<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JS:
If I'm not mistaken, one of the rules for non-rev travel is that you may not use it for a business trip (besides the airline, of course). It has to be a personal trip</font>
On my former carrier, there was no specific prohibition of that type (that I was aware of).
The various airlies issue positive-space passes for travel that is based on company business need. This can be anything from sending a crew to work a flight, get a senior mechanixc to an airport where a plane is stranded, or office staff to third-party meetings. In most cases, the PS passes have higher boarding priority than space available passes and are bumped later (and some, like that mechanic above, can be declared "do not bump").
On my carrier, when a positive space traveller makes a "booking", a seat is taken out of sellable inventory, while space-available "bookings" (also called "meal listings") did not take seats out of available inventory.
You may have seen or heard of employees who live in different cities (or even states) than their official base city - on my carrier, these people needed to use a space avialable pass (with its lower priority) to get to work (other carriera may do it differently).
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chalf:
If I remember correctly, in the US a specific provision in the Internal Revenue Code exempts flight benefits to immediate family and parents from being counted as compensation for the relevant airline employee. Otherwise, such personal travel benefits would constitute in-kind compensation and be subject to federal income tax</font>
As indicated above by B747-437B, this is true, but I know of at least one exception. If the airline grants pass priveleges to employees of a division/suvbsiary or other associated company (such as an express, catering or technology division) where the airline's
actual percentage of ownership falls below a certain percentage, then the value the space available benefits can be taxable.
As a general idea, the tax calculation could be something similar to this:
MIA - LGA One way Y8 fare = $1000.00
Take 10% of that fare = $100.00
Subtract the $20 service charge = $80.00
$80.00 will be added to the employee's adjusted gross income, and tax will be owed when he/she files their annual tax return with the IRS.
[This message has been edited by Non-NonRev (edited 11-02-2003).]