Sapozhnik posted:

    This is a topic from a hundred pages ago but what is a jumpseat war and why do pilots get caremad about it

Animal:

Human history is tainted by countless wars that should have never been fought. Crassus’ expedition into Parthia. The First Crusade. The 30 years war. World War I. The Vietnam War. The War in Afghanistan.

Sit down my lad and let me tell you the tale of the Jumpseat War.

Airline pilot groups hold agreements as to who gets to jumpseat with whom and under which terms. Generally this is a simple mutually beneficial relationship with little drama. A FedEx pilot can walk into an American Airlines gate and list for the jumpseat so that he can commute to work, home, or to travel to wherever his current mistress is. You ask for the jumpseat, if there is an open seat in the cabin you get it, and if not, you ride in the front with the pilots. In case more than one pilot lists for the jumpseat, airlines use a priority system. For an airline like United, first dibs go to their own pilots, based on seniority. Next, their regional carriers, first come first serve. And lastly everyone else.

United was having a jumpseat supply and demand problem, so they decided on a simple solution. First their own pilots. Then the pilots of their wholly owned regional carriers. Followed by the pilots of regional carriers who serve United but are not wholly owned and also serve Delta and American. Followed by everyone else. Seems fair, right?

Enter Skywest Airlines.

Skywest is the most prominent regional airline holdings company. Which means that on the pathetic shanty town that is the regional airline community, they are the top dog. They have absorbed and dissipated older more proud regional airlines, and out-competed others. Skywest pilots have become increasingly arrogant, to the point where many don’t consider themselves mere regional airline pilots, but something more. Something more prestigious, worthy of respect. This is bullshit, of course. In the airline industry, the peak of the regional pilot world is still below even the lowest of the low cost carriers like Frontier or Spirit or ACMI carriers like Atlas Air and Kalitta.

When Skywest, Inc. pilots heard news that United Airlines was changing their jumpseat priority to a level below regional airlines that they consider beneath them in dignity, but which are wholly owned by United and only fly for United, the Jumpseat War began. Skywest pilots fired the first shots by denying United pilots access to the jumpseat on Skywest jets. This soon escalated on social media where internet warriors fought to defend their airline’s honor. The unions and management groups had to get involved.

Ultimately, pilots only work for a regional airline - no matter how “prestigious” they perceive it to be - with the goal of eventually making it to a real airline. Outside of flow and guaranteed interview agreements, legacy airline recruiters don’t give a fuck which regional you worked for, they are all scum. So this sense that they are more prestigious than others is just an illusion for Skywest pilots. A mirage. Like many other wars such as the Falkland Islands, Skywest began a war they could not possibly win. United pilots began creating lists of Skywest pilots who denied the jumpseat to United pilots, and began sharing those lists to recruiters from other real airlines. With the threat of their careers being stunted, Skywest first officers began pressuring their proud boomer captains who work at Skywest for life because they have DUI’s and domestic violence charges, to surrender. They had no leverage. It was folly to think that Skywest were the equal of United, or any real airline.

The war was lost for Skywest pilots. Their egos bruised, they again redirected their ire towards other regional pilot groups who they consider to be inferior. That’s where we are in the present day.

Stupid Post Maker:

Sorry guys, here comes the Kool-Aid drinker.

Maybe 1% of the pilots at SkyWest cared about the jumpseat war and actually denied jumpseats to anyone. Our pilot group representation (shitty fake union) was trying to scare us into not allowing United jumpseaters because they were told by UALPA that there wasn't an actual agreement in writing between the two companies for the jumpseat. No one that I talked to believed that so we went on business as usual.