Originally Posted by oldmako

From my far away junior puke perch, it's actually worse than that. It's not "giving up the jumpseat". Its the Captain assigning the jumpseat to a specific pilot based upon his belief that a guys need to get to work outweighs whatever other reason another pilot may have for requesting the seat.

Absolutely, the JS belongs to the Captain. But adding a litmus test like this to see who gets it is nonsense. It will take about ten minutes before every request to ride will sound like this, "Hi Captain, this is my last shot to get to Houston for work. May I please ride your jumpseat?"

What's the next step? "OK, well I'll need to see your trip pairing because the other guy is going to work as well" Soon everyone will be going to work, their wedding or funeral and it will be the Captains job to determine merit and perceived rank. I'd guess that there are only a handful of guys out there who would like to add that responsibility to their workload.

A pilot of any seniority who voluntarily offers up his shot at the JS so that another guy can get to work is a nice guy and should be commended, especially if he is the more senior party. But the Captain assigning him to do so and abrogating seniority is out of bounds.

WRT to GUM, I don't know if the union decided that GUM pilots should get an extra stipend and then bargained for it, or the company offered it up out of need. I suspect that arrangement was in place prior to the merger, but I don't know. It seems like a fair and reasonable deal given the isolation and costs involved in living there. The SFO guys opining for the same are smoking weed.

And, "junior puke" is a term of endearment. Kind of like "junior maggot". They've been around for decades as well and are part of our wonderful hazing process.

Man, I guess that some of us really aren't in Kansas anymore.