Staff Travel - We Do Call That a Perk
Recently, friend of the blog and syndicated travel writer Chris Elliott commented on buddy passes in light of a situation on JetBlue that occured last week.
Gokhan Mutlu of Manhattan has filed a lawsuit stating that the pilot told him to “hang out in the bathroom” about 90 minutes into his flight from San Diego to New York because the flight attendant complained that the “jump seat” she was assigned to was uncomfortable.
Originally, Mr. Mutlu had no seat, but a flight attendant agreed to sit in the jump seat so that he might take out. Only off-duty flight crew can sit in jump seats while travelling. JetBlue, of course, denies comment on pending litigation, so we’ll not hear their side of the story for some time. It is unfair to pass judgement without it, but we hope there is a detail that has been left out.
But, potty humor aside, Mr. Elliott pointed out the restrictions of buddy passes, and by extension, staff travel in general. So, we thought we should discuss staff travel. Staff travel is also known as Non-Revenue(Nonrevving being the verb). It is space available travel where a fee is paid for the ticket.
Now, if you are an employee, you will likely get a better deal for yourself than you will for any stranger you choose to give a pass too(and we bet Mr. Mutlu’s friend is kicking him or herself for giving him the pass). But the airlines do recognize that these benefits are degrading in value. And they have to acknowledge that in order to avoid labor issues.
The traditional price of standby service has been the ID90. That indicates that the fare you pay is 90% off the full economy fare. That doesn’t work anymore, as the gap between lowest advance purchase fare and highest nonrefundable fare widens. If you are lucky, your employer will give you a certain number of ID0 passes, where the fare is zero and you just pay taxes and fees. These are great deals.
The industry has also moved toward a new type of pass, the ZED fare. More and more airlines are offering this for their employees with other carriers. A ZED fare is where you pay a fee based on mileage, ie $25 from 0-450 miles, and so on.
The truth is, the reason why standby travel has become less of a benefit is that capacity is reduced. The goal of an airline is to fill seats with paying customers, not employees on discounted passes. So, space available travel has become less and less of a possibility. Although, on a recent JetBlue flight, we spotted five uniformed crewmembers from other airlines on the flight, but it was a slow night(why we took the flight then, in fact).
So, the airlines are trying to make the benefits cost something that is still a benefit, but as everything else goes up, they do too. So, they are not screwing their employees any more than they normally do. And there is one advantage. Passes are open, changeable without penalty, and often refundable. Maybe a discount on actual fares would be better, and some carriers offer that, but it is still a decent benefit.
Buddy passes are passes that employees can give to anyone, are often more expensive and are limited in the number given and their usage. They are often less of a deal, because airlines don’t want just anyone getting the benefit.
What do you think? Is nonrevenue travel a perk or not? Airline insiders welcome.
Posted: May 20th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments
Comment from Andie
Time May 23, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I am an active airline employee and my flight benefits are a great perk. I chose my days off on Tuesday and Wednesday because those are lower volume days and really pay attention to bookings. Employees have the ability to monitor bookings over the phone or online. The ability to be flexible helps as well. When I absolutely had to travel to Orlando and flights were booked, I went to Gainesville instead and drove the extra hour. I am situated within driving distance of three major airports so I have many more flight options. I have traveled with my four children all over the U.S. and the Caribbean with very few problems, something that most other people cannot dream of doing. It is no big deal at all to fly to Florida for the day, to a museum in another state, or to pop in for a nephews birthday party several hundred miles away. I guesstimate that if I had to pay the average coach fare my benefits have a value of about $30,000 a year. I travel more often, with more people, than most of the people I work with. I also work part time at night, making non-rev travel easier as well. As far as buddy passes go, the best value seems to be for for friends traveling to the Caribbean or Europe off season. I only give passes to friends who understand the concept of stand-by and the rules of employee travel. Mr. Mutlu most likely caused the poor fool who gave him the pass to lose his or her job.
Comment from Peter
Time May 21, 2008 at 4:14 pm
As someone who doesn’t work for an airline but has friends who do, I’d say buddy passes are a great perk, as long as you understand their caveats. Buddy passes got me out of a bind when a JetBlue connection fell apart at JFK and they could get me to Seattle that night, but not Portland. Buddy pass on QXE got me into Portland only 30 minutes later than my original JBU flight sequence, so I count that as a win. Obviously it works best on flights that are lightly booked with plenty of nonrev seats. You can’t depend on the passes if you need to be somewhere at a given time. I consider that the price you pay. $30 is a great deal, especially for last minute travel, if you’re a little flexible and can’t afford full-fare, which is still many times more than the buddy pass fare on most airlines. Then again, as you pointed out, as capacity decreases and loadings increase, it’s harder to find flights where you stand a chance to list.