Booking Class for Buddy Passes?
 

does anyone know what inventory those who fly on buddy-passes draw from? I'm particularly interested in international J and Y (JFK-SVO flights). have access to expertflyer, but don't know which bucket they are drawn from. since I don't know the official name, i refer to buddy pass as a ticket that an airline employee can give to friends/family to fly standy for a reduced fare.
thanks

I don't think there is one because they are standby tickets.

but the inventory is drawn out of something, no? Another way to phrase it - where do they fall in line with other stand-bys - opbviously below revenue passangers, but what about revenue pass for other flights who are standy for this flight (not due airline mess, but voluntary), other employees, upgrades?
I'm trying to determine which of booking classes on expertflyer are a better predictor of what chance i have on a certain flight.

OK, I see what you're saying. There is a code for each type of standby (S8 or something like that) which is stored in some thread somewhere on FlyerTalk.

However, those are not seat inventory buckets. Expertflyer gives you seat inventory which are only for confirmed tickets. Standby tickets are essentially non-existent until the flight is open for check-in.

Expertflyer will give you some idea of how many confirmed passengers are on the flight (i.e., full, so very low chances, or light load, so good chances), but will give you no information at all on how many standby passengers will board ahead of you. The flight could be lightly loaded with confirmed passengers and then fill up with standbys before they get to you, and you can't board. Since standbys need not list in advance, there is no way to know in advance what your chances are. You have to go to the airport and wait and wait and wait some more. Buddy passes are not a good value IMO.

The buddy pass is at the BOTTOM of the standby list below ALL employees, missconnects. EVERYONE.

If you are trying to see availability, have an employee (preferably the one who gave you the ticket) go into their system and see the availability. It'll be something like this:


** Flights from LGW to MLB on Thursday, 15 December, 2005 **

Flight DL0011 LGW-ATL 15Dec 9:30AM - 15Dec 1:50PM Aircraft: 777
Seat Availability - Business: 7/9(50) Coach: -21/3(218) *

I have a friend who regularly uses buddy passes to fly to europe. He pays something like $300 and according to him, he gets a confirmed coach seat but is on standby for BE. The person he gets them from (DL employee) told him that there is a pecking order for the passes that depends on the seniority of the employee.

You are only 1/2 right there. The cost is around 300 BUT the seats are NOT confirmed at all (i spent 2 days once trying to get out of LGW on an emergency) no matter of class. On the one flight I almost made there was an FA whose daughter was traveling with the FA's status and the son who was on a Buddy Pass. The son was the last one that didn'get confirmed off the standby list.

However FA's and Pilots all have higher status that the Buddy Passes.

<edit> The priority for the Buddy Passes (if i remember it was 8) is based on checkin time. That being said someone with a buddy pass from a 40+ year employee is on the same playing field as one with 1 year of service if they check in at the desk at the same time and lower if the one with 1 year of service checks in first. (That's my experience at least, if someone else knows different please correct me) However for employees it's based on senority.

[/list]Buddy Passes are "Non-Revenue" (Space Available) Passes given from a Delta Emp. to the flyer. They are listed...not booked...in either First, Business, or Coach. This listing is called a "Meal List" so that if they get on there will be a meal for them if offered. Buddy Pass riders are the last ones to clear from the StandBy list. Delta has 3 different list that we can see. 1) The Upgrade List. 2) Awaiting Seat Assignment. & 3) Stand By List. Since Delta does not offer "Stand By" anymore, the third list is mostly pass riders (Dl emps or Buddy Pass or OAL riders). The only way that you can get on the Stand By list is if you have been "inconvienced" by a misconx which is "NOT" your fault...ie weather, mech, canx flt. So it does no matter what class the "Non-Rev's" are listed in because they do not get a seat until all of the Revenue pax do. :p

Pass Riders
 

You have this 1/2 right. Pass Riding is all about two things. What priority and the senority date. Pass riders have different priorities that they can chose from depending on who them are. Here are the MOST USED priority levels: S-1, S-1A, S-2, S-2B, S-3, S-3B, S-3CR, S-4. Most emps will fly on a S-3. These are thier unlimited passes for which they can fly on. Each Emp can choose to use one thier S-2's (vacation pass) if they think they need to in order to better thier chances to make the flt they have listed for. Retired Emps and parents of married emps are flying on S-3B (or better known as S-3 Bottom!! :) ). And Buddy Pass and OAL (other airline emps) fly on S-4. Within each priority all pass riders are set up in order by thier SENORITY. So if a BP has a senority of '78 they will more than likely be at the top of the S-4 list. In the airline business they have told us that "Senority means EVERYTHING!"

PM and GM members can standby, they are above the buddy pass riders, no?

OK...now you have opened a new can....PM/GM can "Same Day Confirm Standby" for flts that are oversold within 3hrs of said flts. They are above pass riders. They follow the same rules for Same Day Confirm but they do not pay the $25 fee (plus or minus additional airport fees) and if the flt is SOLD OUT they can "Standby". They get a SDPM or SDGM code for the flt.

If you're using a buddy pass and flying out of a popular destination, you will quickly realize that your priority code is definitely bottom of the barrel! Pass travel is not for the faint of heart!

There should be directions included with the buddy pass your friend gives you, so you can check on flight loads - but take it from me - sometimes even the best looking flights can fall apart. For example, you see the next day's flight DUB-ATL is showing 60 in the back and 20 in the front. You decide to go for it and list. Unbeknownst to you, there is a mx in LGW, completely taking out an a/c and all of the flights from LGW are oversold for several days/a week. All of a sudden, all the nonrev employees who were in London are flying to DUB to have a chance at getting out.

Just an example :D but caused me to have some extra time in DUB one time...

Really? When I was trying to go from LGW-ATL back in early december, i was on a Buddy Pass of an employee who started back in the 70's and I ended up right near the end of the S-4 queue. I was told this was because I only checked in 2 hours ahead of time and therefore the people who'd checked in before me were ahead of me. I asked if the senority of the issuing FA who'd given me the pass was supposed to be used for that and the agent said no. I wish i'd pushed harder (but then again I was told that I was to get to the airport and do whatever i was told) to have it sorted by senority because then i'd have made the flight home!!

I can't speak for Delta, but at most other airlines, the seniority only holds weight if the Buddy is traveling with the employee or spouse who holds that seniority. Otherwise the Buddy is at the bottom of the list and is placed in order of check in.

Yeah, fastest way not to make the flight is to argue with the GA. As I told my dad, you go up to a gate agent and smile. They either give you a boarding pass, at which point, you say thank you and get on the plane. They don't give you a boarding pass, you keep your mouth shut and sit back down. I had pass travel benefits on DL that I rarely used (used them twice IIRC) and we were listed as S3C. (So there is a bottom to the bottom :) )