I imagine that one of the biggest bragging points for pilot’s, their families, and friends is how they use flight benefits and buddy passes to travel for free or cheap. How exactly do those flight benefits work? Are they codes you input online when booking flights? What would be a normal percentage off the flight’s cost using your companies’ flight benefits?
Tre,
While travel benefits vary from airline to airline most are somewhat similar. First your airline will have a “pass travel” or “non-rev” (non-revenue) employee only website where you can book your travel. Usually free travel is provided for you, your significant other, children up to a certain age and your parents. You also will have “buddy passes” that are available for a very discounted rate. The biggest caveat when it comes to pass travel is there a) needs to be available seats and b) your boarding priority (buddy passes have the lowest priority and are somewhat useless unless the flight has a ton of seats). Once again this is where seniority comes into play. If there are only 2 seats on a plane and you want to travel with your wife and I show up and I’m senior to you, either you or your wife ain’t getting to Cancun. I actually do quite a but of pass traveling and the number one rule is ALWAYS have a plan B.
Adam
Lol Always good to have a plan b. Thanks for your reply!
Adam,
Does Senority play in for buddy passes? i.e. If there are two seats available and we both book two seats. When we arrive to check in, who gets priority? Does the actual junior pilot going on vacation have a higher priority than a buddy pass from a senior pilot?
Ryan
Ryan,
The actual employee will always have priority over a buddy pass rider. Seniority does factor into buddy passes, but only within that subgroup. I would not get too excited over buddy passes, I actually traded mine in for an additional pass rider because I saw no value to them.
Chris
Ryan,
Just to be clear, ALL current employees will trump the Buddy Pass. Again Buddy Passes have the lowest priority.
Adam
Chris / Adam,
I figured as much. Thanks.
Ryan
I know of a pilot who did a quick trip to Spain on a flight benefit for a couple days.
If your airline doesn’t have a route to a destination can you get flight benefits on their partner airlines that cover the routes they don’t?
For instance, American doesn’t fly to Australia instead they partner with Qantas for their flights. Would you still get flight benefits on Qantas if you want to go to Australia?
I know this is wishful thinking but it would be awesome if they do.
Thanks
Garrett,
The partnership (code shares etc) generally don’t extend to employees for pass travel. BUT, every airline I’m aware of sets up Zed Fare/ID90 agreements with MANY other carriers which allows you to purchase HIGHLY discounted standby tickets for yourself and those on your benefits. Hawaiian for example doesn’t have any partnerships with European carriers but my daughter wanted to visit family in Italy a few months ago. I was able to get her a ticket on Alitalia for around $200 roundtrip. Same when I was at ExpressJet.
Adam
Wow that is very discounted. Thanks for the reply
Garrett,
The pilot could always jumpseat on the other airline while they can also purchase discount standby tickets for their immediate family.
Chris
What kind of seniority is your wife considered?
Ok, I didn’t know you could jump seat on foreign carriers. Thanks
Joseph,
Every airline’s policies are different, but generally family travels at the employees seniority level when the employee is traveling also and at a lower level when they travel without the employee.
Chris
I re-read your original post. To clarify, most foreign carriers do not permit jumpseating, while every domestic one does. To get onto a foreign carrier’s flight, you would need to purchase one of the discounted tickets that Adam mentioned.
Ok that sounds more realistic. It would be awesome if they did though. The reason I ask is I have a buddy who lives in Prague and it would be nice to visit him every once in awhile for free but sounds like they do discount their tickets very well.
Garrett,
Not to belabor this topic but I think pass travel is the best perk of this job and not enough people take advantage of it. In your example where you want to visit a friend in Prague, the move is to pass travel for free on your airline (let’s say your Regional is Compass or Envoy and you have bennies on Delta or AA) to somewhere they do go that’s close (say Paris or Frankfurt) and then take a smaller Regional European carrier using the Zed fare and now you’re paying like $60 instead of $2-300. We also get great “crew rates” at hotels everywhere (I just stayed at a 4 star Marriott in PEK for $65 a night). With a little creativity you can see the World on the cheap.
Adam
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That’s awesome. Definitely affordable. Thanks
Was this your first time in China Adam? How did you like it?
This Zed fare/ID90 agreement rates, is there a special website that has only those or how do you arrange those flights?