Contrails15 From United States, joined Oct 2008, 459 posts, RR: 0 Posted (1 year 3 weeks 3 days ago) and read 12977 times:
Okay, I mainly want to know non can bellies and looking for a/c of more then 100 seats but give me what you got. I ask this because everday I'm doing JFK-SDQ or JFK-STI which btw we had going down there on E-190's which sucked but for right now the biggest pain in the a$$ to load right now is a tie between the two in the above mentioned. Average right now, 252 bags with anywhere from 20-45 gate checks on a A320. Oh and EVERY bag weighs 50lbs with the exception of a very few weighing less. Okay, so lets here your horror flights to load, maybe I'll feel better hearing them LOL.
Pilotboi From United States, joined Sep 2007, 2240 posts, RR: 10 Reply 1, posted (1 year 3 weeks 3 days ago) and read 12989 times:
Hands down: A 757 without carpets or trays. What a BITCH!
2nd place: CR7...back breaking in the aft bin. head breaking in the fwd bin.
MD88 was a bitch sometimes too. But it doesn't compare to a 75 w/o carpets or any CRJ.
Pilotboi From United States, joined Sep 2007, 2240 posts, RR: 10 Reply 3, posted (1 year 3 weeks 3 days ago) and read 12929 times:
Quoting NWAESC (Reply 2): *Any flight going to MNL, or since we're going with non-containerized flights, any flight with a large number of MNL bags on it.
Make that any destination in Asia. Sorry but it's true.
Contrails15 From United States, joined Oct 2008, 459 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (1 year 3 weeks 3 days ago) and read 12880 times:
Asia is one place I don't have to worry about. I can't imagine though what Sprit goes there down there in FLL with the central and south america flights. Those all gotta be a pain in the a$$. We got MCO-BOG coming up but the flight originates in JFK so we'll see the brunt of the flight up here do to it being a thru flight.
Transpac787 From United States, joined Jul 2007, 2068 posts, RR: 16 Reply 5, posted (1 year 3 weeks 3 days ago) and read 12820 times:
Near anything to Canada. It seems the Canadians love to pack their kitchen sinks with them when they go on vacation.
In rank order from worst to not-so-bad, I'd say:
YEG, YYZ, YWG, YYZ, YVR
But those YEG flights.... ::shivers:: and of course the ramp screws us on the stacks in our inbound YEG's, so it takes like 30 minutes to unload those damn things.
HikesWithEyes From United States, joined Jan 2004, 810 posts, RR: 12 Reply 10, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 12738 times:
At AS, the flights to Russia with the MD or to GDL with the MD
were all major pains.
The clientele for those destinations tended to pack heavy boxes/motorcycle tires, etc,
making it difficult to get all the stuff loaded, not to mention the headaches for
weight and balance.
Contrails15 From United States, joined Oct 2008, 459 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 12705 times:
But here is the thing though, were getting up too 42 gate checks on alot of theses SDQ and STI flights, and get this twice this year we have had 52 and 58 gate checks that at least I know of. Is this normal, has any of you had to deal with that on any of your flights??????
PlaneInsomniac From Canada, joined Nov 2007, 500 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 12606 times:
Quoting Transpac787 (Reply 5): Near anything to Canada. It seems the Canadians love to pack their kitchen sinks with them when they go on vacation.
Quoting Transpac787 (Reply 5): In rank order from worst to not-so-bad, I'd say:
YEG, YYZ, YWG, YYZ, YVR
Well, almost everything is cheaper in the US than in Canada... clothes, electronics, books etc. So it makes sense to exploit your baggage weight limit. This was especially true in the last 12-18 months, with the very high value of the Canadian dollar vs. the US dollar (although this has changed somewhat in recent weeks).
This is in particular the case for places "further out" / further up north such as Edmonton. There, people cannot simply make a day trip to the US and fill up their car trunks. Moreover, I guess things are even more expensive there due to costlier transportation until they reach store shelves.
