Commuting JAX to EWR
 

Anyone commute out of JAX? As EWR seems to be the most likely junior base, I am curious how tough it is to get back and forth. All the flights are on RJ's, any issue getting a seat? What happens if you can't get a seat for the ride up and you miss your event? How many seats are typically available?

Thanks,

Adam

Plan on full flights and somebody beating you to the jumpseat and you'll be fine. :(

I used to fly that route all the time at Xjt. Mst of time it was full with both cockpit and fa Jumpseat occupied.

Can UA pilots sit on the FA Jumpseat?

No and there's no good reason for it.

I have sat on the Express Jet 50 seat ERJ second F/A Jumpseat before. I mean the one that slides out from behind the last row of seats and locks up against the lav door. It is awkward to say the least sitting there in the middle of the aisle blocking the lav door. The routine is once the F/A starts the service, to put the second Jumpseat away and go sit in the primary F/A Jumpseat so the lav is no longer blocked. Then move back to the second one for landing obviously. The whole thing is (was?) up to the captain and the F/A. On a longer flight it becomes an even less attractive idea. Also, in a sudden turbulence event the F/A has no place to go quickly with that second Jumpseat put away. Really isn't a good idea in my opinion.

The commute is going to blow, no matter what. I would not bother entertaining the idea of moving to a base as a new hire though. Not at least until you get a good number of people below you and this company starts demonstrating that it is capable of avoiding posting financial results like the disaster Q1 2014 is going to be. Good luck.

If you accept right now that you're going to be sitting in a crashpad, commuting up a day early to make it then life will be much less stressful. ;).

It is what it is bro, welcome to being the FNG again.

Absolutely you can sit in the FA jumpseat on XJT planes. FA's have priority but if there aren't any its all yours. Its insanity that the same thing doesn't apply on main line planes. A JS is a JS, no crew should be left behind with it empty.

And to think we used to fly 737-500s (i.e. the two jumpseat birds) there on a consistent basis from EWR.

FYI this is false. Just had an XJT guy in our jumpseat the other day. They just recieved an alert bulletin from their company within the last two weeks that changes the policy. Now the second jumpseat can be occupied by any FA and XJT pilots ONLY. It is very clear that effective immediately no OAL pilot may occupy this seat. It sux big time as a commuter but don't shoot the messenger.