Open [135] Jumpseat Agreements
 

I work for a 135 company and we are CASS but we dont have many reciprocal agreements. Im curious which regionals other than Mesa can I ride on? And if you know of an major airlines other than US Airways that would be great as well.

Thanks

If you're in thet CASS system, you should be able to JS on anyone

I wish it was that easy. So far, other than Mesa and US Air, I've tried Skywest and Southwest but both say we need a reciprocal agreement to jumpseat on them. The other two companies let us on no problem though.

[REDACTED FOR SECURITY] has a reciprocal agreement list in which Captains are advised to refer to in our FOM... but then there is also an additional line that reads: "Note: Pilots employed by airlines not on this list may jumpseat on [XX] at Captain's discretion."

I would ask what kind of operation you fly for, and how likely (or possible, even) it would be to get a ride on your airline. If there is little or no chance that your airline could return the favor, I would not even dare to ask.

Yeah that's where we are stuck. We are on demand charter/cargo with occasional scheduled flights. Thanks for the input.

Get in contact with the jumpseat guys at various airlines. They're the ones with the power to set something up. Some might not be interested, but you never know.

That is a major misconception and absolutely not true.

Folks, do yourself a favor and educate yourselves on how this system works.

+1. Several misconceptions about CASS are floating around out there.

1. CASS databases are maintained by individual airlines, not the government. Therefore, each Company determines who is in the CASS database. One small Company has EVERY employee in CASS from the CEO down to the janitor.

[REDACTED FOR SECURITY]

4. You still need a reciprocal jumpseat agreement with most airlines to ride on the flight deck even though you may be in the CASS system. Again, the CASS system is simply for identification verification, not clearance to gain access.

What he said.

CASS just certifies that you meet the TSA regulatory requirements to sit in the actual.

As to whether any particular airline will allow you to JS (actual or cabin) depends on their own internal policy, which is usually driven by reciprocal agreements (where both companies agree to allow each other to JS).

Most 121 ops have reciprocal agreements, through one mechanism or another.

But 121 allowing non-121 can be a sticky issue. There are several considerations...


Can the 135 op offer anything in return? Can their airplanes carry pax, or do they go anywhere that an offline pilot might want to go. In some cases I think tour operators have recip agreements where they give free tours to 121 pilots in exchange for JS privileges. At one point amflight had a JS agreement with my airline and I had a buddy who flew for amflight out of my home town. So one day we thought I'd "JS" and ride along on his circuit just for fun. Turned out that amflight's insurance didn't actually allow non-company pax...lot of good that agreement did, at least for my airline.

In some cases airlines would have recip agreements just out of goodwill, even though they knew the benefit would very lopsided or entirely in the favor of the 135 pilots. But that lead to another problem...

In the past certain bottom-feeder 135 ops would routinely require their pilots to use their 121 JS privileges to re-position on company business. That was most definitely NOT the intent...it creates extra hassle for all the pilots involved, and robs the airline of revenue. Companies need to just buy a revenue ticket for company-business deadheads, period. This sort of thing lost a lot of 135 pilots access to JS privileges.

Also even without CASS, cabin jumpseating can still be an option if company policy permits.

MOD INPUT: Be careful about security when discussing jumpseating. No details about specific procedures or lists of who allows who. If you have a legit need for that info, you can get it from internal sources.

This is a very important point. A retired pilot from a major airline who now ferries jets all over the world lost his non-rev privileges permanently when he got turned in for jumpseating from his delivery city home. I'd guess all airlines would look unfavorably on jumpseating/non-revving for commercial purposes.