Iadbudd From United States, joined Mar 2007, 39 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 12575 times:
Taca A320/A321 To El Salvador. Heavy rear round. During Christmas every flight leaves behing 1 or 2 bulk carts that would not fit. Since every flight is full they have to go on a freighter and pax get their bags days later. You are guarenteed 1 bag will make it and lucky if your second and third bag go. Also for widebody's Ethiopian's flights to ADD are back breakers. Every bag has to be picked up by two people. The only 767 that will fill every position with bags and no cargo and still leave bags behind. Including building pallets for bags. Their crews do lots of shopping during their layovers as well.
USAir330 From United States, joined Mar 2002, 615 posts, RR: 2 Reply 15, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 12527 times:
Worst flights Hmmm...
-WN-
PHL-MDW (Freight and transfers alone can be bad at times)
PHL-PIT ( Lots of US non-revs on the afternoon flights. On weekends it can be a pain atleast 20-24 Gate check bags.)
DurangoMac From United States, joined Dec 2006, 494 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 12448 times:
OK I realize you aked for 100+ seat aircraft but it doesn't matter, camp time for DRO and all those exteremly heavy trunks. (30 people on the plane, 20 trunks and then some baggage)
The Dash 8's handle well but I hated opening a bin and finding it only loaded with trunks or having to figure out how to put all the trunks into the plane with out going over weight. The CRJ-200 were a little better if we didn't take any wiehgt hits because of being hot.
CALPSAFltSkeds From United States, joined Dec 2006, 749 posts, RR: 9 Reply 18, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 12338 times:
It was no picnic loading Icelandic DC8-63's at ORD in the 1970's. Cargo use to send over about 6 carts of Bally pinball machines and we tried our best to load as many as we could. With the DC8's "U" shaped floor, we had to stick them crosswise or lengthwise. I believe 26 full-sized Bally pinball machines was the most we could load, along with duffle bags from the mostly hippies traveling to LUX via KEF.
Of course, loading 104,000 lbs. of cargo on a KLM 747-200 passenger version was also a treat in the same era. Bags and some cargo went in small Main deck containers (fit through the passenger door) and loaded on a special, rickety loader to the back left door. The zone weights on the front 5 LD7 was exactly at gross weight for each calculation.
But, the best part was bulk loading heavy sacks of resin, which for some reason was being transported to Europe via air. You had to push the sacks uphill; in the 747-200 bulk bin.
GARUDAROD From United States, joined Apr 2000, 1357 posts, RR: 0 Reply 19, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 12314 times:
I second the flights to MNL. Worst ever personally to load was an Ecuatoriana
B707 with each bag weighing about 100kgs each! Hot, heavy, and a b*itch to
haul into the bins for positioning
RamperMAF From United States, joined Jul 2007, 17 posts, RR: 0 Reply 20, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 12198 times:
Some of you guys might scoff a bit at my suggestion but read on and allow me to explain.
MQ started sending the ATR72 into MAF and it can be a headache. Not so much the the front area, C1 and C2, with the large electric door...but the back area, C4a and C4b is more or less just a closet. It wouldn't be that bad if all we had to do was throw bags but out here in the outstations you're a jack of all trades, running ops and weight and balance, CG, etc..checking people in..loading and downloading the pax/bags..cleaning and making coffee..doing the trash..it's a full plate with 3 guys per shift (4 on a good day).
Add to that de-icing or OSO operations or 70+ less-than-pleased pax you have to re-book alone and it can make for much needed post-shift nap.
Anyway the ATR, by yourself on the ramp or with a buddy to catch the bags even, is my personal vote...sure got spoiled with the E145's....
Pilotboi From United States, joined Sep 2007, 2240 posts, RR: 10 Reply 21, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 12087 times:
Quoting Clipper136 (Reply 8): Once did a Military Charter......ATA L1011. 380 pax.....BULK LOADED.......first and last time.......Pain in the A$$.
