Weasil
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2003
- Posts
- 752
Here's a copy of a letter .. just sent to our jumpseat coordinator.....
Capt. XXXXX,
I just wanted to shoot you a quick note to alert you to a problem which may affect other PSA pilots in the future. It already ruined my Thanksgiving by keeping me from getting home for my extended family's Thanksgiving dinner. This was particularly frustrating as it would have been my first chance to make it to the annual get-together in 9 years.
I had finished a trip was attempting to J/S from DCA to EWR on Continental Airlines flight 1108 with a scheduled departure time of 12:59 PM. I arrived at the gate 40 minutes prior to scheduled departure time. As my family lives in northern New Jersey I tend to J/S on CAL quite a lot out of DCA and have never had a problem other than full or weight restricted flights. When I handed my ID, pilot certificate and medical to the agent he advised me that Continental had just gone to a new listing system based on CASS. I told him that PSA was not yet CASS approved but that there should be an alternate means of provided access to a cabin seat for non CASS airlines listed on CAL's reciprocal jumpseat list. ( I have seen the memo describing how US Airways mainline does this.) He told me that there was no way around the CASS template and that I had been returned as "DENIED" for the obvious reason that PSA is not CASS approved. Another agent confirmed this to me. I asked to speak to the captain but was told that there is nothing he could do and that there was no way for me to be allowed to go onto the aircraft to talk with him. I then politely asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor advised me that there was absolutely no way a non CASS pilot could now jumpseat on CAL even with plenty of empty cabin seats because the ONLY way to put a jumpseater in the system was through CASS.
While I realize that we will eventually get CASS, until then we have effectively been shut out of jumpseating on Continental. As we have a reciprocal Jumpseat agreement in place with the CAL pilots, I feel that this is an unfair and inappropriate action and needs to be brought to the attention of the Continental Jumpseat Coordinator. For what it is worth, since Continental Express is not a CASS approved airline, jumpseating on an express flight would continue as normal.
I would appreciate hearing from you how the Continental jumpseat coordinator responds to this situation. Also, do we have any sort of tentative date for CASS implementation at PSA? Not that promises mean anything here of course.
Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving,
Captain XXXXX
_________________________________________________
I cut and paste this on here as I felt it necessary to get this information in front of any Continental Pilots who might visit these pages. I'm hoping that this is just a mistake on the part of the DCA gate agents and needs to be corrected. As a commuter myself I am disturbed by this development.
Capt. XXXXX,
I just wanted to shoot you a quick note to alert you to a problem which may affect other PSA pilots in the future. It already ruined my Thanksgiving by keeping me from getting home for my extended family's Thanksgiving dinner. This was particularly frustrating as it would have been my first chance to make it to the annual get-together in 9 years.
I had finished a trip was attempting to J/S from DCA to EWR on Continental Airlines flight 1108 with a scheduled departure time of 12:59 PM. I arrived at the gate 40 minutes prior to scheduled departure time. As my family lives in northern New Jersey I tend to J/S on CAL quite a lot out of DCA and have never had a problem other than full or weight restricted flights. When I handed my ID, pilot certificate and medical to the agent he advised me that Continental had just gone to a new listing system based on CASS. I told him that PSA was not yet CASS approved but that there should be an alternate means of provided access to a cabin seat for non CASS airlines listed on CAL's reciprocal jumpseat list. ( I have seen the memo describing how US Airways mainline does this.) He told me that there was no way around the CASS template and that I had been returned as "DENIED" for the obvious reason that PSA is not CASS approved. Another agent confirmed this to me. I asked to speak to the captain but was told that there is nothing he could do and that there was no way for me to be allowed to go onto the aircraft to talk with him. I then politely asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor advised me that there was absolutely no way a non CASS pilot could now jumpseat on CAL even with plenty of empty cabin seats because the ONLY way to put a jumpseater in the system was through CASS.
While I realize that we will eventually get CASS, until then we have effectively been shut out of jumpseating on Continental. As we have a reciprocal Jumpseat agreement in place with the CAL pilots, I feel that this is an unfair and inappropriate action and needs to be brought to the attention of the Continental Jumpseat Coordinator. For what it is worth, since Continental Express is not a CASS approved airline, jumpseating on an express flight would continue as normal.
I would appreciate hearing from you how the Continental jumpseat coordinator responds to this situation. Also, do we have any sort of tentative date for CASS implementation at PSA? Not that promises mean anything here of course.
Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving,
Captain XXXXX
_________________________________________________
I cut and paste this on here as I felt it necessary to get this information in front of any Continental Pilots who might visit these pages. I'm hoping that this is just a mistake on the part of the DCA gate agents and needs to be corrected. As a commuter myself I am disturbed by this development.
