Jumpseating and professional courtesy

At my company, it goes like this- Eagle Pilots by seniority, AA pilots by seniority, then everybody else, first-come first serve.

On AA metal, which is often the means many of us displacees use to get to work, it goes AA pilots by seniority, Eagle pilots by seniority, all others first - come first serve.

Our commuter clause does in fact excuse you from punitive actions for missed flying IF you follow the clause to the letter.

It does NOT pay protect you.

Personally, I've ridden the jumpseat to get other NonRevs on board before.

I've also used seniority to trump another Jumpseater going home while I was trying to go to work.

Yes, I value my off time as much as somebody with a family. But no, I won't take a turn's worth pay cut because you're trying to save a few hours going home. Not to mention, were I using only the two required flights to get in on time, voluntarily giving up that jumpseat might leave my ass hanging in the wind if I get bumped next time. The CP office might view that as not actually having two flights prior, per se.

I do try to be kind when I can to accommodate others, but I'm not martyring myself to do it.
 
Wouldn't going from seniority to first come, first served AND a system where you have the ability to book a jumpseat three days prior for going to work and two days prior to going home be beneficial? That's what we have at Southernjets and it works pretty darned good.
 
Doug Taylor said:
Wouldn't going from seniority to first come, first served AND a system where you have the ability to book a jumpseat three days prior for going to work and two days prior to going home be beneficial? That's what we have at Southernjets and it works pretty darned good.
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That's how we do it at ASA sorta. Seniority based unless you reserve it (up to 2 days in advance). Works very well and gives us junior guys (who have less time off) a fighting chance
 
Doug Taylor said:
Wouldn't going from seniority to first come, first served AND a system where you have the ability to book a jumpseat three days prior for going to work and two days prior to going home be beneficial? That's what we have at Southernjets and it works pretty darned good.
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Dunno about that. How exactly does that work?
 
Firebird2XC said:
Dunno about that. How exactly does that work?
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It's just a 800 number we can call. Like say tonight is Friday. I have to go to work on monday night, I can call the 800 number, follow the voice prompts and reserve a jumpseat.

If I was going home, I'd have to wait until tomorrow to do so.

Cuts the guesswork out of the commute almost completely when you're riding your own airline.

Otherwise, it's first-come, first-served at the gate -- if I check in for the flight at the gate and if the jumpseat is not already reserved, I can list for it. The only people that, at that point, can bump me off of it are Feds and people on COBUS, but they've probably prebooked it well in advance.

It's a good system, levels the playing field and you have no situations where you're sitting on the jumpseat, fat dumb and happy then some 1918 post WW-I hire bumps you off of it and then we're on the internet talking about it.
 
Seggy said:
WTF?
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Eh, I read it wrong. It's NONREV they bump us on our own flights. JS, we still get priority. At least we've still got something. So, if you have to ride up front, you get priority, if you ride in the back, it's a "blended" seniority. So, I'd bump Denny on a Pinnacle flight but Doug would bump me. The trick is checking with the gate agents. They tend to favor the mainline guys instead of our guys.
 
Likewise for us. On our aircraft it's our jumpseat. In the back it's based on date of hire between us the other WO and mainline. Then after that it's the contract carriers. I bumped a mainline FA the other day on a 321 because I had an earlier date of hire than her. She got pretty angry and started yelling about damn uppity "commuter" crew. Kind of funny actually.

We can also book our own jumpseats 24 hours in advance. Most people here don't know about that though.
 
BobDDuck said:
I bumped a mainline FA the other day on a 321 because I had an earlier date of hire than her. She got pretty angry and started yelling about damn uppity "commuter" crew. .
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Did she not respect the spiky hair?
 
I think it was the ipod and sunglasses on top of my head that did it. Thank god I left my backpack at home that day.
 
Rocketman99 said:
Wow, that's a rarity. Worked out good for the FA on that flight tho.
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It's not that rare. It's saved me from a last minute bumping out of a js twice. Once with a gate check on a RJ, and once with a cabin check on a mainline. "Sorry dude, your priority would have got you on instead of me had you been at the gate more than 2 minutes prior to departure."
 
Doug Taylor said:
It's a good system, levels the playing field and you have no situations where you're sitting on the jumpseat, fat dumb and happy then some 1918 post WW-I hire bumps you off of it and then we're on the internet talking about it.
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At AMR 15min before push an AMR pilot(AA/Eagle) can't get bumped off the jumpseat by anyone not even a more senior AMR pilot.

The Delta works well if you hold a line, but on RSV most of the time I don't know what flight I will try to take home more then a hour before hand.
 
We have the 15 minute rule too.

I'm surprised more airlines don't have that. Perhaps we should all sit down, "play doctor" with all of out jumpseats agreements and work on a universal solution.
 
BobDDuck said:
Likewise for us. On our aircraft it's our jumpseat. In the back it's based on date of hire between us the other WO and mainline. Then after that it's the contract carriers. I bumped a mainline FA the other day on a 321 because I had an earlier date of hire than her. She got pretty angry and started yelling about damn uppity "commuter" crew. Kind of funny actually.
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Yeah, the nonrev thing is only on our aircraft. We're below mainline and mixed with all the other DCI carriers.
 
BobDDuck said:
We can also book our own jumpseats 24 hours in advance. Most people here don't know about that though.
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Neither do the gate agents, they don't understand if someone is listed for the jumpseat that person has priority in the jumpseat. Shoot, I've had them tell me I can't have the jumpseat when I'm listed as space positive for a line check.
 
Taking the jumpseat to get other non-revs on is always a very nice thing to do. But what about giving it up? I've seen it a few times where a plane is weight restricted and the ramp tells me I can take either another non-rev or a jumpseater, whichever I choose, but not both(another reason to be nice at the gate). Last time I saw it happen there was a VX F/O(young guy complete with spikey hair) trying to go to BOI and 3 VX F/As(looked like pornstars) trying to get there for a batchelorette party. The flight had an alternate and weight restriction and I was told I could take 3 standbys. Its the last flight. The jumpseater went out of his way to tell the ladies they are much more deserving of the flight and even escorted them down to the plane to get hugs in the jetway. He told me that he was pretty confident that karma would come back to him in a most pleasing way. I hope I bump into him again so I can if his prophacy came true.

They were all the same priority, I would have taken the guy ahead of them if he did choose to go, but he had other plans. What do you think about this, yay or nay?
 
ChasenSFO said:
Taking the jumpseat to get other non-revs on is always a very nice thing to do. But what about giving it up? I've seen it a few times where a plane is weight restricted and the ramp tells me I can take either another non-rev or a jumpseater, whichever I choose, but not both(another reason to be nice at the gate). Last time I saw it happen there was a VX F/O(young guy complete with spikey hair) trying to go to BOI and 3 VX F/As(looked like pornstars) trying to get there for a batchelorette party. The flight had an alternate and weight restriction and I was told I could take 3 standbys. Its the last flight. The jumpseater went out of his way to tell the ladies they are much more deserving of the flight and even escorted them down to the plane to get hugs in the jetway. He told me that he was pretty confident that karma would come back to him in a most pleasing way. I hope I bump into him again so I can if his prophacy came true.

They were all the same priority, I would have taken the guy ahead of them if he did choose to go, but he had other plans. What do you think about this, yay or nay?
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It sounds like it was the FO's choice.
 
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