Ladies and Gentlemen this is your pilot speeking – has any1 got £7,000 I can borrow?

Yes, I agree about the “on the hoof” nature of diversions and the need for speed.

I would guess the corporate card idea is a must. Also, as a congtingency, why not store a suitable sum of cash (say USD 10,000) in the flight deck?

I am fairly certain that the RAF give their pilots cash in a similar way (though it is in gold coinage or Kruger Rands or something like that).

Don’t know anything about the insurance set up.

Charter airlines have routes that they ply on a regular basis, eg Mediterannean, Canaries, North Africa, etc. Whenever we are in these places it is rare to have fuel problems as the arrangements are frequently used. Occasionally we get chartered for ad hoc flights to places where we are an unknown quantity and people tend to be suspicious of you as they have never heard of you before. Some of these places can be notorious for dodgy dealings and will treat you with comtempt regardless of the quality of the plastic in your wallet. Alternatively you may have to divert into somewhere remote due to a variety of things (eg medical diversion) and now you need to get fuel from someone who has never heard of you at a moments notice. Having a BP,etc card is all well and good when you are trying to buy a car tank full of unleaded but it’s a bit of a different kettle of fish if you want 100 tonnes of go juice and your free glasses vouchers from Mustafa in the desert!

What I am trying to say is that the office minions cannot prepare for every eventuality (particularly in the case of an unscheduled diversion) so a lot of commercial aviation has to take place on the hoof and we make it up as we go along. The passengers rarely know what we go through to get them from A to B. I have even had a gun aimed at me by a security guard trying to bribe us at Cairo International. I think there is a valid point in raising the credit limit on a company issued Captains credit card to an amount that can buy enough fuel to get the aircraft home (but dare I mention it, that is perhaps a lack of awareness by the accountants! 😉 )

There is an issue here that has not been raised that is very significant. As soon as we divert another sector is added to the total number for the day. This brings down the available amount of duty hours we are permitted to perform so the need to refuel quickly is imperative in order to be able to get out quickly and return home. Negotiations between a fuel company and an airline’s home base will consume time that could cause the crew to have to stop and rest for a period that will effectively ensure a minimum of 13 hours delay before the flight can depart again. If this is the case I’d rather borrow a money from the passengers, get home and sort out the finances later, wouldn’t you?

regards
wys

We had an unscheduled stop in Nantes with Airtours a few back when they had their MD-83’s. The captain made a joke about a whip around on our flight, well we thought it was a joke at the time! Caused a little delay while the payment were sorted out but it was eventually sorted somehow, either the captain paid or he sorted it with the Airtours office.

How do the arrangements work for these things?

I would have assumed that an airline will buy all their fuel in bulk from one (or two) companies like BP or Elf or whoever – so their credit would be good at any outlet of BP or Elf, the same way you can get a petrol company chargecard in the UK?

Secondly, it might be an idea for Capts to be issued corportate credit cards for contingency use? That’s what normally happens in industry when employees might need to spend cash on employers’ behalf.

Thirdly, do charter airlines have in-house insurance divisions? I have recently been spending my CPD hours looking into Captive Insurance schemes, which is when a company effectively insures itself by setting up an insurance subsidiary which buys insurance wholesale from the market. Apparently a lot of airlines have these.

This situation happens more often than you might think. I can think of at least three other occasions in the last 10 years to UK airlines. Credit facilities (in this case for fuel) are notoriously fickle things. Everyone has had a card that wont swipe or something similar at some point. With regard to the Captain paying the bill, how do you know he had the capability to? I don’t personally carry the capability to pay that sort of bill and even if I did I don’t think I would.

Originally posted by mongu
Yes, but the Captain would simply have claimed the money back on expenses. I think it was very unprofessional to ask passengers to deal with it.

i agree….very unproffesional…even Air India wont do such a thing!

Yes, but the Captain would simply have claimed the money back on expenses. I think it was very unprofessional to ask passengers to deal with it.

well i cant speak for you guys but i for one wouldnt be keen on putting 7 grand on my own credit card!!

a situation like this featured on easyJets airline programme a few years ago, the flight headed towards Nice was instructed to hold due to poor visibility and the flight wasnt carrying the fuel to hold for the necessary time so the flight diverted to Lyon, where easyJet have no handling contracts.

i seem to remember the flight being met by various fuellers, only to discover that the flightcrew had either an expired fuel carne(sort of a written credit note for fuel i believe) or a carne for anothe fuelling company. one of the options therefore was for the flightcrew to either use one of their own credit cards or contact the finance director at easyLand for them to make some rather quick arrangements.

quite amusing the situation really, al though i’d put the £7000 on AMM not laughing about it too much!!1 😀

LGKR

Why didn’t the Captain pay it himself?

I know that is one way of getting home but surely you do not turn to the passengers when you’re in an awkward situation!

Good of the passenger to lend £7000 of his/her own hard-earned cash and I can only hope they received some compensation or a little bonus for their generosity!

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On the other hand, I recently read one of my mum’s many women’s magazines and came across an article about a pensioner who flew with Virgin Atlantic to Los Angeles from Heathrow.

She was sat next to an incredibly obese lady and claims that she was in discomfort. The crew sat her on one of their seats in the galley for a few hours at a time and she had to return to her own seat for turbulence and landing etc.

It turns out that the fat lady’s husband was sat behind and did not have to endure any pain from his severely overweight wife.

Hardly surprising, Granny Nag can no longer walk without a walkig stick.

As a result, Virgin paid out £13,000 compensation.