yeah its absurd

Having been a commuter for most of my years on property, I feel comfortable giving you, and others who may be reading, some seasoned advice.

I think you may be getting confused about the backup flight. It is not required to have a backup JS. Just a backup flight on approved metal that crew scheds may positive space you on, if necessary. As long as that backup flight is scheduled to get in before check in, you are good per the policy. No where that I've seen is a minimum time frame given between arrival time of backup flight and check in time. For me, that means one minute's difference. Also, very big deal here, do NOT book more than one JS for yourself to get to base. Bad mojo. It is not necessary if you abide by the policy and you would be screwing fellow pilots by doing so. Let crew scheds positive space you if needed. You WILL be on the receiving end of that if everyone booked a backup JS vs flight.


Simplified example that I abide by:

Check in time is 10AM at base.

My first choice flight that I have JS booked: arrival time is 0700.

Next available flight that gets me there before check in (as long as it's DL or one of our regional affiliates) arrives at 0959. I'm good. No JS required. Nor should I book the JS on it as I'm screwing other pilots.

I hope I'm making sense. PM me if you have questions. There are some PHD level tactics that I'm leaving out, but this covers most of it.

In my experience, crew scheduling is very understanding in these situations as they are short staffed and need to get you to base. I've never had ANY blowback about getting positive spaced to my report station. I should know as I've called them at least 3 or 4 times in the last year to do just that since my commute is tough. The key is to keep them informed along the way. Don't be scared to call them. Let them know what is going on and you'll be fine.

All true but I believe CS does NOT have to give you the positive space. If they have adequate reserve coverage they may just tell you to get here when you can, and replace you, or go home UNPAID. Just something to keep in mind. It's been awhile, so someone correct me if I am wrong.

Anyone know if they are canceling flights due to lack of FO's? I've been robo called about a dozen times in the last three days. There are still two pages of NYC7ERB trips open for today!

Eck, that really clarifies it well. We had the briefing yesterday on how the jumpseat works, so I would never book two, I was just trying to combine the jumpseat reservation system with the two flight commuter rule. Your explanation helped me realize that the second floght is to give the company the opportunity to ps space you if the js is filled. I really appreciate your patient advice. It's all coming together in my head now.

Good to know

Yes. And I can't believe they were not more proactive in canceling the flights.

2 flight sitting in DTW right now with no 757 first officer.

I got robo-called last night at 10:45, inverse assignment for a midnight sign in, to fly an ATL-GRU turn (Sao Paulo).

That's not even in the 777 bid package, it was an equipment swap. When I looked it up this morning to see who the poor soul was who flew it, it said "Flight Cancelled, no crew" so I guess nobody could get there in time for a midnight sign in, to fly a 9 hour leg to Sao Paulo.

There was an assignment with conflict awarded for one of those trips. Doesn't happen too often. Wow.

Where do you commute to/from? How many Delta flights are there on that leg? How many 'other' carriers, or DCC flights on that leg?

I'm lucky in that I commute from MCO-ATL, because there are hourly Delta Mainline 757's (soon to be replaced by 737's) on that leg.

I book my 1st choice jumpseat, with two back up flights the 3rd will still get me to ATL an hour prior to sign in.

I typically get to ATL 4 hours prior to sign in, unless something happened to my primary jumpseat flight, which has happened a few times due to a weather divert and one time due to MX in MCO.

On the MX cnx flight, I called Crew Scheds and told them what was going on, they got me a pos space seat on my 3rd flight, which was oversold.

On the wx divert, we sat on the ground in Macon for 5 hours waiting for fuel and AWABS to get from there to ATL. I called crew scheds 3 times from MCN to update them on my progress. I told them there was a good chance I wouldn't make sign in, they said, "Well, just get here as soon as you can, we will hold your flight to Dubai for you."

As it worked out, I made it to ATL 30 minutes after sign in and went straight to the gate, looked at the other 3 pilots, asked, "Is everything done yet? I'll be flying this leg, so get out of my seat." :D