Oh I completly forgot about that. I also did an ATA military charter. But mine was a 757. About 200 military bags and back packs, plus some other gear. Every few minutes they'd throw small bottles of water up and we'd down them in 5 seconds flat.
Qfyvr From Canada, joined Apr 2008, 14 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 11564 times:
I would have to say the worst I ever did was a Skyservice (First Choice) 757-200 with magic carpet inop and 300+ mexican bags in the middle of winter. That or the Antonov AN-124 bulk loaded with 300,000+ shoe boxes from Nike.
KLASM83 From United States, joined Aug 2005, 275 posts, RR: 0 Reply 25, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 11504 times:
Quoting Transpac787 (Reply 7):
We at DEN are pretty bad..... but ASE is the wors
Quoting Mtsuatc (Reply 17):
I 2nd that. I worked out there last winter. Every flight at least 120-130 bags, around 20-30 skis and snowboards, and a ton of heavies.
I thus shall third that. Having also worked there last winter, it was rather a pain to load the copious amounts of stuff those people always carried with them into the back of a CR7 (at least I lost 20 pounds doing it... ). Indeed every flight would have 120-130, etc, but if the winds got just right (it was a one way in one way out airport, take off on 33, land on 15) 90-100 of those bags (and skies and..) got left. Twas entertaining to see the mountains of bags left by the end of a bad windy day.
Ah the memories of ASE. How I do miss the snow, CR7's and daily workout.
How to fix Avidyne: throw open the switches on the sonic oscilator, and step up the reactor three more points.
VANGUARD737 From United States, joined Aug 2001, 596 posts, RR: 6 Reply 27, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 11445 times:
At ATA, loading a morning 737-800 MDW-GDL was hell-on-Earth. Imagine a maxed-out pit with almost no actual luggage. Everything was in trash bags with duct tape wrapped around it or in ALDI plastic bags. But I especially hated those oversized duffle-type bags that smelled like bad cheese and weighed 80lbs.
Also, thanks to our 757-300's having those "sliding-carpet" things, one person had the joy of stacking pits 1 & 2 or 3 & 4 all on their own!
Wn676 From United States, joined Jun 2005, 274 posts, RR: 2 Reply 28, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 11322 times:
US140 PHX-ANC. It operates with an A319. I had a flight about a month ago that had initially 120 bags and about 9,000 lbs of cargo. All kinds of stuff too, from school books to drill bits to car tires. And mysterious long poles. We bulked out the front with 80 bags, started loading the back with all the cargo. We got the other 40 bags loaded in the aft which were pretty much stacked to the door when another 20 showed up out of nowhere at 9 minutes before push. I don't know how we made it fit, but we got it out with everything loaded...
And it's like that just about every single day.
Tiny, unreadable text leaves ample room for interpretation
F9Animal From United States, joined Dec 2004, 3400 posts, RR: 35 Reply 30, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 10524 times:
I have loaded a DL 767-200 with NFL gear. No cans, manual load. And trying to not break your neck on the rollers was not fun either. Oh man, that was a mess.
I have had the pleasure of loading a North American 767 with military gear too. No cans either.
The 737-800 is a pain with no magic carpet.
The 757 without magic carpet.
And the winner..... The MD-80. The bin is just about high enough to have your head and neck tilted to one side, and trying to lug a 80 lb. piece of baggage is no easy task. Not fun at all.
NWAESC From United States, joined Aug 2007, 1898 posts, RR: 2 Reply 31, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 10395 times:
Quoting Clipper136 (Reply 8): Once did a Military Charter......ATA L1011. 380 pax.....BULK LOADED.
I've done that a couple of times myself... And a couple of charters to the Rose Bowl. You gotta love the warped plexiglas sheets they had on the floors...
Quoting Contrails15 (Reply 11): twice this year we have had 52 and 58 gate checks that at least I know of. Is this normal, has any of you had to deal with that on any of your flights??????
It's not normal, and thankfully, no I haven't had to see that!
