Thanks guys. I never took it personally when all that JS Priority stuff was going on. Like I said, I couldn't get any flying dropped so I was fine getting left at home :).

98% of the time I get treated very well on Skywest, and that's a WAY higher percentage than I get on my own airline.

Thanks for taking the time to at hear my points, and for providing me your perspective as well.

Cheers

Great point. When the RJ first came out, management sold it as a tool to extend the reach of the airline and create new routes that would grow and eventually become mainline. I wonder how those guys sleep at night spewing that kind of dishonest crap?

I've always heard horror stories about Tilton, but Skywest's management is increasingly resembling top UAL management. It's depressing.

I will say, though, that while the large majority of Skywest's UAX flying is fee for departure, an increasing amount is at-risk--routes that UAL doesn't want to fly at all and doesn't really want to pay someone much to fly. I don't have any problem with those at all--it's places like (I think) Duluth, Paducah, Asheville, Midland, and a number of others. I'd prefer it to be mainline flying, but I don't think mainline wants it period.

But LAX-PDX in a CRJ200 is ridiculous.

I call it unfortunate.. brutal.. awful..

It's not the "fault" of pilots trying to get to the same place you are.

That depends on who you ask, but that's an entirely different thread.

Not sure what you mean by your last sentence? I've always been West Coast, and have NEVER denied a jumpseater!

I'm not trying to paint everyone with on the west coast with the same stroke but what I was alluding to was the disparity in seniority between PSP, LAX, SFO, FAT, SLC, vs. ORD and DEN. Most captains on the west coast are towards the top of the seniority list and most i fly with have never commuted. Therefore, they have no sympathy for commuters and some make the process of getting numbers (ballast) as hard as possible. Don't take it personal but when i was in ORD I saw this attitude less and its probably becasue most guys out there were commuters incuding myself at the time and know the sensitivity of the JS.

Again its the minority, but a bigger minority than the junior bases have.

Odd, I don't ever recall flying with a CA who wouldn't make the effort to get a JSer on board. Of course there's bound to be one in every crowd, but I have never seen a cultural trend against JSer's in CA???

Not on the SkyW Express side, in fact there are a few EMB CAs who have called meetings with BN (LAX CP), and the CS manager in LAX to try and resolve the issue of leaving NRs behind.

Don't just fire a shot and run away. Let's hear your theory on why it's the pilots' fault after all. Wait, let me get some popcorn first.