Jumpseating to Canada
 

Ok, my little brother has a long question about jumpseating, which I am relaying here:

I fly for Pinnacle out of JFK, and I tried to get back to Canada the other day, only I missed the one Pinnacle flight because I got held longer on reserve than I wanted to (with Pinnacle it's really easy, I just list online and pay the taxes online, which are like 30 bucks round trip).

So I go to the American ticket counter and say "Hi, I am a Pinnacle pilot and I wanna jumpseat or non-rev to Canada on the American Eagle flight this evening". Ticket agent takes all my info, does some work on his computer for like 15 minutes, then shakes his head "sorry we don't have an 'agreement' with Pinnacle to do that". He couldn't really give me a straight answer why I couldn't just pay the 30 dollars or so for taxes then just ask the captain if I can ride along like I would domestically.

Sooo, Plan B. I go to the United/Continental ticket counter at KJFK and ask them "Hey, before I go over to Newark to try to get on this flight, can I, as a Pinnacle Pilot, jumpseat or non-rev on one of these continental connection flights up to Halifax, even though it is international?" They are really confused, but make some phone calls and eventually give me a for sure "yes, just show up".

So I subway over to Newark, get to the gate for the flight (it's Shuttle American on a E170 I think), and ask the gate agent "Hey, can I get on this flight to Halifax" he gives me an emphatic "no", and explains something about passport verification being the reason why I can't jumpseat or non-rev. I ask about the later flight on Expressjet, and he gives me the same answer. He tells me to go to the Delta ticket counter, and they can do something. So I do that, and explain to the lady that I wanna get on one of these flights to Halifax and she says ok let me see what I can do. She fiddles on the computer for a few minutes and shakes her head saying "sorry 'we' don't have an agreement with 'them'" (not sure if 'we' is Delta or Pinnacle, and 'them' is Expressjet, Shuttle America or Continental). She didn't really give me much information nor could she explain about ZED fares as a possibility.

Dejected, I subway my sorry ass back across NY to my crashpad near JFK (5 trains, over an hour and like 25 bucks each way).

So my questions are: as a Pinnacle Pilot, can I jumpseat or non-rev on Shuttle America, Expressjet, American eagle or Air Wisconsin (these are the airlines that fly all year long to my hometown) to Canada. If so, what is the procedure for doing this. Asking ticket or gate agents this question seems to give them brain aneurisms, and 5 different ones gave me 5 different answers.

Thanks for your help!

IIRC american has limitations on international jumpseating, and not all airlines are on their recip list. Try another airline.

Ask your jumpseat coordinator what is the best way...

For one he confused the gate agent for sure by saying.. " I would like to jumpseat or NON-REV". Cant say that to a gate agent. Always say Jumpeast unless you have a Zed ticket in your hand. Never even mention Non-rev because its totally different then jumpseating.

Two, Pinnacle does not have Intl JS with AA or AE.

So if he misses the DL flight to city Y_ _ then the best bet is to go to LGA and take US if they have a flight or AC. Pinnacle has JS with AC, just not in the cockpit. So you can JS on AC but there must be a seat in the back.

He can JS on Shuttle America, Expressjet, or Air Wisconsin to YHZ. NOT American Eagle. But I think you need to be checked in atleast 2 hours prior to departure, that may have been his problem with COEX.

pinnacle sucks!

Hmmm, the only flights to YHZ from the NY area are out of Newark with Continental and JFK with Eagle, as they are discontinuing the daily Pinnacle flight out of JFK starting November. But if I know for SURE I can JS on Expressjet or Shuttle America if I give them notice, I will do that, just take the subway to Newark. How would I go about getting that set up? Who would I call? Thanks for your help.

Not worth it..............

amen!!!!!!!!

A little copy and paste:

Ask your jumpseat coordinator what is the best way...

As a connoisseur of jumpseating to Canada, the issue is the gate agent.
You can't be in the physical jumpseat, but one in the back of the bus is fine.

Consider riding with Air Canada, Jazz or WestJet.
AC jumpseat number is: 800-413-1113 (You can list on either AC or Jazz)
WestJet's number is : 888-937-8538

I've jumpseated alot on Continental out of EWR, mainly to India. You cannot get listed for international jumpseats at the gate like normal. You need to find the employee travel office outside security. It's located just before security by the southernmost security checkpoint (I think its C1 checkpoint maybe) In terminal C. Go up to security and hang a left and there is a small office with a glass door. They can list you going and coming back. There are no taxes leaving the US, just taxes to get back in. Those you would pay in Canada on your return. After you get listed then you go to the gate and checkin like normal. Also, I believe you can sit in the jumpseat leaving the US, just not returning to the US. I know I've sat up front going to the Caribbean.

As for AA, I think the only regionals that can jumpseat international are Piedmont, PSA, and maybe Skywest. Might be one or two more, I'm not sure. Good luck!

Hey thanks a lot. So even though I am Pinnacle I can jumpseat on Continental Connection? How early do I need to show up? Is the office open in the evening? I will call the jumpseat coordinator and try to find out for sure too. Appreciate the help everyone.

All your planes are belong to us, Comair dude. Good luck with our interview :P

* All other Comair guys who aren't part of the RJDC are cool with me.

Here's the link I use to find out info for international jumpseating. Don't think CO Connection would be a problem. The only one who is somewhat picky is AA. The only reason PSA and Piedmont can jumpseat internationally is cause in CASS, since they are wholly owned, their airline code is US. Since AA has an international agreement in the system for jumpseaters listed with US stating they are approved, PSA and Piedmont are approved.

Jumpseat Information > Jumpseat Resources > Airline Jumpseat Policies

From experience, for DL in ATL go to Terminal E and check-in at the special services ticket counters at the top of the escalators. CO in EWR, see above. I've also Jumpseated out of HKG on UA and the agents at the ticket counter knew exactly what I was asking for (a first in stations outside the US) and were able to list me at the ticket counter 60 minutes before departure.

I will say always try and have them list you for a return in the US if you can. And remember it doesn't hurt to ask. My inbound flight was running late and I was tryin to go ATL-DXB and showed up at the ticket counter in E 45 minutes before departure. I just asked the agent nicely to try and list me and sure enough the system listed me even though DL states the cutoff is 75 minutes. She was shocked as well but I figured if there were restrictions it would have been denied through the computer.

I second the guy who says take AC. I ride on them all the time and have always been treated well.. I do remember expressjet having some sort of weird issue with international jumpseating, but I haven't ridden on them in a while, so it might have been fixed by now...