Originally Posted by
aterpster
Jump seating makes it much easier. That came about in the mid-1980s when I was still working. Prior to that, on my airline at least, a commuter had to use his pass. Full airplane meant no ride on that flight.
Back in the 1980's there were jumpseat airlines like Pan Am, TWA and Northwest that would take other carriers' pilots and in some cases dispatchers and mechanics. Other airlines, like United, would only take their own pilots and I believe Delta would not even take their own pilots at one time.
At Pan Am I remember having a Delta pilot on the jumpseat over the pond. The Clipper Skipper asked the Deltoid why they didn't take other airlines' pilots on the jumpseat. 'We don't consider it professional' was the reply.
Over time reciprocal jumpseat agreements spread but as always there is no good deal that a pilot gets that somebody doesn't abuse. Some folks would get must ride positioning tickets issued on another carrier, ride the jumpseat and refund or rewrite the ticket for personal use. And some non-sked cargo outfits would use the jumpseat to position crews for free. Or, so I'm told.
Some carriers were better to me riding free internationally as a jumpseat rider than they were riding on a pass or a full fare positioning ticket it seemed.
9-11 messed up jumpseats, especially internationally, but with many U.S. airline domiciles over half of the pilots still commute more than 100 miles to the base.
The commuting issue was kinda swept under the rug in the last revision of FAR rest rules but it should be part of the discussion in my opinion since some folks really push the envelope. Again, might not be a player in this SFO incident but I submit that it is an element of fatigue in many cases.