Best thing you could ever do for me is deny me the jumpseat to get to work. I've got my commuter policy firmly in hand, so I'll just enjoy my days off. I can't drop a trip to save my life, so you will just be doing it for me!

That being said, I still don't understand the thought process of the regional pilot these days. I've been there, done that, and I would NEVER have thought of commuting to work for a regional. I simply didn't make enough money or have enough time off to make it possible. I moved 3 times with 2 regionals to make sure that I lived in base. The problem with working for a company that doesn't actually pay for seats, fuel, etc. that they fly is that you are at the mercy of the company that pays the bills. Everyone flying for a regional today knew it when they signed up. I certainly did when I was slogging around at the commuters making my $17k a year.

I'm still trying to figure out how you've decided that this is somehow the United PILOTS who are to be held responsible for the travel arrangements with their commuter partners. This is about the 4th time I've been treated to a "denial of jumpseat" threat (and sometimes actually denied the seat) by certain United Express pilots. Sorry, but this does nothing to make me feel threatened. As I mentioned above, not making it to work when I have a commuter policy in the contract is a blessing for me. Keep this in mind, however, when you are appealing for sympathy or action from the United pilot group. In the last decade my airline has shrunk literally in half. Most of my F/O's have been furloughed... many of them twice. During that time, the regionals have literally EXPLODED, flying larger and larger jets, getting hired with less time and less experience. It wasn't that long ago that you had to have several thousand hours of flying checks around before you could even THINK about applying to be a regional F/O for that $20k a year job. Some perspective has been lost over the last 10 years. Yet during all this time of watching more and more express pilots get hired with less and less time, flying more and more of my old routes, I never ONCE denied a UAX pilot the jumpseat. Never ONCE did I do anything other than offer to stow UAX pilots bags in the cockpit and welcome them on board.

It STINKS getting this charge thrown on our UAX pass travelers. I would list how many things Jeff and Glenn have done to mainline employees that STINK, but I don't have enough GB left in my data plan this month to list them all. It's a fight each and every day to push back against the crap that these guys steal from us. Would you like me to cost my pension for you for example??

Feel free to go crazy with fuel burn, denying UAL pilots the jumpseat, flying with the APU on, writing up questionable maint items, etc. etc. The beancounters at UAL are watching. And when they go to your management and say "well, your costs went up 25%. We are going to have to extract that from your contract", where do you think they will take that money from?