Originally Posted by
rndomtask
As the GA for the NS was clearing the fight I witnessed the issuing of boarding passes to no less than eight pilots, only five of them had their names on the standby list which were of course near the bottom. I also overheard two of the pilots offering to trade with two of the other pilots if they did not get cleared. Finally the GA called our names but said only one seat was available. I asked the GA if the eight pilots just cleared were "must fly's" and all the GA could say was they were deadhead's. So I asked the GA to remove one b/c we were standby due to weather. The GA said that would not be possible.
If the pilots are deadheading, they most likely have to be in some place in order to fly a plane, either that night or the next morning. In the times I've been standby, due to weather, crew issues or whatever, I've always been #1/2 with my CP holder on the list. I've also given my seat to another person who had to be somewhere, and I had a better option that left later in the day. I don't think this weekend was a typical weekend though, since that was such a huge line of storms that passed over you guys in the midwest. Just be thankful you made it. I've been stuck in SAN a few years ago because there were no seats to TUS out of any airport and the GA in SJC wouldn't let me fly SJC-MDW-TUS to get home, because I was "nuts."