KDENPilot

Just as a reminder to you passenger guys, you're allowed to ride on FedEx as long as you're in CASS and have a reciprocal agreement with us. I believe that all of the majors and most, if not all, of the regionals are. There's a few hoops you have to jump through with us, and we can't take walk-ups, but with a little bit of planning, we can be an effective, safer way to get to work, or wherever you need to go. No TSA headaches, either. You might have a lengthy connection in MEM, IND, EWR or OAK depending on time of day and where you're going, but it's not that bad.

BlueSkiesAhead

I've always had great experiences riding on both FedEx and UPS...great crews! Only problem is that it can be a real pain to get from the cargo ramp to the terminal in most places. Outside of that, not dealing with the TSA sure is nice!

Flyin'Finn

I'm pretty much even with JS karma. I've given out a few, but unfortunately have taken away one also. Felt bad, both in a bind trying to make it, so I pulled rank. So the following month a CA (who I actually know) bumped me, but this was all done with understanding the situation, no bad feelings.

To keep the account above the water line, I gots to pay it forward again. Then I can call karma my b!tch. Thanks for playing.

ToiletDuck

So true there is Jumpseat Karma!

KLM pilot

Reading this post, please allow me to share my own experience of exceptional jumpseat gallantry.


Many moons ago (around 1999) I jumpseated with NW from AMS to DTW and then onward to IND ( working for CHQ at the time) Arriving at the airplane in AMS the crew was exceptionally nice and even apologetic for only being able to offer a seat in economy. Arriving in DTW I proceeded to the gate for the flight to IND. Sure enough, here was the FO from the previous flight as well, trying to jumpseat home. I guess NW had a policy of only allowing the amount of jumpseaters consistend with tha actual amount of jumpseats onboard.
I was shear out of luck and resigned to take the next flight home when this gentlemen out of the blue offered to take one of his passes and ride in the back so I could take his jumpseat. Very gallantry. During the flight to IND we actually ended up sitting next to one another as the captain offered me a seat in the back. We got to talk and I mentioned that once arriving in IND I had to wait for a bit for my wife to get of work and pick me up at the airport. He then offered to even drive me home. How nice can I guy get?
During the drive home I mentioned that he seemed very familiar. It turned out he was the squadron commander of some ANG KC135 outfit just north of IND. He had been on the news a few weeks prior due to his outfit deploying to Yugoslavia or some place. We got to talk about being an airline pilot and running a squadron on the side. The man was so cool, mentioning how he owed the airforce for his training and wanting to do something back.

Ten years later this guy is still on the front of my mind when I read stories about jumpseating . Back then the internet forums weren’t as commonplace as they are today. If somebody knows the guy in question I would appreciate it if they could pass along my admiration, He was a gentleman ( I think the place was called Grissom I could be wrong though).


greetings from a KLM pilot

dojetdriver

That was pretty cool of him. Although I always found it funny when the legacies has those policies, you show up, and one of their own pilots is using the JS because he doesn't want to pay to ride. Which is fine, it's his airline. But it's not until you offer up to pay for his pass that he decides take himself off the JS, use a pass, and free it up for the offline guy trying to get home or to work.

A friend of mine was in that boat once where the company JS'er didn't wanna budge. The CA asked the guy from his own company why he wasn't using a pass. The JS'er was a CA after all, wasn't going to break him. Bear in mind, this was pre 9/11, and paychecks/stubs were mailed to your house. Also, the pay stub showed deductions for pass travel, as well as the segment.

Turns out, the guy was going to go visit his girlfriend and didn't want his wife looking at his paystub and asking questions about the deduction/segment. Too funny.

iPilot

Ok story time:

I was friends with this guy when we both interned at a major airline together. He was nice enough but he kind of thought he knew more about said airline than the people who actually worked there (often leading to some spectacular discussions).

Anyway he, like all of us, jumpseated every chance we got and this one weekend he got stranded and had to take a super early flight back before work. He got bumped from the one and only flight back that Sunday.

An FO for another company was trying to get home or go to work or something but my buddy was trying to pull rank. Since, of course, employees of the company operating the flight gets priority. That includes him, at least that's how he saw it.

So after a discussion with the captain and much citing of company policy the captain thought about this for a moment and decided that my friend was technically correct. As payback for this "favor" the captain handed my buddy a $10 and had him run up to get lattes for himself and his FO at the starbucks in the terminal. Eager to please my friend ran up the jetway.

Coming back with a few minutes until departure my friend looks out in horror as the plane is about to be pushed back. You see, another bit of regulation that he didn't consider was that, with the captain's discretion, they could depart 10 mins early if everyone was onboard. So while the lattes were brewing everyone boarded quickly, the other jumpseat guy hoped on, and away they went leaving the smarmy intern behind.

To this day he's a little resentful about the whole thing but after working the line for a bit he came to realize how much of a dork he was for bumping the FO. I, however, laugh my ars off every time I think of the clever captain's ploy to a sticky situation.