Incoming gate wait at DTW...
 

Is it just me or are we waiting a long time to get ushered in and connected to the jet way?

I can count half a dozen times this has happened recently. One time we had the marshal just sitting there... waiting.... then randomly he jumps up and starts waiving us in...

What gives?

It takes more than 1 person to marshal an AC into the gate. The persone was probably waiting for the rest of his team.

I'm noticing it a lot -- had about a 10 minute wait yesterday.

What's sad is the waste of fuel (and therefore $money$) and the workers involved, or more correctly the people in charge of them, don't seem to care.

Bob H

There was people standing around, even the Pilot came across the PA confused about it, why they were standing/sitting there and nothing was happening.

We could see the whole area from our side of the plane. It was very odd.

Pilot said maybe they were not trained and didn't know what to do LOL

Another major problem is that if your flight is the slightest bit late, there is no one to open the jetway. Have waited many times for 30 minutes or more for the jetway to be opened

Or early. And no, I'm not kidding (I'm sure others here will validate). Ground crews, like so many other areas of the operation, are so short-staffed that any scheduling variation, or one or two people calling in sick that day, monkey-wrenches the whole works.

I guess the question is, how is MSP doing with this?

It seems like it's increasing @ DTW lately, and like someone else mentioned, even coming in early - you end up getting off the plane "on time" or "late" because of this.

I'm through MEM and MSP almost every week, and it's pretty consistent with the report about DTW: Early or late, you risk disembarkment delays due to the just-barely-enough-and-only-if-no-one-called-in-sick-that-day ground crew staffing.

Ground crew and jet bridge delays
 

I, too, have noticed 10-ish minutes delays with the ground crew to guide us in, jet bridge delays, or both. :(

My personal pet peeve!
 

At DTW, I've often experienced delays due to waiting on a jet bridge operator, even if the flight is on time, and I've seen people miss their connecting flights because of it......

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthrea...ridge+operator

In my experience this happens almost every time I fly into the B/C gates. As if I want to spend MORE time on an RJ. :td:

I've noticed this happen especially on redeye flights (too early the GAs haven't clocked in yet perhaps?), mid-day during shift change, and throughout the day for no apparent reason. :confused:

Somebody invent a remote control to get the jetbridge over to the plane, and then the FA could open the door and let us off. @:-)

I'm with you on this one. ^

PHL is the worst! A typical scenario this year: Last arriving night's flight and all 3 NW gates are occupied. Gee wiz, they have no place to dock the plane! Must wait for tug to remove a plane. Tug finally arrives. Tug must wait for PHL van for escort since it has no radio to contact tower. Van finally arrives. Plane is slowly towed out of concourse E. Finally we move into the vacated gate, an additional half hour plus added to our already delayed flight. Being a carryon person, I don't know how the luggage made out.