There are no spare aircraft for the international flights. There are no parts in PHL (the west moved them to PHX) when the aircraft have maintenance issues. If an international flight needs a part it is removed from the one A/C that is staying in PHL for a check or drop dead MEL (which means that the 3 or 10 day limit has expired and the A/C is grounded per FAA until repaired.) The west has hung maint out to fail in PHL. There is no room for a hiccup. I believe 22 international flights and 24 A/C. So any A/C that has to have a domestic verification flight ( which is one flight other than ETOPS to assure a problem is repaired and does not reappear ). So alot of the time A/C with maintenance repairs are put on the SJU run, to be recertified for international flight (ETOPS). Our equipment is being pushed very hard by the west. All international maintenance is being done in a four hour period every afternoon in PHL and CLT. You are going to have massive delays. Just remember the west knows best..........
A330 SJU
- Thread starter trundraguy
- Start date
SegmentKing
Veteran
Tad, during the summer months thru November here's how our day was in Key West.
Manager shows up at 8AM.
Supervisor #1 shows up at 830AM
Ft Agt - Ctr at 830A
Ft Ramp - at 9A
Supervisor #2 shows up at 930AM
PT Cross Agent - 10A (2)
Now. our plane would fly DCA-MCO-FLL-EYW, and would leave DCA at 630A I believe. What my agents would do is go on our lovely website and check flifo of this flight. Any perch of it being late, and one of us (sups) would get a "sick call". While this sort of started with PSA, USAir-OCC did its best to find us a replacement aircraft or swap one out, so the agents were never too worried. MDA brought in its own challenges of being the EMB-170 operator, as we quickly learned is also called the "180" cause it returned to gate so much.
My agents quickly learned (wish I could have done this), that it was easier to call in sick than deal with 210 passengers missing their flights all day. Our EYW ops would typically do 50 - 72 pax a flight, and one hiccup meant no one was getting out. We'd beg / plead with FLL for assistance and beg for us to use our "OB" entry cause FLL was always packed. But unfortunately, it just got ugly to the point we'd have 1 - 3 agents call out sick when the plane would leave DCA late. Republic was probably the biggest culprit because they had crew shortages, so the DCA flt ran more late than it should have, and when there was a maintenance issue, we were SOL as USAir-OCC has no reason to give us a Piedmont or PSA jet -- the flight is now Republic's responsibility. So that's 72 people to try to rebook in a few sporadic seats on 19 seat Beechcraft and occasionally DL would give us seats. Heck, PBI2FLL and TAD, you've probably heard me on the phone begging for seats out of your stations!
while I've never worked a 'mainline flight', I've always preferred the Express side because we're only screwing passengers 50 - 70 at a time, not 200. but let me tell ya, when you've got a line out the door and have to scream over the PA system to call Reservations for faster help, you know you are in a bad situation.
Regarding SJU, I'm wondering if its only a matter of time before the USAir SJU agents start doing the same thing and call in sick. Some of you will say "then fire the people"... you can't do that in Key West or San Juan where its a highly competitive work force... people would rather work at a hotel and make $12 / hour than a lousy $8 - $9 hour to get screamed at day in and day out. At least in Key West, we had Sabre. I'd hate to be there now in bad weather.
In the end, it was part of our job to learn to turn a full CRJ in 20 minutes using only 2 employees, and a full EMB 170 with 4, if even that. Thank god we were all 'family' in Key West and helped eachother out. I've done my time loading bags for DL and assisting with their pax, but they've also spent time in the belly of our EMB 170 too
(( btw, you want 4 employees for a CRJ, and 6 - 7 for an EMB 170 - ramp/ctr/gate included).
flybynite
Veteran
longing4piedmont
Veteran
I wonder what they are going to send to Munich for the folks who's flight was canceled for the second day in a row?
And these clowns want to fly to China.
And these clowns want to fly to China.
Prince of PAWOBs
Veteran
Wait until mid-September when the Oktoberfest passengers get p-oed when their flight cancels.
ClueByFour
Veteran
I used to wonder why the PHL flight was always wide open, and I could barely snag a seat thru CLT to SJU.
Then I tried the PHL routine. Won't be doing that again.
Then I tried the PHL routine. Won't be doing that again.
There was, is only ONE Christine!!!!!!
N600US / 757-200
First 757 off the Boeing Line (#1 stayed w/Boeing as a test flight bird)
originally delivered to EAL.
I'm not quite sure if the company has changed it's tail number to
a new number. Anyone know???
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