Another dissenting opinion
1200RT,
I think the more pure Fedex (no pax/other carrier flying in a past life) guys you ask, the more affirmation of your actions you’ll get. Get some more opinions from outside the purple world and I’ll bet you’ll find many more folks who might question your plan. Salty’s a UPS guy (pretty sure) and seems to have a raised eyebrow about your jump seating. Several UPS guys in my guard unit and I have discussed this exact scenario. They seem to be much less liberal about this. I guess it depends a little on the culture of your specific airline. The problem is that offline jumpseating mixes two different airline cultures and the one who owns the jumpseat understandably takes precedence. United’s policy of no crew movement on the JS is to protect their own pilots and so a scheduled DH taking the JS doesn’t stiff one of their own trying to get to/from work. Strict application of that policy to our crew movements would definitely minimize our options on United but their rules/interpretations are what ultimately matter –not what we decided is okay in our world.
We have an interesting culture here at Fedex when it comes to commuting. Unique things like our travel bank, jumpseat kingdom in MEM, reserved jumpseats, minimal off-line pilots on our JS, paid DH with a choice of carriers, etc. have allowed us significant flexibility in commuting. However, they also allow us to make choices others may find objectionable. Some objections may come up as a result of not understanding things like our travel bank(like thinking we keep extra $$ - which we don't). Others may be legit. It’s unlikely we would ever hear those objections unless we get called on it on some random encounter or the wrong person takes special notice. Since most of us won’t hear any different, lack of criticism quickly cements our actions into the “approved” category. We all discuss it, trade stories within our purple world and decide what’s acceptable from within the vacuum we created.
There’s definitely lots of grey areas here. Too many scenarios to make any attempt at a comprehensive “do’s and don’t” list. However, I think you’re already seeing that many here disagree with your actions in the scenario you posted.
You had a ticket on JB and NWA and you cancelled it. You then used one of those company’s jumpseat to fly the EXACT city pair you cancelled. The fact that it was one day earlier doesn’t matter. If you didn’t use their jumpseat, they would have gotten paid. That’s pretty black and white. Not acceptable. The opinion of the pilot flying you doesn’t matter, nor does the opinion of the ticket agent. Remember, those are the same ticket agents who have asked our guys (and other carrier’s pilots) to take the jumpseat when we have a ticket so they can get another revenue pax on the same plane. The opinion that matters is the carrier’s JS committee and their management.
This should go without saying but here’s a good rule of thumb:
If you have a ticket booked on a carrier and you cancel it, you shouldn’t jumpseat on that carrier between the same city pair. It amazes me that some people posting here would consider taking an earlier or later flight on the same carrier/same city pair using the jumpseat. This Fedex created concept of a “free agent” once you deviate is just that – something we created. Get the wrong Captain or airline official looking at your use of the jumpseat and you won’t get too far into your “free agent” explanation before they’re on the phone to someone who controls our jumpseat agreement.
Remember, you did start this post asking for opinions. Hopefully, you’ll consider them all.