Jumpseating LGA-ATL, ATL-DCA-LGA
Being lucky enough to have cockpit jumpseating access through work, I thought maybe a jumpseating trip report might be a unique travel perspective for some of you guys. It’s a bit long, sorry for that…
I decided to jumpseat down to Atlanta the other day, and Delta became the obvious airline to aim for since they own the eff out of that route. Going between two Delta hubs, however, meant that I’d be going up against a lot of Delta crewmembers for both cabin and cockpit jumpseats. I admit I was a bit concerned over whether or not I’d make it down there…or if I’d make it home in time for work this weekend.
Delta 461 LGA-ATL 6:00am MD-88 N912DE – Seat: Cockpit Jumpseat
A buddy of mine has sent me load factors the previous day, and even though at the time there about 36 open seats, I still wasn’t comfortable, and rightly so. I showed up one hour early and walked up to the gate to list myself on the flight (no ticket or advance listing...just walking up and asking to fly). The gate agent took my little pile of credentials and added me to the list. My ability to sit in the cockpit helps me against other standby people that are not authorized to sit up there, but I can ONLY sit up there if every cabin seat is already full. Since I was flying on another airline (I don’t work for Delta) I ranked pretty low against other standby passengers, and no matter what I’d lose out to Delta pilots by rank. There were 32 open seats and every single one of them ended up being occupied by other people on the standby list. Thankfully…no other pilots, and I ended up in the cockpit.
There is only one jumpseat in the cockpit of the MD-80, and it folds down sideways from the wall, blocking the cockpit door. It’s a bit snug and the seat itself angles high toward the front, so my knees were higher than my waist. Footrests for me fold outward from the cockpit’s center console help make it a bit more comfy since my feet didn’t even hit the floor otherwise. It wasn’t luxurious, but this old bird still was fairly comfortable up front…and dead-center in the cockpit is a great view of the fun.
You can see the age of the Mad Dog. Worn marks on the yoke, the gorgeous old gauges in between newer glass portions that were obviously added in recent years. The higher-up eyebrow windows for star navigation and even an ashtray right next to me on my left on the wall! I loved it.
I was pretty pumped about riding up front. The last of the dinosaur airplanes (except for the DC-9), and seeing it depart on LGA’s runway 13, and being a full plane during the summer no less, meant that I was in for a long takeoff roll and liftoff right above my old College Point neighborhood. As loud as the MD-80 is, it was impressively quiet from up front, and the feel of the plane was not much different at all from a more modern Boeing or Airbus. Liftoff was of course uneventful, and even though the US Open was over, we utilized the TNNIS departure, going straight out on runway 13 over Flushing with no right turn to the south like normal rwy 13 departures, which gave me a nice, longer view of my childhood home on the left. I wondered if my parents heard my plane.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, though the big difference from the cockpit is that you are of course flying looking forward as opposed to out a side window. There was a lone storm cell over New Jersey that was dead ahead on our route of flight. An easy deviation to avoid it, but since we were still climbing, we were low enough to see some amazing lightning strikes under the anvil cloud.
The Delta crew was incredibly nice and accommodating, as I’ve found them to be consistently for the past couple of years. Gate agents to flight attendants to pilots….all smiling, helpful, friendly people.
Delta 938 ATL-DCA 9:20am MD-88 N911DE – Seat: 24A
Getting home the next morning was going to be a bit tougher. Storms the previous night in the NYC area has caused a lot of cancellations and flights would be filled up even without it being an already difficult route to jumpseat on.
The previous evening I had spent some time in front of a computer looking up all these different routing options to get me home. Connections in CMH or DCA offered a lot of options for the 2nd leg, and even if I needed to go to JFK or EWR instead of LGA, I just wanted to end up back in New York by the end of the day. I listed all these flights and times on an index card and then headed to ATL feeling fairly confident.
