AAerSTL

Maybe you or I wouldn't but there are plenty of people that will. On one of my recent flights there were NRSAs sleeping at the AA gates at Logan sporting J pillows, duvets, and even an onboard insert with munchies to last them for the night.

We heard about the family in SLC that "couldn't afford" any other way to travel, made an appeal to the media and someone offered them confirmed travel. Makes no sense to me, if you can't afford to travel don't travel its not difficult people. Sure I'd rather own a more extravagant automobile, purchase more homes, etc but we all have to live within our means.

Mnxhr78

Greetings fellow AAers--

Does anyone know if AA offers service-waived unlimited employee travel in coach on AA flights within a matter of weeks from getting hired? I've worked at US and UA--both have service-waived unlimited coach travel for both domestic and international. I've also heard DL has similar (if not better). However, I've heard AA has had a 2 year probationary period until employees are eligible for service-waived D3 travel...I would think AA would keep competitive with these industry benefits and make some travel unlimited for employees...does anyone know if there are still service fees for new AA employees? Thanks in advance.

Polomarc

Dear AA experts

I am not sure of the term used. Basically we are UK based and my partner has been offered by AA friend to be on their staff travel. I used to be on the BA staff travel which meant I could fly cheap on almost any airline.

Does anybody here have any experience how it works with AA, is it only AA flights? Personally I do not miss the "standby" days too much.

Thanks in advanced

Microwave

While FlyerTalk is not a primary source for information on NRSA travel, these questions do come up from time to time and I've gone ahead and merged your question into the relevant thread on this topic. It may be worth reading through some of the more recent posts, but in the end you should consider the AA employee making the offer to be your primary source of information on what the travel benefits being offered are. @:-) Good luck!

~Moderator

TWA884

You are more likely to have those questions answered on AirlineForums.com, a site frequented by airline employees.

Polomarc

Thanks, and I have also asked OH to check with the friend how it works. Maybe US trip coming up

F&B767

You get unlimited for yourself from day one of employment and 24 one way passes for your registered companion and D3s. However, you do have to pay Y service charges until five years of seniority and you always have to pay for J and F travel and Y international.

BStrauss3

As a D3, you are at the bottom of the list. With flight loads north of 80%, there are very limited opportunities to take advantage of the 'benefit', but it does happen that you'll get on-board. Middle seat and be happy for it.

But if you are going places nobody else wants to go, or truly off-season, it can be fine.

TWA884

Actually, Y international is free of service charges after 25 years (but such travel is still subject to various governmental fees and taxes).

Heck, I know many D1 and D2 travelers who have been having trouble getting on recently. Most flights are full and revenue standbys trump non-revs (as they should).

Polomarc

Thanks again for the replies.

If we plan to travel to the US + doing some domestic travel (DWF, MCI, LAX, NY) in August and one of us is D3 (I assume that is the status she got) it might too risky.

BStrauss3

Back when, as the spouse, I spent 3 days trying to get out of London. DW, travelling for business had a revenue ticket, and the only reason I got out was that I used my D1 for the year. And then I hit a thunderstorm in DFW that cancelled those flights so I jumped to TUL because there's ALWAYS a morning from TUL maintenance base returning something to service in DFW and they only sell the smallest aircraft it could be. Except THAT morning they cancelled TUL-DFW so I bought a revenue ticket on WN and shared a cab back to my car at DFW with a dead-heading pilot. 4 days later than planned.

But seriously, understand the down-side of NR, rolling stand-by...

What THAT means is that you get to LHR at 5am to put your name on the list for stand-bye to ORD.

You roll from AA 99 at 7:45 AM to AA 87 at 10:15 AM to AA 47 at 12:50 pm and then to AA 79 (DFW) at 3:00 PM and the finally to AA 91 at 5:15 pm. You never leave the gate area for the day.

Then you book a cheap hotel for the night off the 2 pound Hotel-Hoppa bus line, have dinner, one drink and repeat. By the 2nd day, you know all the other NRs by sight if not name and the GAs know you too. They look at you sadly when you register and say "sorry, but we're oversold by 26 today and it really doesn't look good".


Now that's the worst case - when times are good for the airline. We have friends who remember the good times for NR (bad days for the airlines) when they showed up Friday afternoon at the airport with a cold bag and a warm bag, looking at the monitor, "Where do we want to go THIS weekend".

lakers6902

I was stranded in AMS for a week once when trying to non rev on DL. By the second day I knew all the others by face and every night we would all get together in an area packed with lounge chairs to sleep. Ended up getting an award ticket to get home

jlemon

Reminds me of my NRSA days flying between the West Coast and Hawaii......

A good buddy was getting married in the islands. "Come on over," he said, "it's going to be one heck of a great party!". And so I non-revved over to HNL on a Friday evening in biz class on a three class CO DC-10-30 and then caught the last flight of the night to OGG.

That Sunday on Maui, the usual tradewinds had reversed at OGG so the Delta L-1011 had to be downloaded by about 50 pax in order to reduce the takeoff weight. Needless to say, none of the standbys got on. And if I remember correctly, even some revenue customers got left behind. Of course, I had to be at work early the next day in California.....

"No problem", I thought, as I grabbed an HA pass in my backpack and ran down the concourse to where a Hawaiian Air DC-9 was getting ready to push for HNL. I think I was the last person to board as there were just a few seats left.

Back in the day, I had pass privileges on just about everybody except UA. At HNL, the AA, CO and NW DC-10 flights to LAX appeared to be full.....however, it looked like there were some first class seats left on a DL L-1011. And indeed there were! However, a new challenge appeared in the form of an announcement from the flight deck: "Folks, we've got a little mechanical issue here......" I took another sip of champagne at my window seat and began to think about alternative plans when we got to to LAX.

Well, we finally got airborne several hours late but it was still a nice ride up in first on good old DL. Of course, due to our late arrival at LAX, I missed the last AA Eagle flight of the evening up the coast to SBP and home.

So I got a hotel room just down Century Blvd. and arose very early the next morning. I then caught the very first turboprop flight to my final destination. My office was located adjacent to the airport. And so I walked in the door at 7:55am on Monday to the inevitable question: "How was your weekend?"

"Oh, not too bad," was my reply.....

These days, I strictly travel as a full revenue passenger with AA being my first choice whenever possible.

lakers6902

Yea it's been so long since I last non-reved. Not enough free time to play around with a NSRA ticket.

gelaro

Not sure where to ask this, but has the pricing changed with USAirways buddy passes since the consolidation? The person I get them from is a retiree for about ten years and he doesn't know the current setup.