Planesavvy From United Kingdom, joined Jul 2007, 32 posts, RR: 0 Reply 32, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 10290 times:
I remember doing an Ethiopian 757 one hour turnaround with 250 bag/ 7 ton cargo offload and 350 bag/ 3 ton cargo onload. There were only two us in the holds. I was new to the company and eager to impress... sucker!!
YXXMIKE From Canada, joined Apr 2008, 163 posts, RR: 0 Reply 33, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 9935 times:
One of the biggest dog show's in North America is held at Tradex a facility right beside YXX and that would hands down be the worst weekend of the year. I remember pulling out almost a dozen dogs out of the front of a 737 and most of them smelled like crap after their flights. Trying not to puke once the door was open was hard enough but being put inside to move the cages was a terror.
Hockey charters are also hell, usually 727 or 737's, the skate sharpening kit is a pain in the a$$ to move!!! Haha, working the GA ramp at YVR is a much easier gig, just grab a couple of Prada suit cases and walk out to the GIV!
Contrails15 From United States, joined Oct 2008, 459 posts, RR: 0 Reply 34, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 9882 times:
Quoting KingAir200 (Reply 23): Any flight going to or departing from MCO. I don't think you can make it though an MCO flight without at least 10 strollers.
JFK-MCO we had 19 strollers with 5 or 6 car seats gatechecked and dont even get me started with the strollers weighing 20lbs of solid steal or those feakin jogging strollers with the large tires on it for wheels. you gotta hold them over heard to get them up and down the jetbridge.
Xdlx From United States, joined Aug 2008, 135 posts, RR: 0 Reply 35, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 12 hours ago) and read 9291 times:
Many Many moons ago, I worked next to an outfit that did W/B on B727 for AF.
The route was PAP-SJU-POP, the pax ( was always full ) luggage consisted of
cardboard boxes ( stove size ) taped toghether @ 70lbs each. I remember seeing
the mighty Boeing swallow 5 or 6 carts of boxes. Very seldom would anything be
left behind. What a workhorse!
LHR777 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 36, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 12 hours ago) and read 9267 times:
Loose-load A321, routing LHR to pretty much any former BMED (now BMI) destination. The multi-stop flights were the worst.
You'd had to load the final destination in the nose, and the first stop in the rear hold, for trim purposes out of the first stop, as nobody was going to re-trim at 3 in the morning in a remote station. Then you'd get all the bags on, and have 10 tons of loose priority courier shipments arrive, which are 'must-load' priority, so you'd end up offloading something. Invariably, the aircraft would push-back within 100KG of MTOW, with around 7 tons of cargo/courier/baggage sitting on the ramp, because you just cannot fit it in the available hold space.
XPJets From United States, joined Feb 2007, 89 posts, RR: 0 Reply 37, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 8775 times:
Quoting NWAESC (Reply 2): *Any flight going to MNL, or since we're going with non-containerized flights, any flight with a large number of MNL bags on it.
More like "any flight with a large number of MNL boxes on it". Flights going to MNL seldom have bags per se
Captaink From Mexico, joined May 2001, 4361 posts, RR: 15 Reply 40, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 9 hours ago) and read 8023 times:
Quoting Contrails15 (Thread starter): Okay, I mainly want to know non can bellies and looking for a/c of more then 100 seats but give me what you got. I ask this because everday I'm doing JFK-SDQ or JFK-STI which btw we had going down there on E-190's which sucked but for right now the biggest pain in the a$$ to load right now is a tie between the two in the above mentioned. Average right now, 252 bags with anywhere from 20-45 gate checks on a A320. Oh and EVERY bag weighs 50lbs with the exception of a very few weighing less. Okay, so lets here your horror flights to load, maybe I'll feel better hearing them LOL.
MD80s are a pain in the ass to load. I was a CSA, but I used to hang out with my buddies on the ramp, and have crawled into a number of baggage holds, and the MD is among the most cramped and uncomfortable. In the Caribbean bags all to the limit is a daily and normal occurrence, and you are lucky you are around when the limit is 50. It was 70 before and some airlines allowed a little overweight for a fee.
