Travel when sick
 

My buddy is on probation with y’all, and afraid to get in trouble. What’s the best course of action in this case?

He went on a personal trip (on days off) on SWA jumpseat. Got sick and now can’t get back in time to start a 4 day trip. Going to hang out for an extra day or two until feeling better. Can he jumpseat back home when feeling ok to fly if it’s falls over the footprint of his original trip that he has to call in sick for? Or can it potentially get him in trouble? Basically, what are the rules of traveling home when you call in sick?

Tell him to just Nonrev. There is a LOA available on the SWAPA website that states in no uncertain terms that pilots can exercise their Nonrev privileges while on a sick pull.

Sick calls can be other things than physically sick. You could have pulled a muscle etc, besides, I doubt they are gonna have the ability to go through and look at non rev passes vs sick calls right now.

Great, thanks everyone. I'll pass it on.

With the looming pilot shortage, they're probably happy that he's even sticking around..

Unless on a covid pull I dont think it matters at all. At some point he needs to be in position for his next flight. Who's to say he cant do that within the footprint of the 4 day?
I've JS , non rev etc while out sick all the time. Never heard anything.

Who cares just tell him to come to work sick like all the guys with 1600 trips on their board lol.

He’ll be good to travel. If it really worries him then could always offline JS, but there shouldn’t be an issue on SW.

Just to be clear here for any new guys reading this, there is a literal signed LOA between SWAPA and the company that states in no uncertain terms that pilots are not subject to the pass travel rules concerning travel while utilizing sick leave that other employees have to abide by. There is a zero percent chance of any pilot being disciplined for utilizing their jumpseat or pass travel benefits while on sick pull.

Pilots call out sick for a myriad of reasons, to include a lot of things that require they travel. They call out sick on the road, they call out sick while on vacation and before a trip, they call out sick because their mom just died. I have never in 8 years of flying here heard of any pilot being called into question during that time for flying while on sick pull.

Like anything else, don't be dumb about it. I wouldn't call out sick and nonrev on us to Hawaii and post pictures of it. That's just putting a target on your back.

Where do we find this LOA? I've tried searching the swapa website with no success. Got a buddy in a similar position. On probation, and supposed to nonrev and take a buddy pass rider with him Friday evening. Had to call out sick for a three day that would've finished Friday morning. So there's same day overlap on Friday between the sick call and when they're planning to nonrev. You're saying he's fine to do that, even on probation?