So captains authority exist in your contract to allow jumpseats to exceed ZFW/MTW due to taxi burn? I ask this question because I have never seen it exercise before. Mainline all the time
Well there isn't anything in our contract that spells it out. BUT being the captain of the airplane, you have the authority to do what you believe is right. By the operation of the aircraft, and for the operation of US itself. The little rat jets can get tricky, weight wise, when your full. I haven't had a flight yet which bumps on max taxi or MTOW. Majority of the time your fighting MLW. Even with MLW, the way they plan our fuel, we have a set amount depending on time of day and such for taxi and tanker. (usually very little but sometimes enough to get another body on board) The bottom line is if I have non-revs or a J/S trying to get somewhere, and I can fit them all in by releasing brakes with min t/o fuel, I will. Most of the burns are usually conservative, at least on my flights they have been. In addition, when the weather comes down etc, alot of times they will throw a good amount of holding fuel, or a further alternate than needed. In that case, and if I'm weight limited, trying to squeeze all the rev. and non-rev on, I'll talk with dispatch about getting a different alt, or decreasing holding fuel, if appropriate and such. Either way I'm getting everyone on. There is an exception though, and that's generally when OAJ has alot of military processing in our out and we have a bunch of military duffels. In this case, only once, I wouldnt' have been able to take the j/s. BUT, at the same time, due to the volume of the bags, we bulked out and had to leave some behind.
So long story short, no I don't have contractural authority to dump revenue for a j/s, but I have my own ways of making it work and still having everything legal. Takes a little more work and figuring, but I feel it's one of the few perks we have left, it's worth it.