Go airlines jumpseaters to HNL

[pilot772]

Another question...

While I understand almost everyone within ALPA has jumpseat agreements with everyone else.
But here's the thing.

MESA and their jumpseat agreements were set up when MESA was only a feeder. Now MESA has a division called GO Airlines. Purely a stand alone carrier. Should a new jumpseat agreement be negotiated?

Hmmm well although it is a stand alone operation it is the same operating certificate and even the same pilot list. By your argument you would want a new jumpseat agreement for the branded expressjet flying, great lakes, and big sky (when they were operating as there own brand for EAS flying) Understandably pilots are upset at the demise of Aloha, but a jumpseat war is not whats needed.

 

[Lear70]

For the record, yes, what happened here is basically the same thing that AA did in DAL. They even reconfigured the aircraft to compete on the same business plan that they were using.

As soon as they were out of business, the aircraft were reconfigured to regular seating configuration and the pulled out of Love Field.

If memory serves, they got warned off by the Feds for "questionable predatory practice" but no fines or penalties ever arose.

Personally, I don't have much positive to say about taking an F/O job at a regional, period, much less going to work for J.O., except maybe you'd get to play with his daughter... Hopefully karma won't come back to bite you for knowingly taking a job at sub-par wages and that price advantage being used to deliberately drive someone out of business.

I'm sad to see Aloha go... Good luck, ladies and gentlemen. Hope you land softly and in good company.

 

[AQ PILOT]

Aloha guys...I gotta tell you, it was a brutal day today. What a way to wake up after spending a night with my avatar <--------- watching the lava flow into the ocean on the Big Island and then wake up to a phone call telling me there was going to be 'the announcement' in twenty minutes.

Hustled to the KOA airport where everyone that worked for AQ was understandably distraught. It never ceases to amaze me how classless some of the TSA people can be. One guy wouldn't let me thru security...don't ask...after a brief discussion of his mother's questionable heritage I had to go stand in line to get a 'boarding pass' for the jump... Naturally, when I went thru X-ray he pulled my bag for extra special service. Seriously, I busted up laughing, at that point it was just funny ;0)

Lots of sad faces at AQ. Damn FA was crying, that was hard. Sweet girl. Then the one thing that really really really upset me, and I kid you not, was a go! jet that pulled in. The Captain (pretty sure, he was out of rock throwing range so I couldn't see three or four stripes) walked off his RJ and put both hands over his head like he had just won the superbowl. That hurt.

I know he's just one bad apple in the bunch and he is not a fair representation of ANY pilot group, but that just stings. Definitely don't withhold jumpseats guys. Most of the guys at Mesa are just doing what we all did trying to further our careers, working where management tells them to.

But if anyone happens to bump into the go! crew that landed in Kona around noon today, find out which one thought he just won the Thrilla in Manilla and kick him right square in the nuts for the 3,500 Aloha Employees that are out of work tonight.

 

[big shacks]

Deny the jumpseat, infection control.

 

[motch]

I have not advocated a Jumpseat war...

But during my time at the regionals, I did carry a scab list along with a list of pilots from an Alter Ego airline that my own company started. I would have had no problem denying anyone on the lists js. Oh, and I DID commute.

I am also not advocating that everyone needs to live in base. Again, I commuted at the regional level but now no longer do. Commuting is something people choose to do based on WHO will hire them.

But I will go on record to say that IMO, MESA (both management AND pilots) have some blame here.

As far as this thread being started to warn us about the danger of pilots usiong the jumpseat to get back and forth in leu of a paid ticket for company business.. I'll just add that I think it's sad that a thread has to be started about this situation.

I'll say it again, when do we start holding ourselves and our fellow pilots accountable?

 

[Lear70]

I'll say it again, when do we start holding ourselves and our fellow pilots accountable?

We don't. That era is long gone.

There have been several times I have expected ALPA to go on record denouncing the behavior of another airline and using the only tools we have to bring them into compliance with SOME semblance of professionalism: the jumpseat and hiring practices.

