I'm a firm believer that jumpseat/non-rev karma goes a long way. Help someone in need out and it will pay off for you someday. Screw someone over and it will come back to bite you!
Agreed...though I did have a time when i did someone a favor to build some karma and it bit me in the ass.
When I went to sleep there were two flights that would get me there and I had the jumpseat reserved on the first one with tons of empty seats on both. When I woke up, the second one was canceled, but I was still good with the first one.
Showed up at the gate, checked in with plenty of time to be told the aircraft was in maintenance. They said it would be delayed but I'd still get there on time.
A mainline pilot shows up and we get to talking. We all pretty much knew each other because of how often we run into each other commuting. Finally the flight gets pushed back far enough that I'm going to be late (just long call reserve converted to short call). They are very nice and tell me "no big deal, just keep us updated".
Finally it gets pushed back late enough that the first flight coming from Atlanta will arrive and depart before the flight on which I have a jumpseat reserved. The mainline guy is going to an actual trip and will be late if he doesn't get on the flight, so I let him take the first one. The logic being "I still have the jumpseat reserved on this one that they're fixing.
To reinforce that logic we're told "ok, its fixed. They just need to do an engine run up to make sure it is fixed and it should leave 30 mins after the first flight.
They start the run up and right after the first flight pushed back, we are told the engine run up didn't work and the flight is now cancelled.
End up calling crew scheduling to "keep them updated" and end up getting an unavailable on reserve because I was honest with them. Had I not said anything, nothing would have happened because they didn't have a trip. The scheduler tells me "because you're listed as unavailable on reserve, you might as well just go home". But to show that I was actually trying, I showed up anyway, only an hour and 45 mins late.
Talked to the CP and was told "it is what it is".
That being said, I still try to build karma wherever I can. I still know I did the right thing. Ended up sitting 4 days on short call reserve (no crashpad yet) without being called. I bugged the heck out of them for flying and they even told me "we're not going to need you, but we can't put you back on long call reserve".
Those 4 days were the closest I've been to quitting since I started working here.
