cmd320

I would argue that a captain with such a blatant disregard for procedures and such a lack of professionalism while not only interacting with customers but also other colleagues is rather concerning.

p100a

Captain's Authority is clearly defined in any airline's flight operations manual. The crew works as a team but to suggest a gate agent has control of the plane at the gate is laughable.

DLATL777

Grabbing popcorn and IBTL.

cmd320

Good to know. I’ll be sure to consult the captain next time my upgrade is processed incorrectly at the gate.

p100a

You don't get it. This has nothing to do with seat assignments but final authority and control of the aircraft. The gate agent is just a customer service representative. If the gate agent wants to close the door and leave behind passengers for whatever reason, the Captain can overrule them, for example. If the Captain wants someone to sit in FC, they can direct the purser to do that. If the Captain wants to comp drinks for a delay thats their decision, not a gate agent or the FA.

cmd320

I suggest you revisit the topic of the thread.

readywhenyouare

No, the captain cannot do that. They can remove passengers but they cannot add. They cannot just add people to first class either. Stop spreading this nonsense.

DMPHL

Ignoring the fact that none of this is what reportedly happened in this instance (if the pilot was jump-seating, the FAs would not have had him on the manifest assigned to an Economy seat), could you point us to the part in the DL manual that says the captain has authority to direct an action that violates company policy (e.g. the 50% FC cap)?

rylan

Same here

p100a

I have seen it many times where a captain will walk up the jet bridge to see if any nonrevs are having issues getting on a flight and tell the gate agent to get them on when she's about to close the door and empty seats exist. Nothing unusual about this at all. Go over to airlinepilotcentral and learn a thing or two instead of thinking you know everything about how it works from your fc seat and diamond this and that.

steve64

Ummm. No.
What airline do/did you work for and for how long ?
Me ... 20 years at AA, about 4 as a Gate Agt and 7 in the Operations "Tower", all at DFW.

The Captain (along with the Dispatcher) is in charge of the flight while the flight is in operation. An airplane sitting at the gate is not a flight in operation.
At this point, the Gate Agt is in charge of the flight. Said Agent is working on behalf of local Management (out stations) or Operations (hubs), so actually have very little direct authority. But their department, not the Captains, is in control
Boarding passes are being issued and many other passenger service decisions are being made. IE: are we going to delay the flight for the 10 passengers connecting from a certain late inbound flight ?
The Captain has no say in these matters. Passengers are assigned seats by the Agent, the flight can not depart until the Gate Agt decides to close the door. The Captain can complain, but they can not force door closure.

At most airlines (per their FAA approved Operations Manual), the act of closing the door indicates transfer of control. The passengers are seated and all carry-ons stowed ... the Gate Agt has completed their duties.
Good practice is for the Agent to poke their head into the cockpit before closing the door. The Captain, knowing transfer of control is about to happen, may take control and elect to delay the flight. The Gate Agt will relay the specifics up-line and the decision might be made to go ahead and close the door ... the flight will "depart" the gate and hold on the ramp for whatever delay. In general, the Captain has no say if Operations wants the plane off the gate.

Granted, some mechanical situations may prohibit gate departure, or even boarding. The Captain is in charge of safety, so can physically prevent boarding/ gate departure. Any Captain abusing this is a Captain that will have a long discussion with their Chief Pilot.

Do Captains ever ask Flight Attendants to move passengers ? I'm sure it happens. But operationally, the only reason I can think of to do so after door closing is for weight-n-balance. A Flight Attendant receiving such a request for personal reasons may elect to comply simply cuz "Captain said so", but that doesn't mean the Captain is acting under any authority to make the request.

The world is not black-n-white. You can find many exceptions to what I've said above.
IE: I said an airplane at the gate is not a flight in operation, thus the Gate Agt is in charge. But the reason for having the plane on the gate is that the airline's intent is to operate it on a flight. So there are restrictions.
The Gate Agt can't simply start boarding because they want to. The FAA minimum number of Flight Attendants must be on-board. They must have completed and be satisfied with their safety checks.
The Pilots are somewhere checking weather, the flight plan, checking the plane etc. They don't care which passenger is assigned which seat.

TL;DR
As mentioned elsewhere, airline flights are a teamwork effort. Pilots are tasked with the safe operation of their specific flight enroute. Operations is tasked with the coordinated operation of all flights running thru their airport. The 2 sides are not always 100% in tune with the other side's issues. In general, Operations (via an assigned primary Gate Agt) controls the flight until they're ready to send the plane on its way, then the Captain/Dispatcher take full control, though they have had teamwork input all along.

readywhenyouare

Oh my. You don't think the gate agent knows how many seats are open on the plane? The captain would also have no idea until the final paperwork is taken down. The only seat the captain has any discretion over for nonrevs is the flight deck jumpseat. There is an order for nonrevs clearing. Any captain that tries to manipulate that will find themselves on the wrong end of an HR meeting.

testycal

Me too

Take the discussion outside. War of words at this point.

Duck1981

That reminds on an incident when I was boarding an UA flight from DFW to LAX about a year ago.

I was boarding the plane and there was a dead heading FO who had a big argument with the flight captain in the jet bridge. Whilst I was walking towards the plane, the FO turned away from the captain back towards the terminal shouting a loud d****head and f** off.

Whilst it was initially amusing, I thought later that this wasn't really professional from a FO to behave like this in full uniform in front of passengers and I am wondering how the dude would keep his temper during an emergency in the cockpit - but he maybe just had a bad day.

readywhenyouare

Depends on what happened. I don't know if there are any captains still working or even alive that worked for Eastern or Continental back in the day but many of them who managed to get another flying job would not allow pilots who crossed their picket line to use the flight deck jumoseat. Super pretty and cold hearted.