All things Employee & Buddy Pass (D3, D* passes etc.) (consolidated)
 

My husband has a friend who works for AA and has offered to give our family some of his buddy passes. How does this work? Do we pick a destination and just go standby? Can any advance reservations be made? My husband is worried about making hotel reservations and other arrangements, and then having the air portion of the trip fall through. Any advice would be appreciated.

Yes you can get on any flight, subject to availability. There are no reservations possible. Your friend should be able to tell you what the flight loads look like. If you miss the first flight you just stand-by for the next flight.

With a little planning, and picking the right destination, these tickets could be quite valuable.

As xRoadwarrior stated, no reservations. You are purely standby. You are lower than whale dung on the standby list. You are after any rev pax standing by, deadheading crew, employees, employee family.

You are only ahead any others traveling in the same pass classification if you check in before them.



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Not sure where I'm going, but I'm getting there fast.

Well just don't try going to Hawaii on them or any other popular destination and you should be fine.
Here are some of the rules the rest are on the coupons.
You fly standby and are at the bottom of the standby list below any revenue passengers and below any employees.
You will get the worst seats on the plane back of cabin and generally a middle seat.
If meals are served on your flight you have to call in ahead for them. Your friend will get charged a tax on the tickets.
Try taking the first flight out of the day.
I wish you well,I have flown on them several years ago and for me I would never try it again but hey if you have the time and patients go for it.

Buddy passes (D-3 passes) can be a great thing to have, if you're flexible. There's never a guarantee of getting on board, since cancellations and such can make even the emptiest flights full, but if you are flexible you can usually make them work. Some destinations are nearly impossible at times, and AA actually issues a D-3 embargo every summer prohibiting buddy pass travel to Hawaii or Europe.

While it's true that you have just about the lowest priority of all the people on the standby list (you would be above 2 groups... D-3 travelers who checked in after you and pilots of other airlines attempting to jumpseat), that doesn't necessarily mean that you will be in a middle seat, or even in coach. I'm sure we've all been on flights that have departed with emoty seats in F and J. I travelled with a friend who was flying D-3 last weekend, and not only did she clear to first, we even got seats next to each other.

Speaking specifically to AA's pass program, D-3 travels pay the same charge for F, J, and Y on domestic flights other than JFK-LAX/SFO, while you have to pay for upgrades on International Flagship Service flights and the LAX/SFO-JFK transcons. While your friend can provide you exact pass charges, I can tell you that you will pay the same for any single flight between a US gateway and Europe or South America, and a higher flat charge for any segment to/from Tokyo; that is, IFS flights are charged flat fees, rather than by milage. AA charges D-3 travelers (as well as D-2 travelers) on a per-segment basis, so LAX-DFW-MIA would cost more than LAX-MIA nonstop, for example.

Just becareful, some D-3 charges can actually be more than a 14 day advance purchase.

:-)

One more thing to remember, try not to wear jeans or tennis shoes or t-shirts. Sometimes..every once in awhile the only seats we have left will be in F class, and if the person traveling on the D-3 pass isnt dressed properly by company guidelines for first class, they will be denied transportation. This is especially inconvenient if you are on the last flight or the next flights are all full. Also children under 6, including infants are not allowed in F class on passes.

Company guidelines for F -- do you mean on a pass or in general? I've sat in F/J many times in shorts/sandles!

She means on a pass

One more note on this... children under 6 are only accomodated in Y on 2 cabin flights only... for 3 cabin flights (operated as such, not J sold as Y), the minimum age to upgrade to J or F is 8.

I'll share my experiences with the D3, but I haven't flown non-rev since 9/11, so this may have changed.

First, I've found flying non-rev generally to be not worth the effort. Nothing is more frustrating than sitting at the gate waiting to see if you will get a seat, only to encounter a revenue passenger showing up at the last minute, possibly taking your seat. Then, once you DO board (IF you get a seat), you'll generally find no overhead bin space, so your bags end up getting checked. (Remember, you're flying non-rev, so complaining about it is not a good idea).

My wife and I tried to fly on a D3 to LAS from MIA, and we ended up having to spend one night at DFW after being denied seats on full flights over and over again. When you think of the loss of one day of vacation, plus hotel, plus cab fare, that D3 doesn't seem worth it.