1. Deny them the jumpseat. Anywhere. Period.

2. Make sure the pilot recruiters never, ever hire one of their pilots again.

But, instead, ALPA and other unions have told us EXACTLY how we should respond... by actively seeking their membership, thereby increasing dues, and then STILL not stopping or slowing of any work that undermines the efforts to raise the bar on this profession.

The ALPA many of us believed in is simply gone, having COMPLETELY abandoned the principles that so many have fought and suffered for. And without a cohesive effort, those of us who ARE prepared to do something about it are made out to be just "rogues" who "aren't in line with the needs of the union and are actually hurting the rest of us by their actions" (gee, where have I heard *THAT* before).

The only person I have to answer to at the end of the day is my own conscience and God. Period. Jobs come and go; my personal belief system is with me until the day I die. I will continue to do what I can as long as I am a part of organized labor or until the day I am employed by an employer who doesn't repeatedly seek profit at other people's expense (their own labor and other airlines by less-than-honorable competition).

Your mileage may vary...

 

[Flyer2000]

I believe Mesa gets around the TDY, vs. jumpseat on company business "rules" by shifting domiciles. I don't work at Mesa, but worked with their jumpseat coordinator when GO first started. If I remember correctly the procedure went something like.....your trip this month all start out of HNL....you are now domiciled there. However, if the next month your trips start out PHX......then you are domiciled there. JO is VERY aware of how to get around rules and making his pilots do "questionable" tasks.

I may not have the details down 100%, but that was how it used to be at Mesa. So if you were to ask a Mesa pilot if he was "TDY" or commuting....the answer will be commuting.

 

[dooork]

I believe Mesa gets around the TDY, vs. jumpseat on company business "rules" by shifting domiciles. I don't work at Mesa, but worked with their jumpseat coordinator when GO first started. If I remember correctly the procedure went something like.....your trip this month all start out of HNL....you are now domiciled there. However, if the next month your trips start out PHX......then you are domiciled there. JO is VERY aware of how to get around rules and making his pilots do "questionable" tasks.

I may not have the details down 100%, but that was how it used to be at Mesa. So if you were to ask a Mesa pilot if he was "TDY" or commuting....the answer will be commuting.

B.S. Typical FI poster that does not know what they are talking about. Maybe you can find a bad egg that has done what you say....but that would be a MGT cronie. MESA pilots do not and know not to go on company business on the jump seat.

 

[FoxyWhiskey]

In the past, I think most of us "looked the other way" when it came down to seperating Mesa Management from Mesa pilots...didn't want to fault the pilot group for the shady, backdoor politics of management.

But after seeing a classact carrier like Aloha close doors as a DIRECT result of J.O. and his dirty business, this is going to be very hard for any of us to do.

This injustice just doesn't go away, it will be brought to the flight deck everytime a Mesa jumpseater wants to ride. I advocate and support crews who choose to educate & deny the jumpseat to ANY Mesa pilot going to HNL. Just say NO. Period.

This is a small industry, and as fate may have it: Mesa pilots may indeed have a former Aloha pilot sitting on their interview board at XYZ airline down the road. They should be ready for the sh*tstorm, and think about how being part of Mesa will affect their longterm career, because Karma is a B*tch and sure as hell on the way.

-FW

 

[topdawg]

I don't think there's an idiot out there who would admit to taking a job to sink another carrier, especially if he or she is asking a captain for a ride on their jumpseat, but maybe you would, I don't know.

A pilot should plan to live at domicile, huh? May I ask if you have always lived at your domicile. What about those who you fly with? Do you deny the jumpseat to other pilots who commute to a place that has a high cost of living, like, say, New York, LA, San Fran? It stinks what happened to Aloha, but where was your support for them when go! went into business there? I don't remember seeing ALPA picketing or crying out injustice while they were out there.

I think the company management does have a say as to who rides on their jumpseat too. Don't turn this into a union war, Aloha and Mesa Air Group pilots are both card carrying ALPA members. You don't like what Mesa did, neither do I, but I'm not going to punish a pilot for what his management.

Well they chose to work there. Dragging down the entire industry with its pathetic pilot contracts and its crews. Nobody should ever hire these clowns...make them live in the filth they created!
I dont give a sht it they're ALPA. They knew what kind of airline it was and they had a choice.