Life is funny...

Trying to get the jumpseat on a full flight with other pilots also trying to get on typically comes down to one thing: seniority. However, pilots who work for the airline that operates that flight have priority over other airline pilots. Example: Mesa operated flight, United 777 Captain and myself trying to get the jumpseat... I win. When there are 2 or more pilots from the same airline attempting to get on a flight, it comes down to seniority, like most everything in this industry.

But for some reason Mesa has a paragraph in our General Operations Manual that states that jumpseat priority will be given "first come, first served" beginning one hour prior to departure, if more than one pilot from the same airline are attempting to get on. Mesa pilots take priority over other airline pilots.

I'm not sure why we're different than the rest of the airlines out there, and quite frankly, I think it should go by seniority. But it doesn't.

At the end of my last trip I was attempting to commute home from Dulles to Charlotte. There was only one flight left to get me home, a Mesa operated CRJ-700. The flight was listed as overbooked, so I figured it would come down to the jumpseat. I went to the gate an hour before departure and listed for the jumpseat. No more than 30 seconds after I got to the gate to list, a Mesa Captain stepped up to the gate, and hearing that I was requesting the jumpseat says "We're doing this by seniority. I've been in this industry for 20 years, and we're doing this by seniority," in a grumpy voice.

Now, if he had just been nice about it and said he was trying to get on the jumpseat too, I probably would have just let him take it since he was obviously more senior than I. But I didn't like his approach to the situation, so I said "Actually, our GOM says first come, first served."

Well, luckily for us, there ended up being two open seats in the back, and a mainline United pilot was able to take the jumpseat.

Fast forward a couple days to the next trip... Printing my schedule in the crew room in Dulles, and in walks the same Captain. He sees me and says "Hey, it's Seniority. I'm gonna call you Seniority from now on." to which I replied, "Ok, I'll call you GOM."

Fast forward another two days.. I'm in Detroit on a layover and receive a call from crew tracking. I've been junior assigned to two extra legs on the last day of the trip. That's fine, I think, at least I get double pay for those two legs.

I check my schedule online to see who the captain is, and what do you know... none other than the grumpy captain himself. Ahhh.. the irony. Turns out he's a decent guy; just a bit grumpy after spending so many years in the industry, being furloughed from US Airways, and ending up at Mesa.

Life sure can be funny...