anon2k2

Nothing earth shattering, but a question. I was on a LAX-SEA DL flight where a JetBlue pilot flew in the cockpit jumpseat, and a Delta Connection pilot in uniform (Compass, from his ID badge) flew in an economy seat.

I would have speculated that it would have been reverse, so I was curious if anyone knew how it's decided which pilots sit in the jumpseat versus not.

SEUS777

I would guess that it's ultimately up to the captain on who gets to sit in the cockpit jump seat. Maybe he/she knew the Jet Blue pilot. Or they did rock, paper, scissors and the Compass pilot lost.

TTT

I think the economy seat is preferred from a comfort standpoint. I would assume the jumpseat is last filled so the priority order would be economy seat and then jumpseat. In this case the Compass pilot cleared first and the JetBlue pilot got what was left over.

DLMiddleSeats

From what I have seen this is 100% correct. I've seen pilots/FA's list for flights and talk to the GA about jump seat only if they wouldn't clear otherwise.

Lately it's hard enough for active employees to get on a lot of flights, nor OAL pilots/FA's jump seat is probably the only option most of the time as most people aren't qualified to sit there...me for example. And I've had multiple jobs but none in-flight so I'm SOL if jump seat is all that's left for me.

I also saw a pilot one time volunteer to take the jump seat as otherwise a no rev family would have had to split up. They were very grateful

Widgets

Yes. When many OAL/DC pilots want to fly, usually, the highest priority get the best cabin seats and the rest use jumpseats. However, OAL flight attendants are ineligible for cabin jumpseats, so sometimes the Delta FAs kindly offer to sit in a jumpseat in order to let an OAL FA fly in the cabin if needed.

3Cforme

Somebody versed in the arcana of the contracts may correct me, but I believe that Delta Connection pilots (Endeavor, Shuttle America, SkyWest, et al) have lower standby priority than Delta pilots. Mainline pilots will remind you stridently: Delta Connection isn't Delta, no matter the logo on the plane.

davetravels

My SkyWest FA friend says that she has priority on SkyWest DL flights over Delta employees.

GagaPilot

This is mostly correct. However DL Connection pilots have priority over mainline employees whenever the flight is on their own company's metal. (Eg. ExpressJet pilot on an ExpressJet DL connection flight). I'm a DL connection pilot myself and my priority is S3 on my own company operated flights and S3C on DL mainline flights.

Back to OPs question: Since Compass is a DL connection carrier, the Compass pilot has non-rev privileges (S3C) on DL mainline flights. The JetBlue pilot would fall into the OAL category with S4 priority. Since S3C would clear first, the Compass pilot would receive a cabin seat over the JetBlue pilot. Since there was apparently no cabin seats left, it was Jumpseat for the JetBlue pilot.

And as someone mentioned, it's been extremely hard lately for commuting employees to get to/from work. In order to get to work this morning I had to commute into ATL 5 hours earlier than what was needed.

Widgets

I forgot to mention there are a few exceptions to how priority is decided. For example, all SkyWest employees are higher than all Delta employees on SkyWest flights. However, Delta and Endeavor employees share the same priority on Endeavor flights, so they compete purely on their hire dates. But obviously, all non-DL/DC employees will always come after all DL/DC employees.

anon2k2

Thanks for clarifying. The only reason I thought the jumpseat would have been assigned to DL or DC pilots first was because of liability issues in the cockpit. The comfort thing I definitely get, because when I see the way it folds out, I just can't imagine it's comfortable.

No_Name

According to The ALPA Jumpseat Guide the general rule of thumb is

Of course, the PIC is ultimately in charge and the Jumpseater counts as an additional crew member. Some PICs may prefer to have a pilot who holds the matching type rating in the cockpit.