February 17th, 2008, 01:12
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#27 |
| Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: DXR, Connecticut
Posts: 1,194
|  Re: My Alitalia Jumpseat story...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seggy  So I arrive in Milan on Thursday morning after a hop across the pond on Airways. Yes, I was that toolbag that wore the uniform to nonrev BUT, let me tell you in Europe, they have a total respect for it. There was a flight to Florence that leaves at 10:10 Alitalia A319. The Airways Station Manager said I should go to the gate and try to jumpseat on the flight. I was thinking to myself, yeah like that is going to work.
So I head over to the Alitalia gate and start waiting in line at the counter. The ticket agent puts his hand up to the person he was talking to, motions me over and says, "Sir can I help you with something."
Mind you he was talking to PAYING customers (heard it in English).
Me: "Ummm, any chance I can try to jumpseat down to Florence."
Him: "Well sir the flight is full but let me check with the crew, who do you work for."
Me: "USAirways Express"
The gate agent gets up in front of the paying passengers goes down the jetway and no later than one minute later he is motioning me down the jetway. It was still about an hour to go before departure. I get down there and I am greeted EXTREMELY warmly by the ENTIRE crew. They say, yes it is full, but they will offer me ANY jumpseat, cockpit or flight attendant as long as there are no Alitalia Pilots or employees that request it above me. Then they ask if I want to join the crew for coffee. So we go to the coffee shop and sit down for some coffee and discuss flying stories. Pretty interesting BOTH the Captain and First Officer did their training in the states!
It was a great experience.
If you go to Europe, I recommend jumpseating in Uniform. Yes it is a PAIN, but you are treated MUCH better. When I boarded the train to get back to Milan, they DID NOT check my ticket, but did all around me, then they did not charge me for the bus from the train station to the airport. Have backup plans, BUT if you are flexible you could probably save some serious cash, especially when trying to jumpseat around Europe. |
Do you guys still have the Airways logo on your ID badge?
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CFI/CFII/MEI ATP, SF340
Violinist, Tri-Cities Area Orchestras, www.otioso.org |
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