Jumpseating to Hayden, CO?

[LT. Dangle]

Anybody know how likely it is to jumpseat from Denver to Hayden? I see most of the flights are flown by Mesa in a Dash 8. Are they heavily weight restricted? Thanks

 

[Blucher]

It is very much hit or miss with them. If you're going to try, I would go to a ticket counter for them somewhere before you get to DEN and find out what the loads look like. They are frequently oversold, or broken (check out the thread about JO wanting an apology from the town of Steamboat after the town government/airport manager wrote directly to UAL to complain about the air service from Mesa and asked specifically for Skywest to do the service instead). If they are running and have available seats you're golden, great people, easy to work with. Also on the bright side, the last flight of the day is a UAL 73 which can often pick up the slack (it's around 8pm I think). If you're heading that way during ski season look into your various other options. Every major carrier goes in there during ski season, although some only go on select days of the week. Delta runs a daily 73 from SLC. Go to www.steamboat.com for a list of all flights in/out.
If you do get stuck in Denver it's approx 3:15 drive up to Steamboat. There are some van shuttles that go up that way too leaving from DEN, but they're pretty pricey. Might be better off renting a car at that point, but only Hertz and one other (don't remember which) will do one-way rentals to Hayden. Good luck and have fun, that place kicks asmar.

-Blucher:beer:

PS-One more thing: getting out of there (particularly on a weekend day) is similar to leaving a 3rd world country. Every large aircraft that comes in there does so within about 10 minutes of one another, and they all try to leave at exactly the same time. Lines to get checked in and check skis/etc... literally takes about 1.5-2 hours.:uzi:

 

[LT. Dangle]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great info!

 

[Blucher]

Anytime. Oh yeah, just thought of one more thing. When you walk up to the counter in DEN they will probably ask "did you already list?" The first time I apologized and said I didn't realize I could for the jumpseat as I was going by my ALPA jumpseat guide which did not say that. The woman gave me the number to United's listing thing, and then manually entered me into the system and I got on. Next time I tried it over the phone. It connected me with someone who I can only guess was probably in Mumbai (or some other not Kansas type place) and quite obviously was new to the English language. After appox 30 minutes and being on hold several times (I thought I had explained it all right) she read me a confirmation number and I was on my way. Guess what...when I got to the gate not only was that confirmation number not in there, it wasn't even the right number of characters for their confirmation numbers. It was sweet! I got to rent a car that day (they were way over sold anyway). If you do a little research you can usually rent a compact for around $16/day with unlimited mileage, and it's kind of fun to see if those things can actually make it over the mountain passes!:laugh:
Another possible option, if you've got access to ground transport (ie-visiting a friend in Steamboat) is going into Eagle/Vail. It's about 1.5 hour drive from there.

-Blucher

 

[Hovernut]

I had a very courteous UAL crew let me J/S out there from DEN just over 3 years ago....my 1st time J/S'ing. They saved me $20 or so by letting me ride in their hotel van to town, instead of taking other ground transportation. You might want to see if your crew is overnighting and get that deal.

The UAL crew got in late in the evening, had the whole next day in Steamboat, then the 1st flight out the next day....talk about a sweet trip!!! Bet that went quite senior!

Caught an AA 757 out a couple days later to DFW. Had a great time! Good luck!!

 

[low-key]

I got out to HDN in January just fine, but it was getting home that was the bitch. First flight in the morning was a 733 and the rest of the day are dashes. The 733 actually had a crew move which took the jumpseat and the dashes were weight restricted all day long. I ended up catching a ride on mother Delta to ATL. Good Luck, just leave yourself some extra time to get outta there.


PS- The UAL gate agents out there are AWESOME and a big help, which also made things a little easier