Goldenshield From United States, joined Jan 2001, 4056 posts, RR: 13 Reply 44, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 6562 times:
Quoting F9Animal (Reply 30): I have loaded a DL 767-200 with NFL gear. No cans, manual load. And trying to not break your neck on the rollers was not fun either. Oh man, that was a mess.
How about 3 manually loaded pallets of kayaks going to a competition? I've done that one. It wasn't fun.
"I heard that there are rumors on the internets" -- G. W. Bush at the second 2004 debate
Braby From United Kingdom (England), joined Mar 2007, 104 posts, RR: 0 Reply 45, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 6 hours ago) and read 6152 times:
Worst i've ever done was an AH 767 turnaround, over 900 bags outbound on alone, most of which were bulk loaded in compartments 1 and 3 due to a lack of containers.
Bulk loaded A321's come a close second though, 5 ton of cargo and 200 bags inbound with about the same load outbound in 50 mins every saturday afternoon. Nice!
S5LineATL From United States, joined Dec 2007, 24 posts, RR: 0 Reply 47, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 5427 times:
Ha Ha I scoff at you all!..(please imagine that being said in a funny voice or the satire just seems mean)
Bulk loading an Omni Air DC10 or a World MD11 on an expansion mission is a real treat! Imagine 385 soldiers with all there gear. That's roughly 900 MOLLY packs, C bags, weapons ,backpacks, and there PPE ( bulletproof helments, vests etc) and the platoons medical records and admin files. I nearly crapped myself seeing 2 semi trucks pulling up to the airplane.
Also loading the Budwiser Clydsdales on a 747 is pretty fun, as well as loading and unloading the 6 747's carrying the formula 1 race teams when they came to town.
I would have to say the worst though was trying to load all of CNN's crap when they went to Iraq the first time. It's was like playing tetris with a hummer and a cargo door.
AirFranceJFK From United States, joined Jan 2002, 437 posts, RR: 0 Reply 48, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 5281 times:
Just about all "ethnic" flights from the U.S. could technically fall in this category.
Having worked North American Airlines' flight to GEO/STI/SDQ with a B757, it was not uncommon to see 350+ bags in the belly along with 20 gate checks, mail and general cargo. Flights to LOS and ACC on the B767 were also packed to the rafters with 600+ bags during the holiday season.
At Air France, the AF007 (7:45pm departure from JFK to CDG) would be packed to the rim (think 900+ bags) with passengers connecting onward to West Africa, especially, ABJ, DKR, CKY, BKO & OUA. NIM, LOS, NKC, FIH and BZV were also up there.
A few other heavy flights I can think of are:
Air Jamaica (particularly the Kingston flights)
Caribbean Airlines
TACA
AVIANCA
EgyptAir
TACV Cabo Verde Airlines (BOS to SID)
Stil From Spain, joined Apr 2006, 341 posts, RR: 2 Reply 49, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 5270 times:
Hi.
I'll never forget an A321 with 250 bags. The aircraft brought only two ULDs and it wasn't prepared for bulk storage. Before asking permission to the company's engineer, we loaded the 2 AKH on positions 2 and 4 of the 5 available positions on aft hold. The other 3 positions were filled with bags to the hold ceiling. The captain said "oh, my God. This guy is playing Tetris!". But we didn't leave any bag behind...
F9Animal From United States, joined Dec 2004, 3400 posts, RR: 35 Reply 50, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 5002 times:
Quoting Contrails15 (Reply 34): JFK-MCO we had 19 strollers with 5 or 6 car seats gatechecked and dont even get me started with the strollers weighing 20lbs of solid steal or those feakin jogging strollers with the large tires on it for wheels. you gotta hold them over heard to get them up and down the jetbridge.
Oh yeah!! I got a better one! LOL!