That's the bad news. The great news is, if you want to fly International and you're not in the middle of peak season (non-rev travel is blocked during parts of the year), great deals can be had. We managed to fly F RT MIA-CDG and we paid about $200 total for the two of us. I'm told it's not a cheap ticket! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

One word of advice: if you want to fly F as a non-rev, you need to be meallisted 48 hours in advance. Otherwise, even with room in F, they won't give you the seat. You can
call AA reservations during non-peak hours, just tell the agent you're a non-rev and you want to be meallisted for flight x on date y.

Last thing, post 9/11, the employee giving you the D3 needs to furnish AA with your passport number or other ID prior to your showing up at the gate, I'm told.

Bottom line -- in my experience, flying domestic on a D3 is a waste if you can plan the trip in advance. Long-hauls can pay off nicely, but only if you know the flights are not overbooked.

DK

Most important is that the AA employee has registered you at the JetNet Website. Your names are entered in the AA system with some personal info (SS nbr, license nbr, etc.)

Non revs can no longer call regular res to meal list. There's now a special number to call that the employee will give you (or they will list you themselves)

Something that has not been mentioned, you need to be very nice to the agents as well as do not sit at the desk asking if you are going to make the flight or keep going up to the agents to ask. We always tried to be discrete and extremely polite. (Sitting away from the counter)

As most have said it is a great cost savings on the tickets but, you can loose a day or more waiting on flights. The only time I enjoyed it was going to London over a New Year's Eve in First everything seemed great until we tried to come home. The flight before ours was cancelled and they were placing all the pax from the previous flight on to ours. Needless to say 8 hours at LHR was not fun as well as explaining to my boss why I was not able to come in to work due to the flight.

After several other problems with passes I decided to spend the money on tickets rather than all the hassels of the pass.

Buni

Sunday, May 22, 2005 NYTimes Business - End of the Buddy Pass???
 

May 22, 2005
Gretchen Morgenson
Who Says There's No Free Lunch on Planes?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/bu...y/22gret.html?

EVERYONE knows that the airline business is a mess. United Airlines, operating in bankruptcy, just succeeded in punting four employee pension plans, covering 122,000 people, to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation - and, hence, taxpayers. Delta Airlines lost $5.2 billion last year, its worst performance in 70 years of operations. Other airlines, including American, have been allowed by Congress to defer up to 80 percent of their pension obligations.

Pretty dire, all around.

So when an American Airlines flight attendant stood up at the company's annual meeting last Wednesday and suggested how the company could save an estimated $50 million a year, you'd think its executives would have leapt out of their seats with joy. Instead, they hemmed, hawed, said they were looking into the idea and shortly thereafter declared the meeting over.

The flight attendant was Patti Haddon, who had traveled all the way from New York to attend the annual meeting of the AMR Corporation, the airline's parent, in Fort Worth. She is also an AMR shareholder.

Once there, she proposed that the company's executives should revamp the system of travel perks received by thousands of people who don't even work for American. Ms. Haddon said at the meeting that the travel privileges extended to an estimated 70,000 people who are not American employees are, by her calculation, a $50 million-a-year luxury the airline cannot afford.

[copyright content truncated]

While I don't have any current figures to offer, it was not unheard of for the buddy passes (which are low priority standby passes), to cost more than the lowest available restricted fare on many routes.

A very few of the employees always got wrapped around the axle about this benefit for some reason. Sounds like this F/A may be one of them. I'd be shocked beyond belief that AA's buddy pass system is costing it 50 million a year in revenue.

As for board of directors travel, unless it's changed, they receive unlimited A4 priority travel which is confirmable positive space travel in any class of service. I guess some of the board uses it more than others. :D A4 is the same priority that a Managing Director level employee would fly. And if AA didn't give them that benefit, does that automatically mean that those individuals will spend the same amount of $$ that AA values the travel at on AA? I doubt it. Again, some of the employees would get steamed about the higher ups having positive space travel in any class. Personally, I could've cared less, and still feel the same way. Upper management and board members get perks. That's life. And AA's perks pale in comparison to what other companies offer.... I know my salary sure did. :D

I must admit this got me pretty steamed reading the article on the treadmill this morning. If demand is so strong and the value left on the table so great for a few seats per flight as to warrant the end of MRTC than why have extended family/friends fly free?

Since I usually find flyastrojets to be on the side of reason and common sense, I want to do some more thinking about this one.

However, somewhat like pauleeeplaul, my initial reaction is pretty negative. If, and that's a big if, AA's buddy pass program really was expanded in 2000, with an associated incremental cost $50 million, this is just plain bizarre, particularly in light of some of the more obnoxious cutbacks which, in the most optimistic of cases, are probably not saving AA much at all (i.e. pillows, soy nuts, pain relievers, short catering soft drinks, short catering F class desserts, etc.).

