I will be!!! I have been assigned to work at CO for 3 weeks. Just wondering if anyone has ever worked as a consultant for an airline and (most importantly) did you receive any "bonus" miles for the work you did???

Over to you Bab's.

personally I have never worked for an airline client...but I have heard from a colleague of mine about his experience working for a US-based airline on their strategy in the Asian market...I have not heard him talking about any bonus miles or whatever...in fact, he did not get any miles at all for all those flying he did in that project because he had to travel on something like employee tickets...and once the flight was so full that he sat in the jump seat (?), the seat that flight attendants take during takeoff and landing...sat there for the whole flight, facing the whole economy cabin...in fact, is this legal at all ??

[This message has been edited by tedhl (edited 02-11-99).]

My employer has done a lot of work for one of the major US based airlines. Our people flew on "Vendor tickets". Not unlike an employee ticket. Often the center seat. NO MILES AND UNABLE TO UPGRADE. Your project is not for that airline. I hope you get better treatment.

Yes. No.

But I did fly on full fare tickets, as I was consulting for the cargo side, and though they kept threatening to organise employee tickets for us, they never did... so cargo paid the consultants who paid passenger... and I got my miles.

As I had an international assignment and seldom spent more than one night in a place (read: night 1: aeroplane, night 2: hotel, night 3: aeroplane), I racked up a huge number of miles - over 50k in three months.

One tip: if you are given an airline ID badge, and are flying on revenue tickets, don't show it when checking in, or when aboard (particularly if you are sitting in the front of the plane). Either show your ff card *or* your ID badge when checking in, because airline employees are inclined to resent outsiders who work for the airline but earn miles... and (depending on the airline & its policies - UA may not have this problem) they may resent someone who looks as though they are an airline employee off on a junket, sitting in first/business.

On the other hand, an airline ID badge can be a useful thing when going through Immigration or trying to squeeze some extra handluggage past security. (I know: all those who hate the handluggage hogs - *you* try doing a 36 hour roundtrip to do a three hour job. That extra half hour waiting for your bag can seem like an eternity...)

It may be worth your while to point out that, as non-revenue tickets are less likely to get a seat than revenue tickets, it is in the airline's best interests to give you full fare seats. Clearly (at consultants' phenomenal rates), it is worth more to them to have you where you can do some work for them rather than putting someone else in your seat and paying you to hang about the airport, doing nothing...

Consulting for the airline does give you a chance to ask for a (free) upgrade... I generally didn't bother with my ff card (I wasn't in a rush for my miles, and sent my boarding passes in on a biweekly basis), but did take advantage of the fact that I understood the inner workings of the airline, and used that to empathise with the check-in staff and stewards, who were very nice to me...

That airline ID card gets you really inexpensive hotel rooms. So, traveltoomuch, if you want to meet JAWs while you're in Houston, if that's where you'll be, just email me with the dates you will be working at CO.

I proposed some consulting for Northeast back around 1970. Everyone had OK'd the gig, the PO needed one more signature, the person who was to apply it promised to sign as soon as he got back from a trip. In the interim their quarterly earnings came out, they were awful, and lots of stuff got canceled. Not too much later Delta bought them.

So: I never got to do any work for Northeast, but I did get a Yellowbird lapel pin. I wore it every time I flew Delta (which was a lot) for the several years. Lots of Boston-based flight attendants were ex-Northeast. I got better, more attentive, personal care in coach from them than I've ever received since on a first class ticket! Alas, anyone who'd recognize the thing has pretty much retired by now ...