15 friggin gate checked wheelchairs! Most were the heavy electric ones. The entire ramp team had to go up to the gate, and drive them to the elevators, down to the ramp, and disconnect from there. It was a complete disaster. It was some type of special Olympics team. We were exhausted, and it felt like an eternity to get it done. I have no idea if we broke any faa regs on that, but it was a workout for sure.
LHR777 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 51, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 4927 times:
Quoting F9Animal (Reply 50): We were exhausted, and it felt like an eternity to get it done. I have no idea if we broke any faa regs on that, but it was a workout for sure
...and that's what we do in this industry - whatever it takes to get the job done.
FlyDeltaJets From United States, joined Feb 2006, 1242 posts, RR: 1 Reply 52, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 4149 times:
757 is easy to me....all you need is a second person. The hard one is a full 737-800. That Aft compartment seems so long and no matter where you are at the door or packing your back will be sore when you are finished. My back is starting to twinge just talking about the experience.
Position and hold runway one three right landing traffic on runway two two left
F9Animal From United States, joined Dec 2004, 3400 posts, RR: 35 Reply 53, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 4039 times:
Quoting FlyDeltaJets (Reply 52): 757 is easy to me....all you need is a second person. The hard one is a full 737-800. That Aft compartment seems so long and no matter where you are at the door or packing your back will be sore when you are finished. My back is starting to twinge just talking about the experience.
Yes! And when you are at the door throwing the luggage or freight to the guy stacking, every bag seems to stop mid point. I would get so frustrated with the leather suit cases that do not slide at all on the floor. Yes, the back twinges just thinking about loading that plane. I did a few sports teams on the DL 737-800, and that was so painful. Especially baseball teams, with their bags full of bats.
Acey559 From United States, joined Jan 2007, 793 posts, RR: 3 Reply 54, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 3743 times:
I agree that MD-80/DC-9 series aircraft are crap to load, especially if you didn't bring your knee pads to work that day. I only had to do one G4 charter out of MLI, but that was enough for me. The E-Jets are pretty crappy too, along the lines of a DC-9. I actually don't mind the CRJs, they have a plenty big bin and usually there isn't too much of a problem. The worst was this past summer when we had a lot of ATL delays and one CRJ-200(!) showed up with 107 bags stuffed into the bin. That was fun. I don't mind the -700, but the forward bin does do a number on the back of your head, and I always manage to pinch my finger in the stupid latch. One of the worst flights I've worked was a UA Express CR7 coming from ORD. There are usually always a lot of bags coming from Asia on the RON aircraft and I swear that all 17 bags coming from HKG had whole raw fish in them! Of course, it was my turn to get in the bin and even at 11:00 at night it was still a good 85 or so degrees, so all in all it was a pretty crappy night, and I smelled like fish for the next day and a half...
Fleet Service From United States, joined Apr 2000, 589 posts, RR: 2 Reply 55, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 3518 times:
Delta doesn't have carpets on the 738? Ouch.
I know it doesn't fall into the original posters category, but the F100 was a cast iron b!tch to load.You'd literally be laying on your back in that damn plane heaving bags and the slope in there wasn't any fun either.
We used to run them LGA-YYZ and those things were packed to the gills.Lots of IOM bags...ugh.
Some of the worst flights I've ever loaded were JFK-CCS many many years ago on a 757,thing was always cubed out and we'd leave a minimum of 2 carts behind every day.Monster bags, the hernia makers!
BGI-JFK was another pig to catch, you'd have 225 bags and 5 thousand pounds of produce coming off that 57.
Anything going to FLA is going to be loaded with strollers, golf clubs and other assorted fun bags.
Anyone gotten a PBA tour flight? 100 bowling ball bags plus the baggage...good times!
You want some fun? Try loading SDQ or POP in the bagroom! 20+ containers of stench ridden brick filled bags.
Good thing I love my job!
Yes, I actually *do* work for an airline,how about you?
