Deadheading...would you take the jumpseat?

fish1260

fish1260

Well-Known Member
This is just a quick "what would you do" from a situation I ran into recently. I got an ear full for my decision, and I am curious if I was out of line...

The aircraft is a CRJ 700..

Our flight earlier in the day cancelled for MX and I am now deadheading back into base to resume my trip. (Rest of crew stayed with the plane, reserves.). Flight is now way overbooked, and there are two crew members looking for a ride to work, one company FA, and an OAL pilot. I had not met either jumpseater yet, just going low profile for the DH. Agent calls me to the counter and asks if I am willing to take the Jump to get the flight attendant on the airplane. I asked if there are any jumpseaters, if no, then no problem. The agent replies the standby list is a mile long, so again I asked of any are eligible for the Jump. She didn't know, so I logged in to look for myself, yes there were extra computers, I was not in the agents way. There was a pilot listed. I am curious of he is going to or from work, as I was hoping not to screw anybody, but I know the FA is going to work. At this point the plane is mostly boarded, and both jumpseaters are standing at the counter with me. After a bit more discussion about if anyone had another option to get to work, and when show times were things got pretty heated. I had just about enough of trying to help out so I just walked away and took my assigned seat in the cabin (first class, lol). Before closing the door the agent made a point to come on the plane, and for lack of a better word, scold me. Whatever, I took the seat I am contractually entitled to. When we arrived back in base I had a voicemail...from the INFLIGHT! office, telling me to contact them about the incident. I never returned the call, and relayed the message to my union rep, never heard any more about it.

So would you have:

Taken the cabin seat?
Taken the jump?
Tried to get involved and help like I did?
Played ignorant and avoided it all?
 
Did the jumpseater get the cockpit jumpseat? You did your best to help out. I would take my seat and be done with it.
 
If both the FA and the pilot were trying to get to work I would have taken the jumpseat. If she was trying to get to work and he was headed home I wouldn't take the jumpseat.
 
Take my assgined seat and let the gate agent handle which jumpseater gets the jump. FA? Don't care, sorry.
 
If the pilot asked me directly, I most likely would on a domestic. International? Ha... ha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA YEEEEEEEEEEEEAHRIGHT.

FA? Not that I'm a bigot or anything, but nope. I rode on the jumpseat once to help a commuter out once on a long flight, only to turn around, fly with the same crewmember on a flight and listen to her talk smack about how she hates pilots.
 
No other jumpseater, I'll take it to get the FA on. Any other number of JSers, take my seat in back and let the gate agent figure out who gets the JS, just as CRJ said.
 
If I can help somebody out I'd do it. But really the situation comes down to this, do you want to help the flight attendant and leave the pilot by taking the jumpseat, or leave the flight attendant and let the commuting pilot have the jumpseat.

Ideally I'd like to help everybody out, but that's not an option really. I'd do what you did and talk to them, see if one of them has a second option. If not, I'm going to help a fellow pilot out.
 
Typically I would have done what ever got the other pilot(s) on, as I am a commuter and hope the favor is returned some day. But...when it is a company flight attendant it made me think twice since I will likely fly with them in the future. I guess I had hoped they could decide who needed to go more, and I could of made either possible. Next time I'm just taking my seat, lesson learned!
 
I'll take the jumpseat ONLY to get nonrevs on and ONLY at the last minute when I am absolutely sure there are no other pilots from any company requesting it.

I will not take a jump to get a revenue passenger on.
 
juxtapilot said:
I'll take the jumpseat ONLY to get nonrevs on and ONLY at the last minute when I am absolutely sure there are no other pilots from any company requesting it.

I will not take a jump to get a revenue passenger on.
Click to expand...


^^^^THIS^^^^
 
Eh, I don't mind taking the jumpseat for a revenue passenger as long as I'm not tired, as long as the flight isn't too long, and as long as I'm not in for a long day after the deadhead. And as long as there isn't a jumpseater trying to get on, of course.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Eh, I don't mind taking the jumpseat for a revenue passenger as long as I'm not tired, as long as the flight isn't too long, and as long as I'm not in for a long day after the deadhead. And as long as there isn't a jumpseater trying to get on, of course.
Click to expand...

What about Cherokee_Cruiser? :)
 
We have been told time and time again that if we have a space positive ticket that we aren't allowed to take the jumpseat for anyone as we could "lose our jumpseat agreements". Maybe ATN can explain why that is because I never understood it. With that being said, I will only take the jumpseat on MY airline and if it is to get one of our people on AND if there is no other waiting jumpseaters. At the end of the day, if things get dicey and people want to start blaming me, I just always fall on the "I really want to help and I would totally do it for you, but our company has really started cracking down on this...sorry".

And I'm sorry, but there is no flipping way I would allow a gate agent to give me s**t for taking a seat I have a ticket for. I have had some discussions with a few of them over this and it never goes well for them. Either they huff and puff, yank someone off the plane and I take my seat, or they refuse me and when I inform my company they will usually get a visit from their manager who is pissed that a flight is now cancelled or delayed because they didn't let me on the plane. I have zero patients for gate agents with attitude.
 
Well, you're supposed to use your jumpseat privileges as a "personal" benefit.

If you're riding the jumpseat, offline, because your company needs to get you to a specific base, that's bad juju.

If you use it to get to work or to vacay or something, as far as I know, it's kosher.

If it's because your crew trackers told you, as a pilot for ABC Airways, to hop on XYZJet's jumpseat to cover a trip, it is NOT kosher.
 
Pilotdude3407 said:
We have been told time and time again that if we have a space positive ticket that we aren't allowed to take the jumpseat for anyone as we could "lose our jumpseat agreements". Maybe ATN can explain why that is because I never understood it.
Click to expand...

Yep, Derg is right. What you're talking about deals with offline jumpseating. Using another airline's jumpseat for your company's business, saving your company money, is a big no-no. But riding your own company's jumpseat while on a deadhead isn't a big deal, provided that you don't bump a jumpseater in the process.
 
I did once when I was a first year F/O at brand x. The captain I was traveling with gave me a hard time about it, but there were no other jumpseaters so I was OK with it. That was the only time I did it. I had gate agents try and insist that I do it all the time too, especially on those hub to hub deadheads like EWR-IAH or IAH-CLE. It's an easy decision when you see half a dozen people in uniform waiting in the gate area for flights that are usually oversold. I had one gate agent get really pissed at me in CLE because I refused to take the jumpseat on a deadhead in order to get revenue pax on. I would've shafted a commuter out of the jumpseat if I had said yes, but as it was I just said no, laughed, and said "C. U. N.ext T.ime".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top