The program was expanded in 2000 or thereabouts. Some brief details...

Employees get travel privileges. The travel privilege is extended to the employee, spouse, and dependent children. Travel is unlimited. A service charge applies to those with less than 5 years of seniority. At 5 years, I believe domestic travel is free in Y. In F, a service charge still applies. These service charges are mileage based, and the 5.00 security fee is included as well. Included with the travel benefit are a bank of 24 one way passes (or 12 roundtrips). This bank can be given to anyone. These guests (which include your parents or inlaws) travel at a lower priority than employees. Additionally, a single employee can designate 1 person to be their registered companion. The registered companion flies at the same priority as the employee, but their travel comes out of the pass bank. Registered companions could only be changed once per year. So if you are the type that changes girlfriends every month, you were out of luck. Girlfriend of flyastrojets was my registered companion. She could take a maximum of 12 roundtrips. If my mother flew 1 roundtrip, that was one less roundtrip that lady astrojets could take. The registered companion program was AA's answer to the complaints of the many single employees who felt that they did not get to maximize their travel privilege because they weren't married. Domestic Partners received identical travel to married employees I think. Although there might be some tax implications...I'm not sure.

At one time, these buddy passes could only be given to family members (cousins, aunts, uncles, children no longer living at home, etc) This benefit was expanded in the late 90s to include anyone. And then the registered companion benefit came along in the 2000 timeframe, I think.

Please keep in mind that except for management at the Director level and above, travel privileges are a benefit only if there is a seat that is not occupied by a fare paying customer. It's standby travel, and the buddy passes are among the lowest priority on the list. The article implies that people could be traveling on buddy passes while an employee might not get a seat. Simply not true with the possible exception of those designated as a registered companion (a fairly tightly controlled program). Buddy passes are not cheap, and to be honest, were often no more economical than buying the cheapest available fare in any given market. AA embargoes their usage in certain peak travel periods such as during the summer to Europe. And frankly, if someone misused them, an employee's "buddy" could be the cause of the employee losing their own travel privileges or their job.

AA has a well-deserved reputation of being a bit strict on employee travel. AA charged employees more than any other airline for standby flights, and unless you've got 5 years with the company, probably still does. I'm not quite sure how that $50 million number was generated, but I'd be interested to know for sure. AA has a cost number associated with employee travel. They know exactly how much extra fuel is burned on a flight if one standby employee is boarded, etc, etc. I have a pretty high level of confidence that if there was a cost problem with employee travel, it would get some attention.

I may be wrong, but I think the employee in this article was making much ado about nothing. Just my opinion, and everyone including that employee are entitled to their own.

On the matter of board of directors travel...I'm not really educated enough on the subject to talk about it with intelligence. Although I believe the article has a misprint... it says director travel was over a quarter million (a fancy way of saying 250 grand) last year. But 1.4 billion over the last 5 years? I can't believe that's correct.

Once again, flyastrojets saves the day with an overwhelming knowledge of facts and specifics.

The way you describe it, this program actually seems like a creative employee perk that doesn't cost the company anything close to $50 million per annum.

1) No paying pax appear to be displaced; and
2) The passes appear hard enough to use that they couldn't be a very practical alternative to paid travel, when you kind of need to know that you are really going to get from point A to point B in a reasonable timeframe.

Indeed, as I read the article more closely, I now understand that the sole source of the $50 million figure was the flight attendant, although the article's author seems to go out of her way to create the (false) impression that this is a credible number.

Indeed, a review of the only other supposed "fact" thrown out by Ms. Haddon reveals her to have less than a strong grasp of numbers:

One director received more than $61,000 under this perk. That would cover 145 round trips between New York and Tokyo... by Ms. Haddon's calcualtion.

That works out to $420 per round trip!!

A more realistic interpretation is that the $61,000 represents three long-haul F class roundtrips for the director and his wife. Judging by the number of int'l F class seats occupied by customers paying full freight, I suspect the true cost of this perk was a fraction of the reported amount.

Sigh, another example of sloppy/biased reporting. It's hard to believe that the article's author, Gretchen Morgenson, isn't more closely supervised.... particularly given the problems with facts the New York Times has suffered recently.

Well, I guess the question is, how does AA account for those costs? If a director books an F ticket, does AA write it down as $15k? Or do they book it as actual cost of transportation (fuel, labor, depreciation, food, alcohol)? If it's the latter, the $420 per RT figure makes more sense.

