Originally Posted by
hawaiiboardrider
Hello all, I just got the job of my dreams at United Airlines. I'm really excited to start but have a question that I'm sure may have already been answered but I'll ask it again (sorry).
What exactly are your travel benefits? I am going to be working in HNL and I have family in New Zealand. Can I use my benefits to fly there? Or give some of my buddy passes to my family to come here?
How soon and often do I get these so called buddy passes?
And while flying on the passes or as an employee... What is the process? Like how do you book your flights and whatnot? Also, any tips for this?
Any info really helps and again, sorry if this was already posted/answered.
Happy flying,
Shawn
I think post merger the buddy passes are no more. You get to designate two people who can enjoy basically the same flying privileges you do (I think the only exception is that they have to be with you to fly in F). I don't know how often you can change that designation but I'll be it's not every week. You can fly anywhere in the world UA goes on a standby basis. You can fly in any class of service that has open seats.
You don't book anything, there's an employee website where you can look at the loads and put yourself on the list for a flight but you basically have to turn up on the day and hope you get on. As a new employee the busy and popular flights are going to be difficult. For example, SFO-HKG in the summer and around Chinese New Year is really difficult but SFO-NRT and SFO-PVG are doable most of the time with a bit of luck.
Economy class is now completely free and there are fees to be paid for C and F, more or less based on mileage. SFO-HKG in F, for example, comes out to about $500 R/T.