I had an AMR guy, out of uniform, rush up to me to insist I take the FA jumpseat. He didn't introduce himself or even ask nicely. I just told him "No, I'm not interested in sitting in the FA jumpseat." I don't even remember where I was going, but I had reserved it and he was ****ing me off by blocking my path. A DAL FA took the seat eventually. Toolish? Perhaps. But it avoided musical chairs near pushback when the DAL FA showed.

I'm a little surprised at the selfishness displayed in this thread. Personally I'd never leave a guy behind. Yeah the FA jumpseat is not comfortable but don't try to tell me the jumpseat up front is much better. They all require you to sit at a 90 degree angle. The 737 cockpit jumpseat is awful. The Airbus has more room but it still is far from a comfortable seat.

I think a lot of this has to do with anti-social pilots not wanting to interact with FA's. It's amazing some of the weird personalities this profession has.

Justify all of your selfishness however you all want. Just remember that your fellow pilot's day just got much worse. Commuting sucks. We should all do everything we can to ease the pain of commuters. Karma will come back to bite you.

I'm no longer a commuter but I'll never forget all the help I've been given by fellow pilots. I'll never stop trying to repay it.

This guy gets it.

Yep, pretty much.

The comic gold of this thread requires a trip down a not too distant memory lane in APC land.

A pilot from a certain legacy airline that allows their pilots to sit on the FA jumpseat started a thread. He ranted that the other legacy airline he was trying to commute on had one of their pilots take the cockpit JS when they should have taken the FA JS so he could get the cockpit JS. Well, the problem is, that airline DOESN'T allow that, and the pilots have NO control over it, not yet anyway. Maybe someday, but not right now.

Said pilot from the airline then pulled the "well, we here at my airline do it" in the thread.

Like I said, pure comic gold.......

We are not allowed to sit on the FA Jumpseat. We are working on it. I have commuted long enough that I do whatever it takes to get the other guy/gal onboard. I feel it's part of the deal and one of the FEW things we can do to take care of one another. This is where we differ.

I'll go with that assumption the next time you're trying to get home on Christmas Eve and trying to catch one of our jumpseats. I bet your tone and perspective would quickly change if the roles were reversed. I've been left behind plenty of times and bumped OAL off my Jumpseat. I get it. But to deliberately refuse to use a defined benefit for such a short duration flight is just d$ck. Maybe I'll get the chance to show you one day.

It all boils down to basic humanity. If I can help out a commuter and still get on (I'm not even a commuter, for now...) then why wouldn't I? Maybe I get someone home to their kids, their sick parent or heck even some strange, I don't care, it's the right thing to do! A few hours of an equally uncomfortable seat may mean the world to a little girl that gets to see her Daddy that night, the thought alone is what makes it worth it for me. Pay it forward!


^^^this right here! It's not only FAs they cant talk to, it's just people... I recall a pilot (sadly a DAL guy, I believe) that refused to do this because it was "awkward" to sit across from pax... Are you kidding me?!? Strike up a conversation, maybe you'll learn something or make a friend. I was lucky enough to DH next to a guy who happened to have flown F-51s, F-86s, F-100s and F-105s! What an awesome 3 hours that was...funny part to me is all he wanted to talk about was my experience in the F-16, what a humble individual!

To the OP, sorry you had to deal with this. I agree that the jumpseater may not have even realized the issue. We have almost 2,000 new hires (myself included), many that this is their first airline job, who may not know all the rules. Then again, it appears we just have some selfish people out there as well. I understand your frustration, but please don't change your ways because of a few (hopefully) outliers, we need more positive individuals in this crazy world. Pay it forward is wonderful thing, and makes the world a better place.

Best of luck!

I'm with rvr on this one and a little appalled at some of the attitudes here. No pilot left behind. Heck, I don't hesitate to ride a jumpseat if it helps get a normal non-rev on. You never know what is waiting for someone on the other end. Could be a wedding, the birth of a child/grandchild, a sudden family emergency or it could be just the end of a long trip and everyone is eager to get home. Whatever. Now, I agree it shouldn't be assumed or expected but if we can help each other out, why not? Be accommodating and gracious when you can help, thankful when you are helped out and pay it forward! Simple as that.

Isn't it odd that in this day and age where the airlines have put a focus on the pilots being even more passenger centric, interacting, representing the company, etc that some people will do whatever it takes to avoid contact with our customers? Combine that with making sure pilots know how to interact and play well with their other coworkers, etc. Makes you wonder how they ever got hired.

Never mind making another pilot's life difficult......

It's like the line/chorus from that Dos Gingos song.

Thank you for the kind words. I would only add though that relative to our size we (JBLU) carry a large number of jumpseaters and are well known across the industry for being very jumpseater friendly. Perhaps I would ask that DALPA could remind new hires and old salts alike that this benefit exists and that OAL routinely utilize it to accomodate jumpseaters. I will follow up with JBALPA guys as well and perhaps some friendly reminders can be communicated.