"held seats" on international travel

sorrygottarunway

Well-Known Member
I guess the search function in MEL'd for the time being-

I'm trying to figure out my way home from Germany after New Year's- I saw that continental has a small handful of seats (11, 9 in 1st), with 32 seats marked as "held" so that they're not part of the "seats available." Do those generally get released on the day of travel? I'm assuming they're due to the fuel load necessary for the westbound travel. I got very stuck last year in July coming back from Frankfurt (I tried delta, United, CAL, got left behind by everyone! Had to pay for a ticket *gasp*) and it makes me reluctant about jumpseating internationally again. What stress that was. Especially since cockpit jumpseats still haven't been finalized (although ALPA has only a few more hurdles until that's possible).

My second question goes to my fellow coair folk- I can't seem to list without it wanting to charge me for both legs- I'm noticing there's no option to "jumpseat" anymore. Do we have to pay to jumpseat internationally on mainline now? Or do we simply go to the gate and ask now. Probably will end up listing for 1st though, since it bumps up one's priority.
 
I unfortunately can't answer all of these.. The one I'm pretty sure about is the mainline int'l jumpseat. Pretty sure you just go up the gate.
 
Roll up to the gate for CAL and have them list you. They will ONLY give you a coach seat (limitation by the computer system it seems) so bring chocolates....magic happens from the crew if you do that.

They removed the jumpseat listing on CoAir a while back.

I'm not 100% in regards to held seats. If it's a 757, it's fuel dependant but I've never had a problem. If it's a 767 there really shouldn't be a problem.

I've jumpsat back and forth to Europe on UA, CAL, and DL and never had any problems.
 
Thanks guys. I'll go and cross my fingers for the held seats thing. I remember back many years ago a US Airways captain counted the J/S as part of the aircraft's BOW, so even though they were weight limited I was lucky enough to get a seat back.
 
Some of the held seats will be for crew rest. Maybe 7-ish. 3 coach seats for the pilot rest and some for the FAs. If there is a seat up front the pilot rest seat goes up there and the 3 in the back get released. The rest are likely for fuel.
 
Roll up to the gate for CAL and have them list you. They will ONLY give you a coach seat (limitation by the computer system it seems) so bring chocolates....magic happens from the crew if you do that.

They removed the jumpseat listing on CoAir a while back.

I'm not 100% in regards to held seats. If it's a 757, it's fuel dependant but I've never had a problem. If it's a 767 there really shouldn't be a problem.

I've jumpsat back and forth to Europe on UA, CAL, and DL and never had any problems.

Personally I'd try a carrier other than CAL. If the gate agents don't deny you 1st class then the FA's will. Seems to be an ongoing battle there.
 
They shouldn't release the Held seats until about -2h ETD. But as a nonrev you may not get a seat assignment until -60.
 
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