A leaked communication to United pilots, purportedly from a union official, warns them that flying in the cockpit of another carrier is a privilege and advises them to be a “polite doormat” and to “keep your damn mouth shut” when jumpseating on Southwest Airlines or other carriers.
United Airlines Pilots Advised To Be A “Polite Doormat” When Jumpseating
Earlier this week, I wrote about what happened on a recent Southwest Airlines flight from San Francisco to San Diego. As first reported, a new hire United pilot noted a safety concern, then phoned the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to file an incident report. That incensed the union representing Southwest pilots and purportedly has led to instances of United pilots being denied a jumpseat when flying on Southwest.
New details have emerged suggesting this issue is escalating, even though it was not the United pilot who even made the FAA complaint:
- There is reason to believe that the pilot shared the safety concern with her partner and it was the partner who called the FAA to report the incident
- As a result of this incident, there do appear to be several instances of Southwest Airlines pilots refusing to allow United pilots to fly in their jump seats
- Now the union representing United pilots has warned its pilots not to file FAA reports when jumpseating on another carrier
Aviation insider JonNYC shares an internal message purportedly from an official of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) concerning the issue:
A newer hire at United jumpseated on SWA recently from SFO-SAN and after the flight was over, decided she would notify the FAA on the inadequacies of the crew whose jumpseat they graciously offered.
Not going to name names but for gods sake, please mentor our newer hires on how to Jumpseat properly and keep your damn mouth shut. At the very least, if you see something incorrect or wrong, very politely query the crew, if you feel you must, and let them explain themselves, if they choose to.
If they choose not to and you are not satisfied, please contact our Jumpseat Committee and let them handle it. Running to the FAA and skipping Rob’s Committee is not the way to do this and I’d think that common sense will prevail but here we are.
Personally I don’t say jack while I’m riding and am basically a very polite doormat. I’ve got to say I’m not surprised by this as some of our newer folks just seem to not get it at times and I’m not really sure how we can prevent this from happening in the future.
Rightly or wrongly, some of the SWA guys and gals are starting to turn down our Pilots as this story winds it [sic] way around their seniority list. Please share your thoughts on this with the people you fly with and remind them that Jumpseating is a privilege and not a right. Many of our pilots depend on a ride from SWA and to be turned down because of someone else’s foolishness is unforgivable.
— 🇺🇦 JonNYC 🇺🇦 (@xJonNYC) May 8, 2024
It’s a surprisingly candid note and while that may not technically represent the position of the union, it runs contrary to the idea that a jumpseat pilot is a third set of eyes that becomes responsible for ensuring the safety of the aircraft.
You would think that a flight crew would advise a jumpseater to speak up if something did not look right. But if the jumpseater felt there was a serious safety issue that was not properly resolved, the correct path would be to speak to the captain or to her union (in that order).
CONCLUSION
My own hunch is that this will calm down in the weeks ahead and United pilots will once again be welcome in Southwest cockpits, but now with the understanding that “what happens here, stays here.” I think that is fair enough and I am confident that we don’t need an FAA investigation every time a jumpseat pilot believes a concern should have been addressed differently.