Tales from the Ticket Counter – Get Me to the Gate On Time
I wish I could tell you how many times I’ve taken a bag from a late passenger, ridden down the bag belt with it and run with it out to the plane in my heels. I’m just sure that there are all kinds of rules, regulations and what-not that would prohibit me from riding a bag belt; so, I’m equally as sure I never did it. But if I had, I would wish that I could tell you how many times.
There were a strictly limited set of circumstances that allowed a flight to be late without the departure city’s station getting dinged – weather (local, en route or down-line), field conditions (local and down-line) and mechanical problems. Did you notice that there were no provisions for the local police department laying down nail strips and flattening 20 passenger tires a day? (Honestly, there were days that I heard the “flat tire” excuse so many times from late passengers, that I was tempted to call and find out if the police actually had laid down nail strips.) The airline didn’t make provisions for your emergency stop for gasoline, your babysitter showing up late, or your morning-after-the-night-before oversleep. And, when you look at the big picture – check out http://flightaware.com/live/airport/KDFW for just the flights going on at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport right now – flights really must leave at their scheduled time or the ripples move far down the line. For example, if your flight is 30 minutes late and the aircraft is scheduled to another destination with a minimum turn-time, the down-line flight is late. If your flight is 30 minutes late and your crew is scheduled to take another flight on another aircraft with minimum turn-time, the down-line flight is late. If your flight is 30 minutes late and your connection is scheduled to leave in 31 minutes, your day gets ugly quickly.
At the time when I might have been riding bag belts with late bags, the minimum amount of time you had to arrive at the airport before your scheduled departure was 30 minutes. That was before all domestic bags were screened. Given today’s security restrictions, agents couldn’t run your bags out to your aircraft even if they wanted to – OSHA regs notwithstanding. So, today, it’s show up an hour prior if you’re going to check bags. That is your role in ensuring an on-time departure. Or, maybe, just maybe, you could show up five minutes prior to departure, hand your bags to the crew and step aboard your aircraft. Or, maybe, better yet, you could show up 30 minutes late and your aircraft and crew would wait for you – with smiles on their faces, no less. That’s the difference between traveling on a scheduled airline and chartering an aircraft for your own use. Within a few federal restrictions, you can leave when you like. The aircraft and crew are at your disposal. How’s that for a departure?
Get me to the gate on time? No, thanks. I think I’d rather get to the gate on my time.
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- Oct 25, 2009: Jon Anne Doty
- Oct 25, 2009: CFM Charter
- Oct 25, 2009: Rachel Charlize
This is one instance when nothing is as simple as it seems and how one thing really affects another. Taking it just a bit farther, how about learning to flying your own airplane and really set your own schedule? http://www.wingsmqy.com
Miss Doty, We must also add that all scheduled aircarriers are required to report late departures to the DOT, anything over 1 minute late. This gives those late running passengers and the gate agents a 59 second grace period. Modern technology has beaten the system of trying to cheat too. (Imagine that-someone trying to cheat!) The aircraft reports the departure, not the flight crew, not the agents!
The late departures are then coded and tracked. For example when the Good Lord decides to send a tornado through the airport, there is a code for that. When a passenger decides to say swear words, throw tantrums and the nice agent tells them they no longer have the right to fly–a delay code for security of the flight. And surprisingly enough, there are still delay codes for passengers who still think they have the right to sneak three bags to the gate and argue that they can not bring them on board.
Someday, air travel may ALL move to charter flights, because travelers do not think the rules were made for them. Wow, rules based on historical events, what a concept! But, that is another subject…