nitefr8r

The guy who bumped me w/o asking checked in for the trip and departed 2 days early for a total of 3ish days in Honolulu. I had deviated when I got the trip and didn't bother to check in until just before I left for the airport. That's when I found out about it and started making phones calls. First to crew scheduling then to the D/O (4 hour time zone difference from HST to CST at the time) as it was a holiday weekend and after office hours as well.

His rationale was that I lived in Hawaii (he knew that), you can just drive home if I don't get a hold of you. I had to point out to the d/o:

1. I didn't approve
2. I don't live on Oahu. I have to fly to get HNL. (which brings up another story)
3. I'm going to have to ride on that flight anyway as a j/s. My next trip tied into the HNL-LAX trip. If I didn't do that I'd be trying to ride on a single jumpseat out of KOA on a holiday weekend competing with UAL pilots who live there and are jumpseating online.

The dh bank was needed as my flights got into LAX too late to connect to the HNL flight and that put me back into trying to ride UAL to KOA on a 757 with a single jumpseat.

I was finally put back on the flight after quite a bit of time. And I have no clue what happened to the guy haven't seen or heard from him since.

In the Hawaii is an Archipeligo Series:

A couple of years ago we had a a major earthquake on Hawaii Island. Shutdown airports state wide, fair amount of damage etc. Early in the afternoon after the quake I get a phone call. I answered it as I wasn't aware the phones were even back up and caller id wasn't working yet. It was crew scheduling wanting to know if I could get to HNL for the afternoon Oakland flight. I told them there had been an earthquake here. They answered that they knew that and that the dh's couldn't get in. I told them the earthquake was about 10 miles from my house and the airport was closed:

"Can't you just drive?"
"No, I live on Hawaii."
<silence>
"Hawaii is an archipeligo."
<silence>
"it's a chain of islands. I live on the southernmost one. Honolulu is on Oahu. I have to fly. The airports are closed."
"oh"

Gunter

Good story.

Glad to hear it turned out for the best.

Geography is not a popular course of study in America. 'Nuff said.

Busboy

Good story. One question:

If the D/H's couldn't get in because of earthquakes closing the airports...How was FDX planning on operating their flights?

nitefr8r

Excellent question. Airplanes may have been there already as it was a Sunday and the flights were on Monday I believe, though it's been awhile I don't recall when they were supposed to leave to be honest.

Had another one of those geography lesson phone calls: CS called at 5:50 pm on a Sunday night and asked me how soon I could get to HNL for a draft to SYD and dh back. I looked at the glass of wine in my hand (but hadn't yet tasted) then the clock and said, "I can be there for an 8:00 am departure tomorrow."

They said that wasn't soon enough, they need the flight to go late that night or early in the am. After I told them the last flight out of Kona on Sunday nights leaves @ 6pm they asked why I didn't just drive. I didn't bother to explain what an archipeligo was, I just told them that I didn't live on Oahu and that I could be at the ramp at 7:00 am if I took the 6 am Aloha flight. They insisted they needed someone that night. I said "Ok, call me if you change your mind." They never called back, which really suited me fine anyway. I looked up the flight the next day and found it departed at 10 am ... they'd have been better off if they took me up on the offer. Oh well.

Next time I'll tell them I can't drive cause there are no bridges bewteen Kona and Honolulu.

Nitefrater

You have to remember that you were talking to a crew scheduler who was sitting in Memphis.

Tennessee.

Some of them were educated there.

Their working vocabulary may not extend to "archipelago".

CaptDan

That reminds me of after 9/11. Commuters that couldn't make it to ANC were coded as no shows and docked pay, even though NOTHING in the USA was flying. Go figure!!! Crew scheds at their best.

Jetjok

Right after 9/11 it probably didn't matter if you could get to work or not, seeing as there was a flight ban throughout the entire lower 48. We were stuck (I say "stuck" in a good way) in Bangkok, and were supposed to operate out about mid-day. When no alert call came, I called the company and they said that they had had a major computer system crash, to the point where they had virtually lost all their information on where planes and crews were. They had no idea we were in Thailand, nor had any idea what to do with us. I suggested they leave us there for a short while, perhaps a month or two, but instead, they set us up for a commercial deadhead to Dubai, to operate back to Paris. When we got to Dubai, there were two other crews waiting to operate the same flight we were scheduled to work. A real FUBAR.

Fedex999999

During one of the ice storms in MEM I was BUF, supposed to be flying inbound to MEM. We sat at the airport in BUF for about 4 hours, but no chance of getting into Mempho with the storm- the one plane in BUF was now going to be taken by a second crew to IND. So they sent us back to the hotel. As soon as the car pulled up to the hotel, the captain's phone rang. Scheduling asked how long it would take him to "get to the airport." Well, he said about 20 minutes. "Great!" they said, head on over. We reloaded the car, and started on our way back. The captain then asked what plane we were taking- was the IND flight and crew doing something else? They were totally confused. They thought the captain was in MEM and was on his way there. They seemed to have no clue we were in BUF all of a sudden.

Jetjok

What were all you guys doing nude anyway. No wonder the crew schedulers were confused.

ntak

I don't believe that was skeds fault, following the contract, yes the circumstances were unusual. And, without getting into the commuter / non-commuter argument (I've done both), and hopefully those circumstances will never happen again to make this a valid point, but imagine the non-commuter having to fly an Asia 11-day bag drag because he lived in ANC while a commuter got a free pass cause of (name your circumstance here)....
That being said, perhaps a "drop without repercussion" clause instead of the dreaded "N/S" for unusual type of stuff such as that could be in the next contract??