I haven't found explicit guidance, but enough that I can understand an agent getting heartburn. Deep in the bowels of Deltanet (knowledge management word search), I see this note in JS guidance:

"Note: Jumpseat riders are not permitted to activate as a nonrevenue passenger on the same flight where they have checked-in for the jumpseat."

Frankly, I don't even know what activate means. But if you have two listings and are only going to check in for one, that's problematic, right? Why have the other one... unless you're going to cancel after checking in and check in for the other listing? Or were you checking in for both, which obviously complicates the agent's job, who in this scenario was (possibly) busy trying to maximize butts in seats since you implied it was full?

Space available travel sucks, plain and simple. Sucks for those doing it and sucks for the agents trying to please their bosses with D0 perfection, NRSA and late/delayed/misconnect passengers running last-minute to catch the seat they paid for. I understand it's the job they signed up for, but I'm not sure you could pay me enough to do it day in and day out.

DCI pilots are not supposed to list for both jumpseat and nonrev either. If bumped from the jumpseat they flow back to a standby listing which has various success depending on whether the agent has already been clearing nonrevs. The company policy doesn't state "Delta pilots," it states "jumpseaters."


The company policy is that jumpseaters can't be listed on another reservation for the flight. You also can't jumpseat if you ever had a confirmed seat on that flight.

"Activate" means check in for it. You can have a nonrevenue listing but you cannot check in for it if you are listed for the jumpseat. Basically, any situation which could cause for the system to attempt to assign you two seats, regardless of where they are, is not permitted.

If by "confirmed" you mean a revenue ticket.... I believe it's actually even more restrictive saying you are not allowed to non-rev on any market (city pair) that you hold a revenue ticket on for that day. If your "confirmed" PS on a company ticket, they'd love for you to take the JS instead.

Supposedly, according to a red coat at my outstation, this is actually what will get you flagged by the computer the quickest for pass revocation, (or selling buddy passes).

You are correct, although by the rules as well as ALPA jumpseat policy, you aren't to take the jumpseat on a flight you had a confirmed seat on (positive space or not) or a flight that your company SHOULD have purchased you a confirmed seat on. Some smaller carriers have been known to ask pilots to jumpseat so they didn't have to buy a deadhead ticket on another airline.

That is a huge no-no. Doing that nonsense, when caught, could easilly get the individual removed as well as the entire carrier from the recip JS agreement.

If your management even suggests this tell them NO WAY.

I was using that as an example of something not permitted if it wasn't obvious.

But again, I’m not DL (or DCI). Obviously Delta can put whatever restrictions they want on their own employees. For me though, I would assume my jumpseat restrictions are whatever the reciprocal agreement says. That guidance seems aimed at Delta employees.

As for pass riding, obviously I’m bound by Delta’s restrictions, but like I said, I couldn’t find anything that really covers this scenario at least for non DL employees.

Shouldn’t I be able to use my pass travel while simultaneously exercising offline reciprocal jumpseat privileges? Delta seems to be the only place that has an issue with this

It is overall Delta jumpseat policy and if you are caught doing so you can lose both your pass travel benefits and jumpseat ability on Delta. Your spouse could lose their pass benefits as well (and given the relationship it would probably be both you and your spouse if they go after you). This has been explained to you and it is common in the industry. Other than those with regular nonrev agreements that specifically allow their dual listing flow back United should not allow it either. IE if your spouse worked at United they would not allow you to create two standalone listings such as you want to do on Delta as OAL jumpseat and spousal benefits operate on different priority levels.

You also are ignoring that you are using Delta company pass benefits and not just your company's reciprocal agreement (which still says no other listings anyway). This means you are under Delta's employee pass rules regardless as a spouse in addition to OAL jumpseat as applicable. You might not work for Delta, but if you want your spouse to then you need to consider employee rules. I actually am wondering how long you've been in the industry if you think using spousal benefits doesn't mean needing to follow those rules.

Interesting take. You seem to be taking the sea lawyer stratedgy of based on what you don't see in a policy, you can therefore get away with more than a DL pilot can on DL equipment WRT DL JS and DL pass privileges can get away with, when you yourself are referring to the same situation on a DL JS with DL pass benefits.

While its possible that's technically the case (and if so, only by accidental omission and very clearly not by intent) that would, best case, comprise a technicality/loophole that I would not want to rely on as an affirmative defense.

Up to you though.