15 friggin gate checked wheelchairs! Most were the heavy electric ones. The entire ramp team had to go up to the gate, and drive them to the elevators, down to the ramp, and disconnect from there. It was a complete disaster. It was some type of special Olympics team. We were exhausted, and it felt like an eternity to get it done. I have no idea if we broke any faa regs on that, but it was a workout for sure.
Oh yes the electric wheelchair. Now I'm thankfull everyday of my life that I'm healthy but one flight we had a wheelchair, an electric one come off of an inbound SEA flight. Now, this thing was made in the 60's. The freakin thing was dead weight and normally we would bring it to one of two elevators and bring it up to the plane for the customer. Well...... both elevators were inop and we had a heavy flight to off load and of course were shorthanded. There was no way I was carrying that thing up the stairs because I felt it was a safety issue and there was no other way to get it up. I brought it to Baggage Service Office at the bagagge claim and told them to call the gate and let the customer know that it will be waiting for them there because of elevators being in op. The customer had a fit and wanted to sue us for a disabilitys law or something cuz we didnt bring it up to her. Now, she may be right but I'm not endangering me or my crew with lifting that wheelchair up. She never sued and everything was explaind to her as to why it wasn't brought to her.
DTWAGENT From United States, joined Jan 2006, 1254 posts, RR: 0 Reply 57, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days ago) and read 2807 times:
Ok please help me understand some things. What are Gate Checks? And which aircraft is the best to load/unload. As for the weight of bags. I can see bags going from MCO to any where will be heavy because of all the junk people have bought at all the theme parks.
Contrails15 From United States, joined Oct 2008, 459 posts, RR: 0 Reply 58, posted (1 year 3 weeks 2 days ago) and read 2726 times:
Quoting DTWAGENT (Reply 57): Ok please help me understand some things. What are Gate Checks? And which aircraft is the best to load/unload. As for the weight of bags. I can see bags going from MCO to any where will be heavy because of all the junk people have bought at all the theme parks.
Chuck
Gate checks are anything that a customer wants to be put in the belly of the aircraft but will having waiting for them on the jetbridge when they gate to there destination. Now of course this is within reason. Bags must fit in the overhead compartment or under the seat in front of you. There are measuring stations to see if your bag will fit. If it doesnt, we put a yellow tag on it and you claim it in the baggage claim. Strollers, wheelchairs, canes ect ect are very common gate checks. As far as the best plane to load, anything that you can stand in for me but it just depands on how many bags you get and how heavy they are thats the issue. Thats why I made this post is too see all the ramp suffering out there and the responses have mad me laugh so thank you all for your great posts. Your a gate agent though, or your name says so, so you should know the deal.
AirGabon From Switzerland, joined Dec 2003, 544 posts, RR: 4 Reply 63, posted (1 year 3 weeks 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 2056 times:
Former AF B747-300 flight routing once weekly from CDG to PAP (Haiti) and PTP... A real nightmare, totally full flights with excess baggages and weird stuffs to check-in as pieces of axle car!
CB97 From Canada, joined Mar 2008, 82 posts, RR: 0 Reply 64, posted (1 year 3 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 1864 times:
Which airport is it that shrink wraps the bags? Is it Abu Dhabi? I would like to meet the person that thought that one up... They are nearly impossible to move at the best of times because you have nothing to grip, but add a little bit of rain or snow and good luck!
As far as packing a/c types, the E190 is the worst, hands down. Nothing like turning yourself into a pretzel trying to stack oversize and overweight bags... I'm short so I don't mind the RJ's too much, although the front bins on the 700's and 900's are a bit of a pain. I'll take a 319 any day of the week though, I can bend at the waist and walk around those without any trouble.
Katwspotter From United States, joined Feb 2007, 144 posts, RR: 0 Reply 65, posted (1 year 3 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 1813 times:
Quoting CB97 (Reply 64): Which airport is it that shrink wraps the bags? Is it Abu Dhabi? I would like to meet the person that thought that one up... They are nearly impossible to move at the best of times because you have nothing to grip, but add a little bit of rain or snow and good luck!
