Thank you Alaska for the Jumpseat. NOT!

[sabreliner]

Actually, it is neither. The jumpseat belongs to the company. Only those that the company approves can occupy the jumpseat. The company give the Captain the right to deny a jumpseat, but not to approve it.

Actually...The jumpseast is a negotiated benefit. The continued denial of that benefit is a violation of the contract. Allowing a gate agent to take that benefit that negotiating capital was spent gaining is just the same as allowing a gate agent to "adjust" your times and affect your pay.

Further, allowing a gate agent control over a seat in the cockpit only further erodes Captain's Authority, which is already under serious attack all over our industry.

The jumpseat may seem a small issue to those of us who don't commute, but for the rest of us it is huge. Also, the jumpseat's impact on a company's operations cannot be ignored since if a pilot is arbitrairly denied a ride, a flight may leave late or be cnx'd alltogether due to the short staffing of most of our companies.

 

[Getter]

50% average for me with the JAX system since its been in operation. It seems to be the worst as far as getting CASS approval on any airline I travel on, which is pretty much all of them. I've found going to a different gate for approval can sometimes get different results. For the most part I avoid Alaska these days unless its my last option, because JAX is unreliable.

I wish Alaska would figure out what the problem is and fix it or at least have an alternate means of approval.

 

[B190Captain]

Not too long ago I missed a flight on American out of Miami because of "USER ERROR." Agent did not know what she was doing and it kept flagging me as "Cabin JS only."

 

[waveflyer]

Rant all you want- but PLEASE DO go through your JS coordinator and DOCUMENT it.

To those who say get used to it- i think thats a wrong attitude. My old regional was getting in the habit of bumping jumpseaters to avoid a delay- and even had rampers deny approval b/c they didn't want to get ballast(!)-

So i got in the habit of walking out to the gate everytime we were full-- A small effort on my part- meant huge things to the 15-20 jumpseaters i discover that way every year. Every gate agent is stressed- but none are allowed to bump a jumpseater b/c they don't want to figure it out. AND - like has been said- i'm all about on time-on time! let's roll- but i'll take a delay - and stay even keeled about it- any day of the week if it gets a JS on. We know who is in the CASS and who's not--
"ok- we're alright- but I know he should be allowed on so, we'll just hang out until we figure it out."

More flies with honey than vinegar- but it's 'shakes-head' silly how many impossible problems get fixed pretty quickly when you set that parking brake and get involved a bit.

look out for each other- industry wide- noone else is.

 

[RadioClash]

Actually, it is neither. The jumpseat belongs to the company. Only those that the company approves can occupy the jumpseat. The company give the Captain the right to deny a jumpseat, but not to approve it.

You are missing the point. Nevermind.

 

[tico]

50% average for me with the JAX system since its been in operation. It seems to be the worst as far as getting CASS approval on any airline I travel on, which is pretty much all of them. I've found going to a different gate for approval can sometimes get different results. For the most part I avoid Alaska these days unless its my last option, because JAX is unreliable.

I wish Alaska would figure out what the problem is and fix it or at least have an alternate means of approval.

The fact that JACS is another typical in house technology that has never been a consistant performer is inline with everything that we do. Jacs broke 50% of the time and the airline broke the other 50% makes us a lousy bet for commuters. And that is true for company and non-company. If the gate agent cant verify me in Jacs then I can not ride in my own jumpseat. The captain has absolutely no say in the yes only in the no..........

 

[SRMairlines]

The good ol' days CASS, JAX, and other crap really didn't exist. Jumpseating was as easy as flashing an I.D. and get a slip signed by the CAPT. I guess we can thank TSA and the Homeland security department for their security directives.

 

[Morning Wood]

I had a similar incident very recently. I was JS out of LAS on DAL. The gate agent informed me that the Delta gates do not have internet access, therefore they could not verify me in CASS and I could only get a seat in the back. I did get a ride home (thanks BTW), but if the cabin was full I would not have been able to ride the actual JS because they have no means to verify me in CASS. I asked if it was a temporary problem and she said that's the way it has always been at LAS. I asked if the front ticket counter could access CASS and she told me no, it was the same out there.

So, what's the skinny? Was she blowing smoke up my skirt or is there really a CASS problem with DAL in LAS? If so, is anybody addressing it?

It has to do with the photo CASS requirement which for some reason does not work in the D gate in LAS. This has been an issure for awhile and I thought it had been fixed or at least looked into. I haven't jumped on anyone but UA out of LAS recently and they were able to verify me with my PPR#.

 

[coolyokeluke]

I missed two flights out of ANC because JACS wouldn't permit me to get on. The gate agents didn't like the fact that I wanted to speak with the captain. The crews were great but there was nothing they could do about it. I had similiar problems out of Denver and Seattle. JACS is a hit or miss proposition, I learned I couldn't depend on it. Nor could I depend on Alaska flights even if JACS did approve me, how many flights were "delayed" when actually the loads were low so they rebooked everyone on the subsequent flight and called it a delay instead of what it really was, a cancellation?

I was always treated great by Alaska crews but their operation can't be depended on.

 

[SRMairlines]

I was always treated great by Alaska crews but their operation can't be depended on.

We can't always trust our own operation. Since we are Alaska our management want's things to be 'Unique'. Unfortunately unique does not work in this industry anymore. (That is why we reinvented the wheel again to develop Jacs instead of use stand-alone CASS system)

You need to report this to your J/S committee chairman. Make sure he will contact ours with the info. Ongoing problems like this need to be addressed and fixed. I am a commuter and it drives me nuts to hear these stories. I have never been affected by Jacs but we need to know when these incidents occur. Unfortunately Jacs is how we access the CASS system, so if it's down we are all SOL.