Originally Posted by
symbian simian
I agree with that, but I have heard conflicting stories. The ALPA-site for SWA says:" The flight deck jumpseat is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis subject to the Captain's approval." without reference to OAL/Offline, and most other airlines JS-info do. I have heard from SWA pilots that it is FCFS regardless if SWA or not....
It's first-come, first-served within different priority levels. Southwest pilots come first. We will, however, happily take the extra cabin jumpseat to get you on if that's what it takes.
For example, 3 OAL pilots list for the jumpseat and a SWA pilot shows up after, here's how this plays out:
In this case, a SWA pilot gets the cockpit jumpseat over OAL regardless of when he/she checked in as SWA pilots have priority for our jumpseat. Given that we have access to cabin jumpseat as well, I'd say 99.99% of us will happily take the cabin jumpseat to get OAL guys on. The priority between the 3 OAL guys is determined by their check-in time.
Bear in mind that at Southwest, all employees have access to the 4th FA jumpseat so that can be a little tricky on packed flights.