Question regarding Buddy Pass
 

Today, an agent printed out boarding cards for me and a duplicate receipt. When I looked at my receipt a couple of hours and hundreds of miles later, I noticed it was not my receipt. It was apparently a buddy pass ticket. The reason I am posting is because it is for a first class seat outbound and return for the grand sum of $60+ including tax.

This is a ticket exchanged for a "delta companion cert." The endorsements is "valid for stby tvl - dl only." I can't tell if it has the employee's name or passenger name or, I guess they could be the same. I am basing my calling it a buddy pass because the word "buddy" is in the fare calculation. This ticket was issued months ago. The itinerary/eticket is also strange in that it has parallel diagonal lines on both cards. Also strange that agent didn't notice this.

My questions:

Can buddy passes really be for first class travel?
Is this why I can't seem to upgrade in and out of Orlando consistently any more?
Even though date and flight are on itinerary, would this person ONLY get upgraded if no medallions were on list?
I assume my itinerary and receipt were given likewise to someone else; is it possible for the right boarding cards but the wrong itinerary to spit out of the printer?

Any clarification would be greatly appreciated. I may be getting paranoid that they are giving away "my" first class seat all of the time but, as a good friend used to say, it is not paranoia if you are actually being followed.

marc

AS A ONCE GM AND HOPEFULLY PM IN THE COMING 12-18 MONTHS (AFTER THE MOVE BACK TO THE U.S.), I WOULD SINCERELY HOPE THAT NEITHER I NOR ANY OF YOU WOULD LOSE A FC/BE SEAT TO A BUDDY PASS PASSENGER. PER THE RULES, WE SHOULD NOT. PER REAL LIFE, WELL...

SORRY FOR THE CAPS...

Press the caps lock key.

Buddy Passes
 

I am currently sitting in ATL BE Lounge waiting for my flight to Frankfurt reading Celtic, taking the "non-rev\commuting" on.

This reminded me of something that has puzzled me for a while: the extend and use of "buddy passes". I can honestly say, that of many visits to the SLC city office, I can not remember when there were not at least one or two groups or persons there as well redeeming "buddy passes". Knowing somebody who works at the call center for CO in SLC and hearing about the many FC trips on CO he, his family and associated friends take in BC, I wonder whether this is as extensive a practice for DL. If so, it seems to me that there is a nice little chunk of change that can be saved by eliminating that practice, at a minimum for future employees.

For the employee to have some well defined, limited travel vouchers or discounts could probably be justified, even though the corporate world, as I understand it, is cutting these fringes for all but the very top tier.

In my field, "professional curtesy" where a doctor had him/herself and his/hers closest family treated for free by other doctors was the norm up-until 10 years ago. Now it is almost illegal to do as it is considered anti-trust activity, and I haven't received it for .... 10 years!!. While it is always irritating to lose something that more or less has been an entitlement for years, I would think curtailing the airlines, and in this case, Delta's, likely liberal distribution of "body passes" not only makes economical sense in a time where they are hemorrhaging, but IMHO is in line with where other large professional groups and companies are going in these economical tough times.

Buddy pass travel isn't really free. They are still charged a yield fare. In some markets the yield fare is about the same as a "T" fare - just to fly standby (i.e. ATL-LAX).

United has started charging some sort of fee for spouses and family to fly standby.

Since buddy passes are on a space-available basis (and are the bottom rung of the SA ladder) nothing is lost by allowing them to use these seats (by the way, I think I paid $400 for a flight to IST on a buddy pass one time - definitely my fair share). It's a nice benefit for the employees, and it really doesn't cost the company much (except the personnel time it takes to ticket, etc.).

I would whole heartedly agree with you Flying Duck. It is one thing for immediate family of Delta personel to have some advantages and access to "Buddy Pass" privileges, it is quite another thing for every Tom, Dick, and Harry, Rosemary, LInda. or Susan who just happens to be a "friend of a DL employee and wants to take advantage of the system that was created long ago when times were different. The whole flying industry is changing, and affecting all of us. Let the whole "BuddyPass System" change as well.

Buddy passes are a cash cow
 

I heard a number earlier this year that DL makes about $40MM on buddy passes. Seats are a perishable commodity and you can never sell them again once that gate is closed. So, from my perspective it makes a lot of sense to sell buddy passes. It does not cost DL anything. The infrastructure to redeem them is already in place and covered by general overhead and it brings in extra cash.