I had 3 bags from MSP come in that way because Customs couldnt get the bags zipped up and closed again...the pax wanted me to take a damage claim but when I explained to them why they were the way they were they just laughed and l understood and left.
KingAir200 From Palau, joined May 2006, 1187 posts, RR: 2 Reply 67, posted (1 year 3 weeks 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 1697 times:
Quoting AirGabon (Reply 66): I thought 320series were all containerized for luggage??
Containers are common on 320s in other parts of the world, but in the US, I don't think anyone uses cans on 320s. I know NWA doesn't, and I believe US and UA don't either.
NWAESC From United States, joined Aug 2007, 1898 posts, RR: 2 Reply 68, posted (1 year 3 weeks 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 1530 times:
Quoting CB97 (Reply 64): Which airport is it that shrink wraps the bags? Is it Abu Dhabi? I would like to meet the person that thought that one up... They are nearly impossible to move at the best of times because you have nothing to grip, but add a little bit of rain or snow and good luck!
Them and the people that decided putting Armor All on hard side bags was a good idea...
Quoting KingAir200 (Reply 67): Containers are common on 320s in other parts of the world, but in the US, I don't think anyone uses cans on 320s. I know NWA doesn't, and I believe US and UA don't either.
Contrails15 From United States, joined Oct 2008, 459 posts, RR: 0 Reply 69, posted (1 year 3 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 1441 times:
Cheers
Mats[/quote]
[quote=KingAir200,reply=67]Containers are common on 320s in other parts of the world, but in the US, I don't think anyone uses cans on 320s. I know NWA doesn't, and I believe US and UA don't either.
[/quote
Jetblue doesn't either although I wish we did sometimes.
B777LRF From Bahrain, joined Nov 2008, 130 posts, RR: 1 Reply 70, posted (1 year 3 weeks 11 hours ago) and read 1144 times:
Bah, all this is just too easy! You try loading a An-124 with 85 tons of Playstation II consoles, and not a single ULD in sight, by hand! Took the best part of 12 hours. You could also try loading an An-225 with 3 main-deck loaders (FMC 30); that's quite hard work too.
TW741 From Liechtenstein, joined Sep 2004, 441 posts, RR: 0 Reply 72, posted (1 year 3 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 1060 times:
Remember 2 times that have been pretty hard to load (both TW)
767-200 - all container positions with almost 11 tons of cargo except door position in forward hold which was for the 1st class bags - no uld's left for Y bags - all bags into aft hold and all along the cans (LD3's) - that was tough to squeeze those oversized bags alongside the ULD's. Sure not compliant with any rules but flight was bringing in money
and 727-200 - again full with freight and only the space fwd the front cargo door and aft of the rear cargo door for bags - again we ended up squeezing bags in any available space alongside the freight. Though the colleagues at FRA weren't amused they managed to transfer both bags and cargo to the L1011 (we had those "plane change enroute" flights feeding into FRA for onward to JFK).
But loading 85 tons of Playstations without ULD's - sure you had a lot to play around until those were in the AN-124
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From United States, joined Oct 2008, 459 posts, 
From Canada, joined Nov 2007, 500 posts, 
From Palau, joined May 2006, 1187 posts, 
). Indeed every flight would have 120-130, etc, but if the winds got just right (it was a one way in one way out airport, take off on 33, land on 15) 90-100 of those bags (and skies and..) got left. Twas entertaining to see the mountains of bags left by the end of a bad windy day.
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From Spain, joined Apr 2006, 341 posts, 
I don't mind the -700, but the forward bin does do a number on the back of your head, and I always manage to pinch my finger in the stupid latch. One of the worst flights I've worked was a UA Express CR7 coming from ORD. There are usually always a lot of bags coming from Asia on the RON aircraft and I swear that all 17 bags coming from HKG had whole raw fish in them! Of course, it was my turn to get in the bin and even at 11:00 at night it was still a good 85 or so degrees, so all in all it was a pretty crappy night, and I smelled like fish for the next day and a half...
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