Well, after being on duty since 6:30AM (that's excluding the fact that I woke up at 5:15AM, and headed downstairs for the shuttle van ride at 6:15AM), and having to fight through some of the air traffic congestion due to all the inclement weather surrounding the greater southwest, I arrived 30 minutes late on my last flight, ran to the gate that had the San Diego departure only to find out that they closed it 15 minutes prior to departure.  Now, I've been commuting for almost 1 year now and I've never once heard that they close it 15 minutes prior.  Usually its 10 but I just asked another gate agent and he told me 9 minutes.  This is crap.  Now, because of the stupidity of not only statistics of leaving on time, I'm forced to jump seat on a full flight or not get home at all because all remaining flights are booked solid!  Um, of course there were also 20 people that missed the flight because of the weather and their plane arriving later than scheduled.  Now, we're all stuck together hoping that we can get home tonight!  Thanks!  Oh yeah, and I'll have to start paying to "non-revenue" about 1.8 cents a mile + $5.00 a leg.  So, if I want to list for a flight, its going to cost me about $80 a week on top of my miserable salary.  I'm turning into the bitter pilot that I never wanted to be, but this industry in the United States does not take care of their own at all.  No wonder that a bunch of us rather go abroad where we are still part of those that people respect. On the same note, CNN just published an article about the Most Prestigious Jobs in the US.  They list that 50% of all Americans consider nurses as a prestigious career!  Way to chose babe!