What is the Process to Jumpseat on Hawaiian?

[Huskers1]

I had an Allegiant pilot on my jump seat a few months ago flying flight 4 (red eye) to LAX. He showed up in a pilot shirt that looked like it had spent the last month wadded up in the bottom of his suitcase and smelled like it had already flown 6 or 8 days since it had been washed. He got pissed when I told him since anyone seeing him in uniform in my cockpit would assume he was a Hawaiian pilot, he needed to change to a different shirt. Then on taxi he pulled out some headphones and his iPad and started to watch a movie when we were in sterile cockpit. After putting it all away at my direction, he promptly put his feet up on my flight bad and went to sleep letting out a huge snore right before we rotated (which is when I found out he was asleep). After we leveled off, he woke up and promptly asked when he would be fed. This is when I told him that he needed to brush up on his jump seat etiquette. I said during taxi, take off and until at least 10,000 feet he needed to be paying attention to what was going on in the cockpit and around the plane. When he asked for a jump seat, he needed to be properly attired. When jump seating he was considered by the FAA and the airline as a crew member and needed to conduct himself as such - before breaking any FARs (i.e. sleeping) he needed to make sure it was OK with the Captain. And that if we had extra food after feeding the pax and crew, we would gladly give him some but don't come on board expecting it or demanding it. Was this you? (No I didn't call anyone on this guy.)

I've take quite a few Allegiant pilots on my jump seat and have enjoyed their company. I also have many Allegiant pilot friends who I flew with at Scenic eons ago. I had one bad asshat Allegiant pilot on my jump seat but I don't hold that against the rest. Heck, I'd even take asshat again if he wanted a ride.

I jump on SWA a lot. Every time I do I thank them for making jump seating easy. 95% of the time I end up being thanked for how nice and easy it was for them to jump on us and for their families to non-rev. I would guess that I have an offline jump seater on at least 25% of my flights to the mainland. Never have I heard of them experiencing any hassles. We as Hawaiian pilots take pride in making our jump seats easily and readily available. Most of the Captains check to make sure there are not any jump seaters or nonrevs left behind if we have empty seats.

There are no doubt a few instances where someone had had a problem getting on or did not liked our ride. It happens at Hawaiian and every other airline. But it is not the systematic or epidemic problem you guys are making it out to be here.

Nope, definitely not me. If it was, my post wouldn't make much sense. I rarely travel in uniform and if I just got off work, I change into a regular shirt just for the reason you stated. I've never demanded or expected anything. Like I said, when I jump seat it is all "yes sir, no sir, thank you sir" just like I was taught as a child. I am sorry you had a bad experience with one of our guys but I think a FO saying he hopes I lose my job while the CA sat there with his thumb up his a$$ trumps any pilot who shows poor jump seat etiquette. I can't imagine one of my FO's saying that to anyone, at least not in my presence. What's wrong with people? Jump seating and being polite really isn't that hard and I don't care who you fly for.
All this being said, I still jump on you guys and appreciate the ride and thank the crew every time. For whatever reason, I have just had bad luck on HAL. Maybe more crews don't appreciate our being there, like the guy who stated his opinion, but just keep their opinions to themselves.

 

[Dan Roman]

Nope, definitely not me. If it was, my post wouldn't make much sense. I rarely travel in uniform and if I just got off work, I change into a regular shirt just for the reason you stated. I've never demanded or expected anything. Like I said, when I jump seat it is all "yes sir, no sir, thank you sir" just like I was taught as a child. I am sorry you had a bad experience with one of our guys but I think a FO saying he hopes I lose my job while the CA sat there with his thumb up his a$$ trumps any pilot who shows poor jump seat etiquette. I can't imagine one of my FO's saying that to anyone, at least not in my presence. What's wrong with people? Jump seating and being polite really isn't that hard and I don't care who you fly for.
All this being said, I still jump on you guys and appreciate the ride and thank the crew every time. For whatever reason, I have just had bad luck on HAL. Maybe more crews don't appreciate our being there, like the guy who stated his opinion, but just keep their opinions to themselves.

In other words, you bad mouth Hawaiian on the internet while getting free rides from them.....plenty of pilots have been on here saying how well they get treated on Hawaiian. While every airline has a few idiots, most people describe HA as a friendly, laid back, but professional pilot group. Here we have a couple Mesa/Allegiant pilots saying otherwise. Sorry, we do have a few guys who unfairly blame you for working for a bottom feeder operation that undercuts other airlines to try and get market share. Personally, I don't blame the pilots, but unfortunately some do. In fact, our union has even come out and stated that ALL pilots are to be treated professionally and not to blame pilots for the faults of their management. That said, we have a lot of ex Aloha pilots that understandably just don't like Go pilots and don't appreciate pilots that helped put them on the street.
The bottom line is though, if you had a bad experience on Hawaiian with a gate agent, there is a very good chance you may have had something to do with it.

 

[NOZ]

What Jim says is correct. It's supposed to be easy and also we carry as many jumpseaters as empty seats will allow. I've had plenty of jumpseaters and no one seemed to have a problem. As far as having a problem with an agent....one possible explanation, we have a few agents that could use charm school, but a majority are great. However, while it's true everywhere that if your nice they are nice and if you are not nice, they may not be so nice, at Hawaiian it's even a little more so. If you are anything other than humble and friendly you may not get the same treatment that someone who is would get. We have a few agents that simply wouldn't feel obligated to help someone if they were demanding and a few who would probably take it on their own to toss a hurtle out if they deemed you demanding.

If approaching the desk and asking, "Hi, how you are doing?" Followed by presenting of IDs and asking, "Is the jumpseat is available?" Not the correct method to ask for the jumpseat, please help me in case I ever try to use Hawaiian again. Honestly, I'd like to know a better way...

Btw, I don't work for Go or Allegiant... Also, I'd say some of Hawaiian pilot appear less than professional too, like your captain that commutes out of Santa Rosa. But, I still took a later flight and let him have the jumpseat so he could make his show.

 

[Singlecoil]

I jumped on Hawaiian once years ago and I made the mistake of reading the jumpseat pass that I had signed. I knew all airlines had different policies so I took the time to read the pass. It may have been on the back but it said to present your pass to the lead flight attendant and he/she will either direct you toward the flight deck or to a seat in the cabin. If given a seat in the cabin, stop by the flight deck on the way out to thank the crew. I was directed to a seat in coach. We were half way to HNL when the flight engineer (it was a while ago) came back to ask me for my credentials and admonish me for not asking the captain for a ride. Sometimes you just can't win.

 

[BentOver]

It's really very simple. If you're getting a free ride, as a pilot, on an OAL, stop by the cockpit. Been the same for years. I'm sure much longer than I've been doing this.

Jumpseating on Hawaiian is the same as just about any other carrier. Gate agents are no worse nor better than mainland gate agents. Some are grumpy, some just don't like pilots for whatever reason. I showed up at the gate an hour early in DFW recently. The AA gate agent almost left me behind for no reason. Luckily I mentioned (again) that I'd still like the cockpit JS if available. But I don't go around bashing AA over it. The crew was great, had a nice 1st class meal in the JS, and I'd gladly reciprocate when it's my turn to make the left seat call.