Regarding Morgensen, she's sort of the Grand Dame of the NYT business page these days. I think she carved out a large reputation for herself reporting the numerous business scandals of the late 90's and early 00's so is given carte blanche to do whatever she wants. And to be fair, she did ask AA to provide more reasonable estimates on the cost of this program and they refused to do so.

My guess (which I am not suggesting is correct) is that the directors have to report the retail value of the free tickets as taxable compensation and that is the basis for the $61,000. I doubt very seriously that a director of AA and/or his family had the time/inclination to basically fly around the world continuously during a 12 month period.

Interesting, I mistakenly assumed that she was a travel writer playing business journalist for the day. I really got the impression reading her story that this was an op-ed piece masquerading as an article, with the author having a pre-conceived opinion that needed some "facts" to be thrown is as filler/supporting justification.

Welcome to US journalism in general and the NY Times in particular.

I think the assumption in $50m in lost revenue is simply based on people who would have purchased a more expensive revenue confirmed ticket, are now flying standby using a friend's companion passes.

Employee travel privileges are far from free. Employees get a huge chunk of money taken out of our checks for some of the travel. True we fly free in Domestic coach if we have been working more than 5 years. Our registered companions, children, and parents pay the same amount plus a BS tax amount that is outrageous. Anyone else we give a pass to should really buy a full fare ticket because the cost differential in todays market works out to be the same and with the full loads we have today standby travel is almost impossible for the extended family tickets. International travel is outrageously expensive and many FA's I know have paid less money for full fare tickets to take their whole family on vacation.

IF directors travel privileges state that the taxes are picked up by AA for the director and family members and that they bump revenue passengers then it absolutely needs to be eliminated or revised.

This article appeared in the Op-Ed section of the paper.

No, it was in the Business section. However, Gretchen Morgenson is a columnist and not a reporter.

Having said that, I find her columns to be insightful and reasonably fair in general. Who can argue with the following?

"But why Mr. Purcell, who made $22 million last year in salary, bonus and restricted stock, needed to bill AMR shareholders $14,528 in travel and taxes last year is a puzzler.

"That any of AMR's directors would choose to bill shareholders for the taxes generated by travel is just another data point for your "executive excess" file. It's not a lot of money. Then again, that's what makes it so cheesy.

"Do members of the executive class pay for anything they use or consume? Is it not enough that they make piles of money? Does every single product or service have to show up on some shareholder's tab?

"Alas, the answer becomes more obvious by the day."

I agree with you about US journalism in general, but the New York Times is one of the best newspapers in the world. Of course they have an editorial slant, but their reporting is first-rate; certainly much better than the once-mighty London Times that has now become a Murdoch rag.

"Among those who benefit from the generous travel arrangements are AMR's outside directors, their spouses and dependent children. According to its proxy filing, AMR provides travel to directors and their families and pays the taxes that the perks generate. The company accounts for these perks at cost. Last year, these costs were over a quarter-million dollars. In the last five years, the costs totaled $1.4 billion."

--I don't understand this figure at all- it cost $250,000 last year, but $1.4 billion over the past 5 years? Does that mean it cost $1,399,750,000 over 4 years, but then just $250,000 last year?

--I'm fairly certain these programs are a profit center for the airlines, and that is before you consider the following:

1. Airlines purchase their labor in labor markets
2. Cash is the primary form of compensation
3. If you cut cash compensation below a certain amount, some of your labor will leave.
4. If you can supply your employees with a benefit that allows you to cut wages (or forestall wage increase) more than the cost to you of the benefit, you increase your profitibility by offering the benefit
5. Buddy pass programs have a minimal, if any, cost to the airline
6. Buddy pass programs are valued by the employess, and allow the airlines to cut wages by far more than the cost of the benefit

One might respond that airline workers' wages are already above-market due to unions, etc., but that ignores how many airline jobs are nonunion at this point (including management--they are also paid less due to this benefit), and also ignores the fact that even union jobs are subject to the labor market-- note the difficulties the airlines are having attracting entry level mechanics.

On this score, and I know some will disagree, it seems like over and over again it is the Wall Street Journal that "gets it right." I feel confident saying that this story would never have made it past the editors at the Journal. Certainly the errors would have been corrected and assumptions teased out, but that would have just made it obvious what a foolish story it was in the first place.

D-3 travel is absolutely NOT worth it. I seriously doubt American will save $50 million. In fact I am fairly positive that should AA eliminate Buddy D-3s, it will actually LOSE money it makes on those service fees.

