I had the opportunity over the Thanksgiving weekend to give many jumpseat rides to work and back home. We were full on almost every leg, so lots of stress for these guys and girls. These pilots flew everything from Dash-8s to B777s and all followed the protocol of checking in with the captain. It's not that hard, the most professional jumpseater was a FedEx pilot from Memphis who gave me a business card that said: On behalf of the FedEx ALPA pilots thank you for the ride!(bold thank you on the card). It also had info on the back of the card on how to request the jumpseat on FedEx . It was a nice touch and you could tell the guy was really thankful for the ride, as most are.

Remember: Jumpseating its a privilege, not a right.