Originally Posted by Weatherboy
While media attention seems to be gaining some momentum since the incident first occured the other day (where Katie Couric, after pushback on a recent DL flight, asked the FA's to give her cockpit access to talk to the pilots so she could convince them to return the plane to the gate so they could get her producer who was running late), it got me thinking: has anyone ever seen such an act on a CO flight let alone get away with it?
The new CBS hostess was able to convince the Delta pilot that he should return to the gate....much to the anger of other passengers on-board the flight. (You can see the whole rant in the DL forums.)
But with CO, even if I were an Infinite Platinum Elite sitting on Larry Kellner's lap, I doubt I could attract the attention of a FA and get access to the cockpit post-pushback --and be successful in getting the pilot to return to the gate (without being arrested, of course.)
I could see if there was a security threat, the pilot would return to the gate (with of course never opening the cockpit door to a passenger requesting such.) And in a medical emergency, where someone's life is in danger, I suppose a flight would return to the gate.
But to get access to the cockpit post-pushback and have the pilots return to the gate to pick up my slow co-worker seems outlandish if not illegal.
DL said they didn't do anything special for their VIP passenger, saying that the flight crew needs to make judgement calls about these things from time to time.
But in the hundreds of thousands of miles flown on CO, I've never seen a situation where a passenger requested and got access to the cockpit so the plane could go back to the gate for a late passenger. Have you?
I have to admit, I had pulled a half-Couric on a CO flight in 2002. No, no one saw me from the inside out
but I did deplane in a hurry!
On a trip from AUS to ISP (Yes, I know), I had a layover in CLE. In the PC, I was listening to my iPod and, in a rush to get to the gate by going over the river and through the woods and under those heavy metal ornaments in the tunnel to my gate in the other terminal, I didn't realize that I left my iPod charging next to my empty wine glass.
The plane I boarded was boarded from the tarmac instead of a jetway. As I prepared to get all my stuff together and right as they closed the door, I realized that my iPod was missing from an open zipper in my backpack. Somewhat imbibed, and genuinely frantic, I kept saying, "I have to get off the plane! My iPod was stolen!" And, the flight attendant--so kind, she was--arranged for me to deplane without a hassle. The other passengers, immediately following 9-11, were also axious for me to deplane! I went to the PC, just to make sure that the iPod wasn't lifted, and there it was! They rebooked me on another flight to LGA instead, and I was free to go!
What I noticed a few days later is that I had mileage from the boarded, but uncompleted, CLE-ISP flight AND the CLE-LGA! And, since the CLE-LGA was a Y-fare, I did have 150% miles.
And that, my friends, is how I became Silver for the very first time.