D-3 is now so expensive that if I want someone to fly from JFK to MIA in D-3, they would have to pay more than what they can find (albeit 21 days in advance) on other carriers. Then on top of it, your seat is not guaranteed, you will probably not get boarded (in these days of 80% load factors) and you stand there next to the travel agent stressed out like the dickens. Or I can pay $165 and buy a round trip on NWA and earn miles and actually get on the flight and make my travel schedule.

No one wants the silly D-3s anymore. Unless you are flying to Europe in J or F, D-3s are absolutely useless.

Clearly a typo; must have meant $1.4 million.

Actually, IMHO the WSJ's reporting is as good as the NYT's; that is to say, superb.

However, this was not a story; it was a column.

--I'm fairly certain these programs are a profit center for the airlines, and that is before you consider the following:

1. Airlines purchase their labor in labor markets
2. Cash is the primary form of compensation
3. If you cut cash compensation below a certain amount, some of your labor will leave.
4. If you can supply your employees with a benefit that allows you to cut wages (or forestall wage increase) more than the cost to you of the benefit, you increase your profitibility by offering the benefit
5. Buddy pass programs have a minimal, if any, cost to the airline
6. Buddy pass programs are valued by the employess, and allow the airlines to cut wages by far more than the cost of the benefit

One might respond that airline workers' wages are already above-market due to unions, etc., but that ignores how many airline jobs are nonunion at this point (including management--they are also paid less due to this benefit), and also ignores the fact that even union jobs are subject to the labor market-- note the difficulties the airlines are having attracting entry level mechanics.[/QUOTE]


I think the point here is that the perks of "working" for an AA are way below the perks of being on the BOD, and being one of the BOD's friends or family members. Apparently the shareholders are picking up the burden of paying for free rides, to the tune of millions a year, for people they shouldn't be. You travel for pleasure and it should be out of your pocket not the corporation.

Pass riding in general is a money maker for the airline because as Astro Jets aptly stated AA pass ride fees are the highest and most restrictive in the industry.

Buddy travel not all it's cracked up to be!
 

having flown for many years on buddy passes (lots of family friends are airline pilots), let me assure you that the airline is not losing any money with those. They are absolutely worthless for domestic flights except in emergency. the only times they are worth it is if you fly long-haul (i've flown to bangkok, egypt, russia) on non-busy routes and off-peak, you have a shot at getting a seat in J or F for the price of Y (not full fare Y, but similar to what you would get off orbitz or so). that made me become very creative with flight days and seasons, but to me that was the only chance to fly in J, so worth a shot. However, i've gotten stuck in layover airports when not taking a direct flight for couple days - wasn't too bad as you know that's part of the deal going into it and you know better than to schedule anything important without padding. but please don't get jealous that it's some heavenly freebies. it's sort of like dunkin donuts giving away day-old donuts at midnight before they chuck 'em.

Regarding Board of Directors Travel....
 

I think it is absolutely appropriate for AA to provide transportation to and from board meetings for board members. I'm a little less inclined to say AA should provide unlimited positive space travel benefits to board members and their immediate family. (I'm not even sure they do provide this benefit to the family of a board member, but they might)

Now...if AA's BoD retainer is less than the average (If the salary they pay customer service managers is any indication, it probably is below average :D), and the travel benefits are an extra perk, then I suppose one could reasonably argue that it's ok to provide this benefit.

I don't have all the facts just yet, so I am not going to get too worked up about it. I sold all my shares, and they cancelled all my options about 3 seconds after I handed in my resignation, but since I've got a little over 10 years of vested pension there that I might someday get, I do care about the place and want to see AA succeed!

My First Post - what are the rules of a "buddy pass"?
 

Hello all.

I've been lurking for a while and hopefully am posting this in the right area. I have a friend who has a friend etc...that can supply me with employee tickets that offer first class anywhere AA flies (if available). If not then Business or coach. These tickets also can be changed with no penalties and any name can be entered as the passenger. The cost is approx. $600.First question is if anybody has experience using these and how succesful have they been? Second question is if they accrue miles.
Thanks in advance and I love this site.

I don't have the answer to your questions. Might I suggest that people with the answers would be more likely to read your questions, and provide the answers, if in the future you would give your thread a more descriptive title.

Welcome to Flyertalk.

Never heard of this, but hook me up! :cool:

To answer your questions about mileage accrual, we would need to know the fare class. Google "FewMiles American Airlines" for a website useful on fare classes.