Airtran Jumpseat question

[j41driver]

I looked up at old posts about this but could not find an answer. Can anybody on CASS be able to jumpseat on AirTran or the two companies must also have a separate agreement to be able to jumpseat? My company has agreements with many airlines, but we were also provided with a list of airlines that do not require any written agreement, all CASS members are eligible to ride. AirTran is not on that list. Looking forward to a week in the Caribbean. Thanks in advance for your reply. You are appreciated!!

Just curious....what company are you with?

 

[A300FE]

OMG!! You insulted me, I feel so bad :bawling: . I apologise, I didn't realise that you had talked with your JSC about an agreement with Airtran. As far as the position, which I don't care what you think, it's a linger longer thing.

For your info I have not jumpseated since 2008, when I moved to my base to spend more valuable time with my family. Used to jumpseat a lot before 9/11, even to Europe on DAL and UA. There are many ex colleagues, from two different airlines that furloughed us, working for AirTran. I didn’t go to anybody asking for free passes, or a free ride just for ME. I learned this morning from my FO flying to ATL, that he had the jumpseat experience with AirTran a couple of months ago. The gate agent said: "You are not on the list, even if you are on CASS, sorry". He spent 12 hrs in ATL trying to get home for the weekend. I will be glad to talk to our JSC to get an agreement going, maybe he is already talking.

 

[A300FE]

You have to have a reciprocal jumpseat agreement with AirTran in order to jumpseat. I ran into this coming out of Vegas two months ago... During my "time away" from AirTran, I'm working for another CASS carrier. Tried to jumpseat on AAI and since we weren't in the computer, they wouldn't even put me in the back.

YMMV, but I wouldn't plan something critical on it, better to go with one of the carriers you have a recip with. Best of luck...

Thanks. Looks like it will be FedEx to MCO and then Jet Blue to SJU. First vacations with my family in 4 yrs. When we where not on CASS I used to ride with NWA, and they always let me go in the back. Also Compass did. A Compass Captain asked me if I would mind taking the FA jumpseat since they where full. I told him that to be able to go home for less that 48 hrs I would ride in the bathroom too. I ended going in First class, thanks to a no show.

 

[Lear70]

Thanks. Looks like it will be FedEx to MCO and then Jet Blue to SJU. First vacations with my family in 4 yrs. When we where not on CASS I used to ride with NWA, and they always let me go in the back. Also Compass did. A Compass Captain asked me if I would mind taking the FA jumpseat since they where full. I told him that to be able to go home for less that 48 hrs I would ride in the bathroom too. I ended going in First class, thanks to a no show.

Careful about that story... the FAA has taken a rather dim view on people occupying a F/A jumpseat who aren't current on opening that SPECIFIC door on that SPECIFIC plane or the O2 mask on the F/A jumpseat (different than PSU's or flight deck mask). Not that it's rocket science, but we had someone get violated for that a while back.

As for asking for a ride with a carrier you don't have a recip with, I do it pretty regularly (we had recip with NWA but not Delta, so when they merged, we lost our J/S, but the NWA agents still let us on pretty regularly - working on getting it fixed but Delta takes forever). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't, I simply thank them for their time and find another way. Being with a smaller cargo carrier at the moment, it's more difficult for our JSC to get a recip with some of the international carriers... you just plan around it.

Don't think it has anything to do with "putting the Captain" on the spot - it's usually the gate agent that controls it initially, which is NOT how it's supposed to be, but the companies have empowered the gate agents to that effect as "gatekeepers".

That said, I don't plan on catching a j/s for vacation; always a bad idea, damn near missed a cruise one year that I had planned to propose on... (it was a sign of things to come, should have run away then...).

Enjoy your vacation, and don't bash on Wu too much, pretty cool guy actually.

 

[A300FE]

Hey, thanks for posting. Looking at your Avatar it looks like a post office 727. Where you with EO or Ryan on the glorious days of postal flying?

 

[j41driver]

Careful about that story... the FAA has taken a rather dim view on people occupying a F/A jumpseat who aren't current on opening that SPECIFIC door on that SPECIFIC plane or the O2 mask on the F/A jumpseat (different than PSU's or flight deck mask). Not that it's rocket science, but we had someone get violated for that a while back.

How's JB get around that? Don't they allow offline pilots/fa's to ride the spare fa jumpseats? Briefing cards similar to flightdeck briefing cards?

 

[Mr Wu]

How's JB get around that? Don't they allow offline pilots/fa's to ride the spare fa jumpseats? Briefing cards similar to flightdeck briefing cards?

I got the J/S on the crapper door one time from JFK to TPA. I WISHED I had O2...

 

[Lear70]

Hey, thanks for posting. Looking at your Avatar it looks like a post office 727. Where you with EO or Ryan on the glorious days of postal flying?

EOI, was a great time, some of the best flying of my life.

Nothing's been the same post-9/11... enjoying the flying, but the career is completely different.

Were you with one of the holy trinity? (Express One, Ryan, Emory)?

 

[A300FE]

EOI, Brussels based.

 

[Lear70]

How's JB get around that? Don't they allow offline pilots/fa's to ride the spare fa jumpseats? Briefing cards similar to flightdeck briefing cards?

Don't know. When I was at PCL, one of our guys rode on the F/A jumpseat on an Airbus and was in a lot of hot water with the DTW FSDO over it. Don't know what ever came of it or how JB gets around it... maybe it's the briefing cards, our guy who was on the NW jumpseat just sat there, had never operated the emergency exit door or even jumped out of a slide...