I was attempting to jumpseat on a Chautauqua flight out of STL. The gate agent refused to let me on because, "I've never heard of your airline". The supervisor (About 20 years old) came over and said, "we dont have agreements with 'no-frills' airlines". I thought he was kidding - he wasn't. I finally went over to Eagle and hopped on a Chicago flight and then on to MKE. Can anyone tell me what the heck happened? I thought Alaska has a jumpseat agreement with Chautauqua. but things change I guess PS - we still serve FREE HOT MEALS on our transcons.

Was the gate even operated by CHQ? Might have been mainline or another regional under the mainline umbrella.

If you get crap from the gate, ask to talk to a pilot.

To set the record straight, Chautauqua has no gate agents of their own, except in IND. So, the person that you talked to in STL was an American Airlines affiliate.

On a side note, Chautauqua used to have our own people as gate agents there, but that just changed awhile back. I know it's hard to do, but try to talk to the captain.

I don't think that CHQ has jumpseat priveleges with Alaskan, but I'll get back to you on that. I know CHQ's jumpseat chairman and will post the results of the inquiry here.

Also, this might be a little insight into your STL experience. I was flying with CHQ's chief pilot once, and the American Airlines gate agent wouldn't let us board the airplane even though we were positive space. She complained that things didn't match up and what not. I asked her what we could do to solve the problem. She got real upset and said " You need to have your so called leadership or chief pilot call us and get this rectified. You won't make any flight out of here until that is done!" I calmly got Bart, our chief pilot, over there and he ever so bluntly set her straight. I've never seen an American gate agent change her tone so quickly! It was priceless!

Needless to say, stay away from nonrev on American. I have their flight benefits and they suck so bad I haven't used them in over 5 years!

Krazo,

Hey, no luck with Alaskan. CHQ has limited jumpseat agreements with other airlines. However, CASS is on the way at CHQ, but it's taking them forever to get it implemented. Until then, enjoy commuting to work, isn't it fun