I grew up a delta employee (pilot) kid and have done the pass travel thing to europe twice in the last two summers one time with a BP rider. It took us four days to get her out of europe - and we used brussels. BRU seems to be the best bet for summer travel, but you need to be prepared to wait it out. Most of the employees traveling during this time use S-2 or higher (special issue S-1's and such) to go at this time - and there are often dozens per flight - (dad's seniority date is 10-2-76 and it still took my GF four days to get out).

So, best of luck - make an adventure out of it and you might just have fun.

If you insist on going over the summer, having a Eurail pass helps because you can be flexible about what city to fly from.

You will not be able to fly on anything but a Monday/Tuesday/Weds outbound or Weds/Thurs return. BRU is probably the best because it doesn't see the leisure surge as much as CDG/FRA/NCE/MXP/VCE/FCO/LGW do.

One important word of advice -- don't actually issue the buddy passes until 3-4 days before departure. There is a fee to change them, and there's no penalty for just waiting and watching the flights. Keep in mind that you can always list for flights in advance without actually issuing the buddy passes, and in fact you should do so as early as possible as a courtesy to other nonrevs.

My pet peev (and I'm guilty of this) is the group of nonrevs who like to list the morning of the flight. It makes it impossible to guage which routes have the best availability, as I have quite low seniority.

Wow, BRU takes 4 days and that's the easiest place to get out of?

There is a fee to change the origination or destination point but you can move dates as much as you want, fee free, right? This has been my experience when helping others use BP's. My brother swears there is a 100 mile rule too where, if they can get you out of LGA instead of EWR, for example, they'll move you there and charge you nothing. I don't know where this would help in Europe as most airports are more than 100 miles from each other but I'm just curious more than anything. Great advise on not waiting till the morning of. That has really thrown a wrench into many a plan in the past...

Yes, if the origin or destination are changed to another airport less that 100 miles away then the $25 fee is waived and you only pay a fare difference (if it's something simple like JFK to LGA, then we usually waive that too).

I think the best plan is to book a refundable ticket (like an award ticket) as a backup on the last possible day you can return. Leave the inbound leg of the reward ticket for use the next time you want to travel to Europe (essentially nesting the award ticket within the Buddy Pass).

And that was with an employee with very high seniority - 1976 hire date.
Really, don't do this.
You are going to spend more money on hotels for the days you spend trying to get out than you will on a cheap coach ticket. When I was nonreving, the one and only time I tried Europe in the summer I got stuck in London for 3 days and finally got out using an S-1 pass.
Three nights in a hotel close to the airport, even the cheapest hotel where they gave employee discounts, was expensive. Your $500 saving is going to dwindle to nothing and you will waste several days of your vacation time hanging around an airport.

We have used buddy passes many times and have noticed a great increase in difficulty using them the past couple of years. We are adventurous and have travelled extensively. We have come to the conclusion it is not worth it. As has been stated you will pay more for hotels, lose a lot of time schlepping to the airport standing around with 20 other Buddy Pass hopefuls, and being refused, for days in a row. The last time we bought our own tickets just to get out of there. In talking with many employees, they are even purchasing their own tickets now, because it is too difficult. However you go, enjoy yourself,have a big sense of humor and be creative.

don't let the other guys discourage you. I have done nonrevving on DL to Europe for the last 7 years including 1-2 trips in the summer on either an NRSA or a buddy pass and they can be tough, but be flexible, be okay with coach travel and just a different destination (CVG vs JFK for example) and you'll be fine...

Here is some info on flights that might help you...

0080 JFK AMS 24JUN 620P 25JUN 800A DELTA 763 N/A 20/20 (34) 94/106 (165)

0140 JFK BRU 24JUN 745P 25JUN 910A DELTA 763 N/A 27/27 (34) 111/121 (165)

0106 JFK FRA 24JUN 755P 25JUN 955A DELTA 763 N/A 21/21 (34) 51/71 (165)

0148 JFK FCO 24JUN 530P 25JUN 810A DELTA 763 N/A 2/2 (34) -1/16 (165)
8151 JFK FCO 24JUN 915P 25JUN 1125A DELTA* 772 N/A 0/0 (0) 9/9 (0)

0084 JFK MXP 24JUN 820P 25JUN 1020A DELTA 763 N/A 8/8 (34) -5/25 (165)
8228 JFK MXP 24JUN 615P 25JUN 755A DELTA* 772 N/A 0/0 (0) 9/9 (0)


for SATURDAY, here is the load:

0084 JFK MXP 25JUN 820P 26JUN 1020A DELTA 763 N/A 23/23 (34) 46/67 (165)
8228 JFK MXP 25JUN 615P 26JUN 755A DELTA* 772 N/A 0/0 (0) 9/9 (0)

0106 JFK FRA 25JUN 755P 26JUN 955A DELTA 763 N/A 31/31 (34) 83/97 (165)

0140 JFK BRU 25JUN 745P 26JUN 910A DELTA 763 N/A 23/23 (34) 107/119 (165

0080 JFK AMS 25JUN 620P 26JUN 800A DELTA 763 N/A 17/17 (34) 91/102 (165)

Enjoy your trip...

The availability info that far into the future is not very useful since a lot can change between now and then. But just out of curiousity, where did you pull those numbers from?

I think that is proprietary information that was just shown to you by Deltahater. I've seen this posted in a number of threads recently (from a number of authors) and have wondered where it came from too. I'm not accusing anyone outright of using Delta issued information for employees/families only for there continue to be more and more legitimate search capabilities online that I never knew about. Maybe Deltahater found it somewhere that is available to everyone. I just don't want to pass along information that is not supposed to be shared.

You are right hw711. It is a bit early to make any conclusions about travel this summer. Even so, I just pulled those two people I bought buddy pass tickets for to London in June off of them and encouraged them to buy confirmed seats instead. Both had to be back for the start of their school years (they are teachers) in mid-August so they did not have any flexibility to play with. If you can be flexible, go for it. If not, ante up!

Buddy pass to EZE
 

I have two friends who intend to use buddy passes to fly ATL-EZE in the last week of February. Since I am such a good friend (and addicted to FT), I decided to help make there experience as simple as possible.

So, does anyone have any general words of wisdom? Could anyone with such access see what the loads are like for ATL-EZE during the last week of Feb? Can be a little earlier, but it is essential that they are in EZE on March 1st.

If there are seats available, will they get to sit in J? I have another friend who somewhat regularly flies MAD-ATL-GRU on buddy passes and he said that he almost always gets to set in J (not bad for around 200 EUR roundtrip).

Thanks for the help :)

My apologies, but what is a buddy pass?

Why not see for yourself:
http://flyaow.com/classcwt.htm

Thanks! I thought that one needed some sort of subscription to be able to see that info.

Does this mean the flight is pretty wide open right now: (56 open in Coach, 9 open in Biz)?

J9 D0 I0 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 K9 L2 U0 T0

IIRC, thats not how the site works... There are at least 9 seats open in economy. There are also at least 9 seats open in J. The seats available as B, M, H, Q, K, L, U & T are hierarchical subsets of the seats available in Y.