You want me where, by when!?

It is not often that I post more than once per week, but after the circle-jerk that I experienced tonight, I needed to take a few minutes to catch my breath and unwind, so I thought I might share with you my adventures with Crew Scheduling. For those followers who do have no experience with airline flying, Crew Scheduling are the folks who sit in a cube city office somewhere and plug flight crews into airplanes so that flights can leave the gate on time, all the while avoiding exceeding FAA crew rest requirements, juggling training and vacation schedules, and seemingly recently, dealing with a rash of pilots calling in sick. It may only be a rumor, but I heard that since the furlough announcement many pilots are using up sick days as a protest. I can't say if that's true or not, but if it is it is a shame. Come on guys, is calling in sick at the last minute really going to either avoid furloughs, or get back at anyone? Is Crew Scheduling responsible for furloughs?

For the most part, I have had a good relationship with Crew Scheduling. They have called me for some short fused needs and I have responded faster than the 1.5 hours that the contract requires. On the other hand, I have on occasion requested to drop a reserve day to get an extra day off and they have approved (although not always). I have great empathy for the job that these people do and I know that it is not easy, but tonight I think someone dropped the ball big time.

Let me set the stage:

When I left Detroit four days ago, I left with the following schedule:
July 27 - DTW-AUS
July 28 - AUS-SLC, and SLC-AUS
July 29 - AUS-SLC, and SLC-AUS
July 30 - AUS-MSP, followed by a deadhead flight back to DTW
Aug 1-2, reserve days in back in DTW

So, when I left Detroit on Monday, I packed and prepared for a 4-day trip, but with two extra days of reserve at the end of the schedule, I knew it was likely that I'd see a schedule change.

This morning in Austin TX, I received a call from Crew Scheduling telling me that they needed me to stay in Minneapolis tonight to stand "out of base reserve" tomorrow, and that the needed me to fly a MSP-DSM flight tomorrow evening. No big deal, since they put me up in the Hyatt Place for the night and through the day on Friday. Heck, I'd rather sit out of base reserve and draw Per Diem than sit reserve in Detroit.

Our AUS-MSP flight is uneventful and we never even had to deviate a single time for weather. Upon landing at MSP I say good bye to my fellow crew members who are heading back to DTW, and call for the hotel shuttle to pick me up. Once at the hotel, I find that there is no reservation for me. THAT should have been my first warning. I call Crew Scheduling and ask them to fax over a copy of the room request so that I can get checked in, and they promise to send it over immediately. For the record, this was at 9:15 PM. The good folks at the Hyatt go ahead and let me check in while they wait for the paperwork.

At 9:40 PM I jump in the hotel van for a ride over to Ruby Tuesdays to grab some dinner. As we pull into the restaurant parking lot at 9:45, I receive a call from Crew Scheduling that when something like this:

ME "Hi, this is Gary"
CS "Gary, this is Tom with Crew Scheduling. Did anyone tell you that you have a Fargo flight tonight?"
ME "Tonight, you mean tomorrow night"
CS "No, tonight"
ME "What time tonight?"
CS "10:20"
ME "Tom, I'm sitting in a van in civilian clothes a mile from the hotel and your telling me I have a flight in 35 minutes?"
CS "You mean you are a mile from the airport?"
ME "NO TOM, A MILE FROM THE HOTEL THAT I CHECKED INTO THIRTY MINUTES AGO!"
CS "Oh, well, get there when you can. Oh, and you have a Boise overnight tomorrow too"
Click.....

For the record, Flight 3587 departed at 10:30 PM, only 10 minutes behind schedule. This was thanks to John the Hyatt van driver who waited on me while I changed back into uniform and then drove the van like I've not seen since my days in Chinea Korea getting to the airport. It is also thanks to Captain Randy who had everything all set up in the airplane when I arrived so all I needed to do was a pre-flight inspection, strap in, confirm his programming, run the checklists, crank the engines and go. We even made the time up and had our passengers at the gate at Fargo 5 minutes early.

So, other than to vent a little, why am I writing this? Perhaps to let you know some of the fun that goes on behind the scenes that you may never know about. Our passengers last night had no way of knowing why I ran aboard the aircraft minutes prior to pushback, and some likely were upset about pushing 10 minutes late. Why it happened, I really don't know. Someone calls in sick at the last minute, or, perhaps Crew Scheduling just dropped the ball and did not inform me of a change they made earlier in the day. All I know is that a LOT of people, not just me, jumped through hoops to keep this one short flight as close to schedule as possible. THAT is what will make this airline more profitable, hopefully one day opening up more flying and more jobs. Calling in sick will NOT.

Vent over...now breathe...."serenity now, serenity now".