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So I saw a related post on FlightInfo and it piqued my curiousity about the topic. Here are my questions:
1. Do major airlines just take anyone with a 135 ID, or does your carrier have to have an agreement with them?
2. If it is available, do they actually let you have the jumpseat, or just a seat in back?
3. Is this all the same for FedEx and UPS?
Thanks.
CJ
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My info is somewhat dated since I've been out of the airline business for a while:
Answers:
1. Depends on the airline. Most require a reciprocal agreement. I used to jump on United and at the time, the order for riding was: A) FAA/NTSB, etc, B) UAL crew, C) reciprocal agreement crew, D) any 121/135 carrier crew.
2. Used to depend on the airline and the Captain. I jumped Southwest one time, and the rule was that (like United) they could only carry as many jumpers as there were jumpseats. Capt let me onboard and told me to grab whatever is available in the back since the jumpseat was full. I go back there, and there's 12 other jumpseaters from various airlines back there shooting the bull. Another time, went on United, and the Capt was adamant that he had only one seat and it was full. So it depends.
Nowdays, most of the crap is changed due to the incompetent TSA acting like they invented the concept of airline jumpseating, and all the scared sheep in the government afraid to let the "market" (airlines) handle jumpseating as they did before.
3. Only jumped with UPS, and the rules were pretty much the same, though they tended to have fewer jumpseaters on their planes, since we had to meet the crew at the cargo terminal out of the way of the normal airline crews, and being their contract carrier, we generally already knew which planes were going where and when.
MD