rickair7777

Your first best option on any route is your own company. Next would be any airlines on which you have higher priority and nonrev benefits (ie mainline partners).

Nonrev and JS are two separate things. All US airline pilots can pretty much JS on all US airlines. If the cabin is not full you will ride in the back, otherwise you'll sit in the actual. Some smaller planes (50 seaters, props) are often overweight before the cabin fills up, in which case the JSer is not riding anywhere. Wx at the destination which requires alternate fuel commonly makes a flight overweight. For security reasons, we won't discuss detailed JS procedures, you can get that info from SAPA.

Basically three kinds of Nonrev are available:

1) Company. On company aircraft most employees have priority. Between two company employees it's seniority by DOH, and pilots don't get any special priority...if the janitor was hired the day before you, he rides first. You can normally list and get security docs online just like any revenue pax. A regional employee will likely have to use a mainline partner's nonrev listing system to list on his own airplane.

2) Partners. Regional employees have some priority on their company's mainline partners. This is typically below all mainline employes and their families but above mainline buddy passes and ID90.

3) ID90. Airline employees and their immediate family can usually buy space-available passes at a deep discount off the revenue dare (ID90 = 90% discount off Y fare). This applies to most US and many foreign airlines. Priority is below all other nonrevs BUT ABOVE JS-ing PILOTS.

If you don't have nonrev bennies on an certain airline then you can JS or buy an ID90...most pilots will do JS obviously. List for the JS advance (if possible for that airline) and show up early. Usually priority for offline JS is first-come/first-served behind any company pilots (who can normally bump you at any time).

If you have nonrev bennies then sometimes you have to choose between nonrev and JS listing. You can't be listed both ways in the system. This is a bit tricky. Nonrev is better because your priority for cabin seats is higher than ID90 and JSers...more comfortable ride. But if the cabin fills up then you might need the JS, but if they already put a junior-to-you or offline pilot in the JS and you try to change to JS at the last minute you might get denied. To be safe you should "commit" to the JS 30 minutes prior to departure. Also if weight is an issue you may well be better off nonreving because they will fill EVERY cabin seat they can (buddy passes and ID90) before they put a pilot in the actual JS.

I'll usually list and check-in as a nonrev, go to the gate and try to get some onfo, and then decide whether to switch to the JS. Making this call is more art than science. Usually you live and die by your own decisions on this but sometimes a savvy gate agent will manage the process of switching pilots between nonrev and JS status to ensure that actual company priority and seniority is respected.

One other thing...SKW had at one point (maybe still has) a "policy" that SKW pilot seniority applies to ALL offline JSing. This is BS because SKW has no authority or agreements in place regarding this for other airline's JS procedures, which are normally first-come-first served. Some old-skool SKW dinosaurs still think they roll up five-prior and bump a junior SKW pilot off the JS of a SWA plane. Don't fall for that, tell them to pound sand. It's not enforceable unless you voluntarily allow it (which would be stupid).



If you are in a JS status you are behind ALL other pax...revenue, nonrev, buddy pass, ID90. This includes folks who would be lower priority than you if you had listed as a nonrev. They will board EVERY cabin pax before you and then, only if weight allows, do you get the JS.

Pretty much anything larger than 19 seats has a JS...but the Brasilia for example is so weight limited that you can almost never get in the actual if the cabin is full.