As a commuter I don’t expect anything when I JS offline. I’m entitled to nothing, different union or same union, I’m offline. So let’s just get that expectation straight from the start. If I’m taking UAL
home and the CA doesn’t like AA and says “no,” I walk off and try the next flight or commuter clause. That’s commuting

AA gate agents are trained to get people on from top to bottom. So as stated before, if it’s oversold, and we check in, it’s usually “we are overbooked, here is the 1W” and we take the JS. You’re assuming that I could have secured a cabin seat with my D2 listing and could have taken that instead of the JS. Usually never the case.

We also have no idea who is offline trying to JS that flight. We aren’t working the flight, and as much as you said “shame on us for not asking the agent,” listen man, we are just trying to get to work as well. A battle with a gate agent while JS on who will sit where isn’t a battle that everyone wants to fight when trying to get to work.

Almost everyone here has had to JS as a regional pilot and you get bumped by the legacy guy at the last minute or what you described but commuting is commuting. We always try to get everyone on but sometimes the mental gymnastics of telling the gate agent what she needs to do just doesn’t work out the way you want it.