Non-Revenue Flights

As usual, forgive the rambling and grammar.  I'm in the crew room, and the guy next to me has been on the phone for well over an hour.  Go in the hall.  A big pet peeve of mine is noise in the crew room, especially those who are stuck in it with ready reserve.  Anyway.  Non-reving, as it’s called, is the best part of this job by far.  It’s also called jumpseating, although we don’t sit in the jumpseat in the flight deck (PC term for “cockpit,” I guess because the word “cock” is in it, which doesn’t offend University of South Carolina graduates, like me,) unless the flight is full.  Most airlines let us sit in the jumpseat if the flight is full as well.  Our jumpseat agreement means that we can fly for free, anywhere in the US, and anywhere else in the world, for a small fee, which is usually the international taxes.  We just have to display our badge to the gate agent, and if there’s an empty seat, we’re on it.  No prior listing, nothing.  Listing is another story, with the large carriers my regional airline flies for, we either call and list, or list online.  Listing tells us how many seats are available, and how many other non revenue crew members are already listed.  This is how I usually book my travel, if I don’t want to risk being stuck somewhere due to a full flight.  I occasionally jumpseat.  For instance, on my first 2 days off when I first started, I listed on some empty flights to go visit my parents overnight.  The first time I went on a little jumpseat excursion, was when I had three days off.  I was based in Washington-Dulles at the time, and had no idea where I wanted to go.  As far as hotels go, many hotels offer a very cheap fare, as well as rental cars.  Another great benefit.  Having three days off, I hopped on a Delta flight to Atlanta.  I didn’t have checked bags to worry about, so I could basically fly wherever I wanted.  I walked around the Atlanta airport, looking for flights that were ready to board and had open seats.  San Francisco and Los Angeles were all oversold, so I hopped on a flight to Seattle, on a whim.  In Seattle, I hopped on an Alaska Airlines flight to Los Angeles, where I already had a hotel by the airport booked.  The next day, I rented a car, and explored the city.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

That night, I took the red-eye to Minneapolis-St. Paul, stayed the night, then hopped on the flight home to Washington-Reagan, and took the train/bus back to Dulles.

Minneapolis

I had four days off a few days ago, so I flew out to San Francisco, ate lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf, walked around the city for a while, and took an evening flight to Las Vegas.

From the SFO airtrain

Alcatraz

Daly City from BART

My view of Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate whilst eating lunch

Sup?

I killed some time in the Vegas airport before hopping on the redeye back to Charlotte.  All this in a day.

Took the Nevada A310 from San Francisco to Vegas.

It’s exhausting, but if I have these benefits, I’m going to use them.  I spent my last days off meeting the parents of a lovely young lady.  I have Christmas Eve and the 23^rd off, but I’ll use them for shopping rather than traveling.  As for my next days off, I have no clue where I’ll be, but I hope to spend at least some of it with that lovely young lady again who is monopolizing my non-rev travel, but I don’t mind.  You know who you are.