Originally Posted by
flyerCO
Absent the plane being full AND someone wanted to buy a ticket they're not missing out on any $. Again, plane takes off, crews get paid, meals get loaded, all regardless of if there's one passenger or 275.
Airline employees can already fly for free when there are seats available. No reason to use your free positive-space passes on flights that you'd be likely to get a free seat on anyway. A large number of these passes will be used on flights that the employee believes will likely be full and many of them will be full.
It's a very nice gesture on the part of Delta and it will cost them a good bit of lost revenue.