Yes, there are intangibles, like revenue pax having to wait in line at the CTO while buddy passes are being redeemed, or the buddy pass pax sitting next to you when that seat would have been otherwise free, but in general it makes sense.

I think ATL-FRA is $121 OW, so it is close to a low low revenue fare. There are only two real benefits to a buddy pass:

A) you can go on a moments notice (assuming availability)
B) potential for an upgrade to BE on international flights

The policy is also not as liberal as you may think. DL employees get 8 buddy passes a year. Many employees dont even use them because non-reving has become such touch and go to some key destinations.

I don't see the point of where this makes economic sense. But, then again, I may be missing something. DL needs every penny they can get their hands on and while $40MM won't save the company, it is nothing to sneeze at. If you could distribute your company's intangible product at no cost and make $40MM would you say no to that opportunity?

I am not against the buddy passes but this statement is simply not true.

There is the marginal cost of carrying the passenger but I will concede that it is little, but not nothing.

A bigger issue is that if the person on the buddy pass was going to go the destination whether they used the buddy pass or not and it could be up to a full fare non-restricted ticket (but I will admit that it, in most cases, will be a lot less than that) that they would have bought on their own.

Pet annoyance # 41456. There should be pretty much zero chance of an upgrade on an international flight when using a buddy pass. Delta should provide the upgrade to somebody who is standing by for an upgrade, failing which they should upgrade the highest medallion they have on board failing which they should upgrade the holder of the most expensive coach ticket on board. Customer focused - NOT! :mad:

Disagree with indufan's comment "A bigger issue is that if the person on the buddy pass was going to go the destination whether they used the buddy pass or not and it could be up to a full fare non-restricted ticket ..."

No "right thinking" person uses buddy passes for a trip they are committed to. I have plenty of friends who have used them and virtually all of them are spur of the moment things. That is the primary beauty of them.. you can sometimes decide today to leave tomorrow.

Very few dollars are left on the table because the buddy pass user MUST fly and uses a buddy pass. A full fare, non-restricted ticket is not the competition for a buddy pass. A LUT fare is, and beats a buddy pass by a mile in many cases.

Logic like this is one of MY pet annoyances. Consider this:
- If you paid for a coach ticket, what gives you the right to complain about not being able to upgrade whenever you want?
- Entry-level customer service and reservations staff make less than $20,000 a year. That's probably about half of what you spend on one of your kids' education. If it weren't for travel benefits like these, most could never afford to fly. How would you feel knowing that your res agent is selling you something that s/he has never even seen before?
- Travel benefits are extremely difficult to use. Because they are space-available, and because supervisors are NOT forgiving if you miss work while travelling, it means cutting every vacation short two days to ensure a timely return.

Airlines NEVER give up a dollar of regular revenue to accomodate a non-rev (except in "must-fly" situations). That being said, the next time you see a Non-Rev sitting in BE, just ask yourself if you get angry at your local baker for helping himself to a few loafs of his own best product from time to time.

And if you REALLY insist on flying BE for cheap/free, remember it's a free country and you can apply to work for an airline whenever you want. Otherwise shut up and quit complaining.

Some good points, some not so good
 

To the best of my knowledge, Dl is one of the few airlines that upgrades non-revs to First/BE. DL also does not have a very attractive pay structure (other than for pilots). The flight benefits are a key point when people consider employment at DL or staying at DL. So, I think it is okay for DL to upgrade its own.

I do however agree with a poster who said Y-fares should be upgraded, to a degree. I always thought DL should have upgraded 2 coach pax to First/BE as a courtesy. It would have been a powerful marketing tool, but as we all know, Marketing is not DL's strong point.

To summarize, Flight benefits are a key aspect of employment that allow DL/airlines to pay their employees less, which in theory would result in lower fares or bancruptcy at a later point. So you benefit from non-revs in first. But upgrading coach pax at random would be a great idea too.

As you can gather by my handle, I am not a DL fan or a big supporter of their rules and policies, but this one is a valuable one

That isn't what I posted about. What is the point of Delta handing out PMUs to supposedly valuable customers if it chooses to upgrade a non-rev rather than letting the supposedly valuable customers redeem the PMUs and gain the upgrade. There is a similar issue with upgrades paid for with miles. Delta should be reducing its outstanding mileage liability and keeping the customers happy rather than upgrading non-revs.

I'll ignore your insulting personal remarks which were frankly well off base.

My experience with this as a PM is that they upgrade the buddy passes before anyone else, PM GM or Y fare