The UA employee travel benefits:

>employees & family members of UA employees are allowed to standby (lowest priority) for any domestic flight, but allowed to sit in any class (including 3-class 1st) if space is available.<

You described that part pretty accurately-- employees, spouses/domestic partners, parents, and dependents get these benefits;

>they are also allowed to standby for any international flight, but only allowed to sit in econ. or business. Absolutely not first class.<

ALmost. The parents and dependents cannot sit in First international without the employee.

>- they basically pay airport taxes only.<

There is a service charge involved for all the above travel. Transcon is around $10-$15 for coach; $25 for two-class First or three-class business; $35 for three-class First. International I can't remember off-hand, but all the charges are mileage-based. Plus we pay for all customs and arrivals, etc. fees for international travel.

>employees are allocated a limited of transferrable non-family member travel passes<

These are called Companion Tickets. We get 24 coupons per year (1 coupon = 1 person, 1 segment; so two people going, say, round trip from Miami to Seattle with a connection in DEN or ORD would use up eight coupons) that we can give to anyone. They are roughly $100 non-stop transcon one way, and $120 (plus customs, etc.) East Coast-Europe. These are not such a great deal, IMO, for stand-by travel-- often cheap fares in the winter can be around these prices, and they aren't stand-by! But you CAN get upgraded for free (except you must be with the employee for int'l First Class), after everyone else has been accomodated.

There is also a dress code for employee travel, and a stricter one for First/Business.