You have got to be kidding me. What is the percentage of time that can ever happen? I can't tell you how many people got a ride home because I volunteered to give up my seat for an empty fa seat in the last year. You east people are truly the nastiest airline workers in this country.
This whole cabin jumpseat debate is symptomatic of an underlying difference in corporate culture that highlights the issues of trying to integrate these two groups.
I have never ridden the cabin jump, I do not commute, and have never had the need. However, in over two decades of being a captain, I have dispensed authorization enumerable times.
From my experience, by far the greatest use by pilots of the cabin jumpseat is to accomodate an other airline pilot who is allowed to ride the flightdeck jumpseat, while the company pilot takes the cabin jump. That is followed by the use of the cabin jump to open a cabin seat to accomodate boarding of another non-rev passenger.
How this relates to corporate culture.
The West has always had a go along get along sense of cooperation. Back in the day, AWA was one of very few airlines that could board as many jumpseat request as there were seats available in the cabin. (This when every major limited jumpseats to the number of seats in the flightdeck, all too often just 1). AWA had very liberal pass travel rules, and we went out of our way to accomodate everybody. The idea being, we are a service company, we accomodate everybody, we make it a great place to be, and it will all come back when we are trying to get on that DL,NW,TWA,AA (well maybe not AA) flight, because last summer the TWA gate agent we are now dealing with had a great experience at AWA.
Now in stark contrast, I find myself argueing with east F/As who have the mindset of that seat is theirs, they have exclusive rights that trump everybody elses, they could care less who else may be trying to get somewhere, what happens if they are running late etc. etc. etc. West posters keep telling them, yes, you get priority on the cabin jump, but what if.....and the tired reply is...I don't care, that seat is mine, I will not share, I got my own problems, and I just became your problem too.
Well, here is the bottom line. Cabin jumpseat riders are allowed at the discretion of the captain. I think the east F/As will find the West captains to be very accomodating, its how we roll. However, and this is not a threat just an observation, if we abandon the AWA mentality of working together for everyones benefit, and take on the east mentality of every man for themselves, I believe the probability of finding yourself sitting at the gate watching the plane leave will go up.
PS. The removal of the West pilot's ability to ride the cabin jumpseat could be a violation of the RLA's status quo provisions.
