AKLifetimeFlyer

This is a first for me. About to take off for SEA from SLC on an AS flight. The plane is relatively empty. After Group F boarded, at least two, maybe 3 FA’s in DL uniforms boarded. After my initial panic subsided that I was on the wrong plane, I realized they were taking their seats. Clearly AS is shuttling them to SEA. Has anyone heard of this arrangement? It seems utterly bizarre to me.

Eastbay1K

Happens all the time. Arch enemies in the boardroom, shuttling the "enemy" around in real life - between almost all airlines, every day.

PABE

Could be a deadhead or just a whole crew commuting home as a nonrev. FAs get reciprocal nonrev commuting benefits on other airlines.

Crew Scheduling can book deadheads on any airline just like any other business travel agent can.

Generally it is preferred to deadhead on one’s own metal. But if another airline has a better schedule, CS can book that.

sltlyamusd

Not unusual. I’ve seen deadheading crew from other airlines with some frequency. Maybe DL’s flight was full.

pmblinn

Increases your chances of a PDB.

Kacee

As others have already noted, it's really not unusual at all to see uniformed flight crew from another carrier. Many crew commute to their home base. I sit next to uniformed flight crew from a different carrier several times a year. As also noted, this is an accepted practice and there are reciprocal nonrev (standby) arrangements.

StevenSeagalFan

Yep. Crew will commute on any airline to get to work. It's reciprocal, competition doesn't matter.

Falconkidding

Yeah we catch rides on whoever we can. No ones a nemesis or anything. All just trying to get to work or get home. When i was a conmuter to NYC flew WN B6 AA DL UA NK fed ex. Gotta get creative to get home or to work. Everyone treats you nicely cause they know it will be reciprocated.

Flying so many airlines for work I'm kinda freelance as a pax everyone seems the same except the ulcc i just go by cheapest ticket. Maybe if i made enough to go in first id be loyal cause the hard products do differ but im a lowly pilot so cattle class it is.

navydevildoc

Huh, I never really thought about FDX and UPS giving jumpseat rides before. It makes sense, just not a scenario I ever thought about.

Falconkidding

Yeah its awesome when it works. Most cargo aircraft have a couple 1st class style seats or even a legit rest area you can use. Even the amazon prime 737s have 4 jumpseats in the l1 r1 door area.

paul21

Hub-to-hub or base-to-base flights are especially difficult for commuters without positive space or getting on as a nonrev. Aside from the market capture aspect, the company uses these flights to reposition crews in response to weather and other dynamic events as well as staffing imbalance.

The difference between base-level staffing and flying needs saturates these flights with deadheads (more SEA flights but more SLC crew). This imbalance happens because senior employees prefer to be based in cheaper cities leaving new hires to fill slots in high COL bases. For DL this means SEA and JFK are new-hire heavy while ATL and SLC more senior. This creates a scenario where SLC is fully staffed while SEA has a shortage of crew as hires are joining and creates a need to deadhead in crew from SLC to SEA.

Typically the other airline agreement is to pay 10% of the full Y fare for standby travel or a fixed amount based on distance (would be similar in nature)--I assume this agreement is true in case of IROPS as well, but probably not for scheduled flying with deadheading. My guess is that they pay some discount on the market rate for the flight to account for displaced revenue. Jump seat flying is different since it can't be sold to the public.

DLASflyer

No offense intended but you must not get out of Alaska much.

notquiteaff

A few years ago, a Mesa pilot died in the Atlas Air crash near Dallas while catching a ride as a jumpseater.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Air_Flight_3591

chrisl137

If you fly last flight of the day to someplace that's a base it sometimes seems like half or more of the plane is airline personnel (both AS and OAL) getting a ride back to base. I sometimes see the cabin crew offering comp items to OAL crew in uniform on earlier flights that actually have stuff to sell.

Peregrine415

Had uniformed Aer Lingus cabin crew on an evenng Jet Blue flight from JFK to BOS.