Those that commute on UAL, MUST READ
As a SkyWest pilot that commutes from the east to the west coast, I have the need to fly on United from time to time. We got this email from our SAPA president, regarding the "fun" that United Express carriers are experience with the new nonrev fees. What wasnt understood was how jumpseating was going to work. WELL HERE IS THE LOWDOWN after our SAPA president contacted UNITED.... EVERY COMMUTER SHOULD LOOK INTO THIS and talk with their reps at ALL OUR AIRLINES.... There are a few issues that as PILOTS regardless of who we work for need to know and act on and in my opinion THIS IS ONE OF THEM.
Here is a cut from our President Update....
"Yesterday I called UAL to get clarification to something written in the SWOL Q & A (Question 13) that says we will not be able to jumpseat in any open cabin seat unless we paid our fee (remember for all the other UAX carriers it is $20.00 per leg… and could change for us come 2010 as well). UAL confirmed that this statement is TRUE. UNACCEPTABLE! What they also stated was that there are NO UNLIMITED JUMPSEATS as all cabin seats belong to UAL. In other words even our fellow pilots at ASA (UAL’s example) would be denied a cabin seat when attempting to jumpseat unless they had an ID90 (as they do not have UA travel benefits), or the flight was full and they could ride in the cockpit. I talked to UALPA today, and they are unaware of this statement, and will be researching it in the next few days (it COULD affect their jumpseat policy as well for OAL pilots). In the meantime, I think we need to campaign our management to NOT SIGN THE CONTRACT until we get this worked out. The bad news is that SkyWest is the only Express carrier to have not signed. The good news is that as long as SkyWest hasn’t signed, we will remain status quo (no changes to current structure).