FDX: Jumpseating on MLOA
 

Getting ready to take a long Military Leave of Absense from Purple. I'll be going away to a long school (Altus) and I'd like to get home every once in a while.

When I sent my orders to our ACP's admin assistants, they told me they would remove me from CASS and that I could only jumpseat on FedEx airplanes. I called our ALPA Contract Enforcement and he told me he though that was right, but gave me a phone number for our jumpseat committee guy. He's on vacation.

I know plenty of guys from other carriers (UAL, SWA) that jumpseated on carriers other than their own to get home from Altus almost every weekend.

Have any of you taken a long MLOA and how did you deal with it?

Fred

Did my last of seven long trips to Altus while on Mil from FDX. You are removed from CASS and cannot jumpseat on other carriers. It doesn't have to be like that, as jumseating on other airlines is available to other carriers. My ACP said it was a problem with the program that puts you on mil leave is tied to the program for CASS. It would probably be one line of code to fix, but the company won't do it. I would be curious to know what the ALPA guy has to say. PM me if it was divergent.

I ended up driving to DFW and jumpseating. You can park there as well. Or find some friends from some of the other ailines and beg for some passes. Last time I was in Altus, there were still a few airlines not using CASS and you could still get on. I don't think there are any anymore.

Good Luck, let me know what you find out. TB

CASS gets you in the cockpit. There have been multiple times CASS has been down at FEDEX and got the "Not Approved" at the gate but was still able to jumpseat in the back with company ID and passport. If they are full in the back then you will not have access to cockpit jumpseating.

I hope Salty responds to this thread, he knows more than the rest of us. For my 2 Euro, I think that you can, if only in the back. Following my involuntary mobilization a few years ago, my ID expired while I was out and I was out of luck and my airline didn't see any reason to give me a new one until I was headed back to work. I read somewhere that you should be allowed to jumpseat. You can check out the USERRA, it's a bit long and dry, but full of information. Another great resource would be to check out the www.roa.org website and look under the law reviews. Also, I'd press your mil rep at FedEx, he should have the information you need. Good luck.

MBB

USERRA protects your employment rights/seniority. Won't protect your right to J/S on other airlines as that isn't within FedEx's power.
Will protect your seniority/pension/etc.

For Example, healthcare is a protected benefit, but, the company is not required to pay for it. The company is encouraged to continue paying the employer portion for your healthcare, but isn't required to. Company can make you pay up to 102% of the premium....and that's the full premium, not just the portion of it "we" pay every month

The FedEx Reciprocal Cockpit Offline Jumpseat (OJS) Guidelines specifically states that: Only FAA certificated pilots and flight engineers will be eligible to utilize FedEx Express jumpseats. These crewmembers must be in an active status, i.e., not retired, furloughed, on a leave of absence, or in a sick or disability status.

So if one assumes that a military leave of absence is in fact, a "leave of absence", than according to FedEx, that person has no right to jumpseat, either on or off-line. However, FredEx has said that:"When I sent my orders to our ACP's admin assistants, they told me they would remove me from CASS and that I could only jumpseat on FedEx airplanes." With the (first paragraph) above in mind, that makes no sense at all. For one, in order to jumpseat on FedEx, I was under the impression that the person had to be in CASS to begin with. That goes for both FedEx guys as well as off-line guys. If the company takes someone out of the CASS system, they shouldn't even be able to jumpseat on-line, and I know that when I went on disability, they took me out of the CASS system completely.

It would be good to get a valid reading on this issue, but, from where I don't know. Perhaps from TSA or the FAA.

JJ

Aint it great that you take mil leave, and then are considered a "threat" (no CASS JS) to your country? Just another example of how f@cked up the system is.

For what it's worth - both times I've been on 90+ days of mil leave since I've been here, I lost the ability to access the online jumpseat reservation system.

I was told both times by my ACP that I should still be able to jumpseat, but I never tried it.

FWIW, I was out on Mil Leave for 60 days and lost access to the online reservation system as well. I was told that I could jumpseat online but that I had to call jumpseats and that they'd make a special mil leave profile. I never did this, but my jumpseat reservation access didn't come back until I called jumpseats and informed them that I was back from leave.
I didn't try to jump offline either.

If you are in CASS you can jumpseat... that is the only restriction, besides having a current medical.