beyondhere

I just flew back on ATL-DFW today and noticed two Delta crew members seated in the Emergency Exit row seating on a Spirit flight!

Given that Spirit has just one daily flight, while Delta has multiple flights between ATL-DFW/DAL, why would Delta put its crew members on Spirit? Is this common? It'd be like you work for Kroger and management gives you a Dollar Tree gift card to use.

Ok maybe not the same. One theory that I have is Delta might be able can buy cheap Spirit tickets put it crew there, while selling it's own seats for much more. I wonder if Delta permits crew to send bags through their aircraft, depriving Spirit of it's bag fee revenue LOL.

Is this typical for Delta crew to be on a low frequency competitor flight, or might this have been an uncommon event?

AANYC1981

Because they have the best chance of getting on between DL/AA? Many airlines have flowback agreements to allow their crew to commute.

MSPeconomist

The crew were probably deadheading, so they needed to travel for their DL work assignment. DL might have decided to buy them tickets on Spirit rather than bump DL customers from a DL flight. Again, if Spirit fares are low, doing this could be cheaper.

xliioper

Why do you think DL was paying? I would suspect that they live in DFW area
(possibly due to former DL hub there) and are based in ATL and were just flying home on their own dime and were using NK because they were the cheapest. There are lots of flight crew who don't live in their base and it's up to them to arrange/pay for transportation to/from base.

Down3Green

Delta didn't put the crewmembers on Spirit. They put themselves on Spirit. They were undoubtedly just commuting from their base in ATL to their home in Dallas after their trip was done. Almost all major airlines have reciprocal jumpseat agreements that allow any offline crewmembers to get on after all paying passengers and company nonrevs. After the closing of the Dallas base a number of years ago, the DFW ATL commute became the toughest in the system. You will rarely find an open seat that isn't used by flightcrew. In fact it's so cutthroat that I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they hadn't bought a couple cheap tickets, but most likely just jumping

readywhenyouare

Delta is so bad even their own employees won't fly them.

AANYC1981

Also who cares?! As long as they get to work their flight...what's it to any of us?

Doc Savage

Yet you keep flying them....

PurdueFlyer

I've jumpseated on Spirit twice. Both times, I was given an exit row middle seat. And both times, in the exit aisle seat next to me, was a guy with a Diamond Medallion tag on his carry-on bag. I am NOT making this up.


DFW always has hordes of commuters, both pilots and F/As, and it's been like that ever since Delta closed the base years ago. Anecdotally, if I have an option to jumpseat or nonrev on a carrier that is NOT the dominant carrier between 2 markets, I'll take it nearly every time. Yes, I have a lower priority on Spirit, but Spirit doesn't have 80K employees who also have flight benefits. The crew that the OP witness probably had the same mentality- get out of the herd!

readywhenyouare

I knew someone that was a million miler on Delta. He will fly Delta when the company pays but he mostly uses Allegiant out of SFB when he is paying.

kettle1

You are kidding. DL bailed on MCO after making it a hub and DL became the "Official" Airline for Disney. That lasted several years (after Eastern Airlines), until one day I was on a flt from LAX to MCO in FC. This Disney "big wigg boss" seated next to me picked up a DL Sky Magazine and saw an eight page spread, full color ad spread for Universal Studios Orlando in a Sky Magazine. He flipped out and threw the magazine on the ground. He said what the "what". The agreement between DL and Disney ended about 2 months later. I will never forget that flt. True story. DL and Disney ended that partnership. Quick.

I would love to see the same thing if DL started pouring Pepsi soda.

readywhenyouare

Sadly that wouldn't surprise me. Delta goes for cheap now. If Pepsi gave them a contract one cent less than Coca Cola they would jump on it in a heartbeat. I'm surprised they haven't called up Shasta.

vincentharris

Excuse me they need to go with RC Cola....

vincentharris

Be interesting to know who was demoted or lost their job in marketing/SKY magazine for allowing that ad. That is an amateur and pretty stupid mistake. It would be like a company saying they would give the merchandising rights to a director because the movie was not going to make any money...... well that or some record company passing on George, Paul, John, and Ringo because "guitar groups were on their way out"

james318

ROYAL CROWN cola. (Said in Homer Simpson's mocking voice.)