let me just say this. Holy Crap.

(Written on 10/23/2012)(Permalink)

I have been involved in diversions, and situations where we had to remove unruly pax while working for HP (America West) in ABQ. Twice we were told not to press charges. The only time we were able to do so, was when a flight from FLL-LAS had to divert to ABQ because a food fight broke out on the flight. 10 pax were removed, and charged with unruly behaviour and disruption of crew activities. It is very frustrating when a manager or supervisor tells us not to press. I think its all because they dont want to mess with the paper work.

(Written on 10/11/2012)(Permalink)

Absolutely fantastic! I could sit at a window up there for weeks and love every minute of it. My compliments to all astronauts/cosmonauts.

(Written on 10/04/2012)(Permalink)