Can you reserve the JS at UAL?
 

Recently I (not a UA employee) was commuting with UA. As I was waiting for a seat, I was approached by a young pilot (one of them that grows a mustache to look older) who was there waiting along with his GF. He stated that I could have the JS and that he had been advised be the agent that he would be getting a seat in the cabin. This left me confused. Did the guy own the jumpseat i.e. does UA have some sort of reservation system. I understand that if the cabin is full he would get the JS first, but that he offered it to me as though it was his personal seat left me bewildered.

If its full its full, and surely that dude wouldn't have given up his JS offering it to me and I wouldn't have gotten on. It almost seemed as though I should be eternally grateful for the service he did to me... perhaps someone here can enlighten me on his train of thought...

He probably just thought you may not have gotten a seat in the cabin if he had taken the JS.

that doesn’t make sense though?

Many pilots ride the JS to get an extra non revs on.

In his mind he’s is deciding to ride the JS and leave you, or ride the cabin and leave a non rev.

Or he worries about other pilots with better priority in the cabin or JS. If they have separate listing procedures then he can get screwed trying to jockey between the two at the last minute and some just list for the JS and don’t worry about another pilot trying to ride the JS and cancel their JS listing and start over with a cabin listing.

at United you can list for a cabin seat and separately for the jumpseat. Having two PNR for the same flight. On the UA app employees can see where you sit on the list seniority wise or check in wise based on whether mainline or regional is being flown.

so yea, a UA pilot can see if they have the seniority/priority for jumpseat over other pilots.

but in the end you still only get one seat. You’re just listed twice. So it’s not his decision but only a matter of how many seats there are in total including the JS. It’s not like they will keep the JS vacant and not offer it to anyone else if he opts to go and sit in the back.

seems like BS to me and as though he made himself look more important than he was.

Many older dickish commuters didn't bother listing for any seat until last minute and would then only list for the JS because they knew they were senior enough to get it. That forced junior guys to compete for a seat in the cabin against the gen pop rather than the senior guy easily getting a seat in back and leaving the jumpseat for junior commuter.

I'd guess he was just trying to ease your mind that you weren't getting bumped off jumpseat by him, regardless of delivery.

seems like he had priority over you and was just trying to give you some good news about you getting on the flight.

if he was a crusty old guy, than maybe he was a dink. But if he was a young guy just happy to be at a major, then he probably had good intentions.

most everyone here that is post-merger is a good human

Seems like you have a continuing desire to take offense where none was offered.

our pilots should be listing for both the JS and for standby… not sure why we have pilots who think they get to decide where they sit without asking the CA first. On my flights If there are any open seats in the cabin they get filled first by any Jumpseater on the list (mainline or other airline)… if cabin full they are welcome to sit in cockpit.