I had to divert into Sioux Falls, SD one day because of inclement weather in Minneapolis. Rain, snow – I cain’t remember; doesn’t matter. There were a “few” of us who diverted that day, and we all ended up sitting on the ramp.
There were open gates at the airport but because of ‘ownership rights,’ union contracts and other ‘bureaucratic BS,’ we weren’t allowed to use them. So we sat. And we sat. Then we continued to sit some more. For about 4 hours we sat out there, on the ramp.
We had flown to Minneapolis on the early morning flight from Duluth that day, and had no food on board. (Other than those small bags of peanuts.) It was only a 30 -40 minute flight at most. And so we sat, without food. Then the drinks began to run short. and I continued to stare at open gates.
Finally I had had enough. I called our Dispatch and told them something to the affect: “We have now been sitting on the ramp here for 4 hours. We have no food on board. People are beginning to get hungry, and I am staring at open gates. Be advised that we have descendants of the Donner family on board, heading out to Utah for a family reunion, and they are beginning to gaze at the other passengers in a somewhat ‘unnerving’ nature. If I am not assigned a gate within the next 5 minutes, I am going to just pull into one and let the ‘suits’ sort it out.”
Got a gate assignment within the next 2-3 minutes. Thank you!