I got to the airport shortly before 9am and went to the gate for the 9:50am ATL-LGA flight. The agent told me there were about 2 standby seats open with 3 standby passengers already, one of them already having the cockpit jumpseat spoken for (a pilot), so I knew my chances were bad (it was an MD-80 with only 1 cockpit jumpseat). I knew there was a 9:20am departure to DCA and I told her I’d likely aim for DCA but I asked her to list me on the ATL-LGA flight anyway as a backup. She was more than willing to accommodate and gave me a warm “Good luck getting home” as I walked away.
I few gates down was the DCA gate. They were already boarding and once that gate agent listed me and gave me a seat assignment immediately, relief washed over me in an awesome wave. With hourly shuttles to LGA from DCA on either US Airways or Delta, not to mention the proximity offering me options for train, bus or car, I was comfortable in getting home.
I got to my seat, 24A, an exit row. It didn’t recline because of the 2nd exit row behind me, but I couldn’t care less…I’m flying for free. The ride was fine, the crew professional, and I landed in DCA safely, having gotten to see the Pentagon out the window.
US Airways DCA-LGA 1:00pm (scheduled) A319 N742PS – Seat 7E
Once I got to DCA, I THOUGHT it would be easy for me from here. Since I’d already flown two Delta legs on this whole trip, I decided to do some US Airways flying. Also, back at LGA, my car was parked in the south lot and I figured it would be easier to get to from a US Airways arrival instead of taking the Delta Shuttle, that gates-in at LGA’s Marine Air Terminal on the northern end of the airport.
There may be a concourse shuttle at DCA that I don’t know about, but in order to get to the gate I wanted to be at, I needed to leave security and re-enter on the other side of the terminal. When I got to the gate I wanted to be at, I saw a massive crowd and I realized that this may not be as easy as I thought (Murphy’s Law at work!).
It’s a few minutes after 11am and I listed on the 12:00pm departure. I knew I wasn’t making this first flight even before the agent told me, judging by the several pilots standing nearby and the line of people waiting to speak to the her. It turns out that the NYC storms the previous night caused a ton of cancellations on all flights and everyone was still being accommodated this morning, and from what we heard they would continue to be so well into the afternoon.
I missed that one, and myself and the other crewmembers started discussing possibly renting a car or van together and making the drive, and word was that seats wouldn’t open up until the 5pm flight. Yikes.
Somehow, most of the pilots (American Airlines folks) left to look into other flights, and there was suddenly just myself and one other AA pilot. When they closed the 1pm flight, there were two jumpseats open (Airbus has two cockpit jumpseats), and we were both assigned to it. Our lucky day!
We entered the cockpit and went about standard jumpseating etiquette by introducing ourselves, asking permission to ride and presenting our paperwork and various identification. The crew was very friendly and professional and we prepped to sit up front when the flight attendant told us of some seats that were still open in the cabin. Though the cockpit is amazing and definitely would have been preferred to sit there on this short leg into LGA, we’ve got to take cabin seats if they are open, so we headed in back and I sat in 7E, an open middle seat. Again, fine by me!
Oh, did I mention I was on the PSA scheme plane? Pretty awesome.
Since I didn’t really expect to go through DCA today, it was great to look out the window and see The Capitol, the scaffolded Washington Monument, and my favorite, The White House, on departure. The flight otherwise was short and uneventful, but approach was great.
LGA was landing on Expressway Visual 31, and with me sitting on the right side, I’d get to see my parents’ house again! More importantly, while coasting over the LIE at 1,500ft, I was able to lean over and look down at Matt’s grave from the sky. It was great to see my buddy from the air, especially in a plane that has a smiley face painted on the front.
I landed smoothly and my trip was over. I got to take advantage of some flying benefits that I am very grateful to have, and enjoyed them thanks to the professionalism and kindness of crews from two airlines other than my own.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I’ll answer what I can, but of course will need to protect some information for my own privacy and for that of security as well.
