I used to be one, and no, no employee earns rewards. It was a fun job, but it didn't pay very well, so it was hard to travel. Gotta have money once you get there I worked a lot of overtime, and traveling was a double wammy -- spending money on the road, and missed OT.

Employee travel is both a blessing and a curse. It's really fun to go to exotic places at the last minute, but on the flip side, since you travel standby, you aren't "guaranteed" to get where you want to go. Florida during spring break? Take a number. Hope you like getting up early, because sometimes your only likely option is the first flight of the day. My wife and I have a carefully orchestrated 5-week trip to Asia later this year. If I had to do the whole thing standby, I'd be a nervous wreck. You'd end up paying more, too, because you wouldn't be able to book discounted rooms in advance; refundable hotel rooms aren't as cheap as they used to be.

I actually interviewed for white-collar work with two different units of US Airways a couple of years ago (feels like yesterday) but the pay was terrible. Second, neither position was in PHL, so *every* European trip would have required a connection. Considering that I would actually be a white-collar employee, I'd have weekends and holidays off... just like everybody else.

I'm better off working a higher paying job and just buying the tix I need. With a better paying job, I can consider paying the bucket fares for biz.

P.S. The speed limit on the ramp I worked at was 30 mph (or maybe 25, it's been awhile.)

On the one hand, it sounds like fun, but two things come to mind...

1) When you have that kind of job, I don't think you can relax and enjoy yourself like you would when you're on vacation. When I was younger, I used to wonder what it was like to be a statistician for professional sports, but I then realized that you're so focused on the mechanics of what is going on that you really can't enjoy the game much.

2) Dealing with that kind of clientele is *work.* (I used to work in the private jet biz... being able to say that you saw Shaq or whoever made for good cocktail party conversation, but when you were at work, it wasn't a "Hey Shaq, what's up!" sort of thing. In fact, we were prohibited from asking for autographs.) I wonder how close to losing her job she would be if one conference went bad, or even one hi pro client made a bad remark about some relatively insignificant thing.

I dont know, I think it depens which airport and what time of year:

http://www.thedigitalaviator.com/blo..._airport-1.JPG

For OP (note to mods; this is all findable by doing a Google search on my handle:

Software Engineer

Work on Ubuntu Linux (http://ubuntu.com), was sponsored by Canonical to attend UDS before being hired, which allowed me to travel transcon on my own in 2008.

Guaranteed four trips, two US, two international a year, plus individual business trips, etc. Currently hovering at about 77k BIS this year, will finish at around 100k due to moving out west, and several transcons. Had a co-location to China for a full month (interesting place to live, would go back).

Generally stay in a place a week, then hop a flight home, or to my next destination (had a period from mid-June to August that I was only home four roughly 10 days, 7 of which was in August).

Was a DL FF until I got fedup with various issues when JFK became my primarily airport. Switched to United, and never looked back.

Important note: when travelling for work, while you can usually get a day or two to see the sights and such, it is still work, and is not like travelling for leisure. I always look forward to personal travel however, and even flying to really remote places like BRW.

only 30mph....that's no fun....

Whenever I see a stereotypical "business" traveller with all their carryons, laptop, bluetooth, etc on a weekend flight, I think to myself... how sad...

Well, behind one of the bag rooms at IAD are (or were) some unpaved areas... 30 mph with crappy suspension is more fun than you think

At one time('98-'05), doing training for a corporation had me travelling more than 100k a year, and spending 3 weeks a month away from home, except for Saturdays. It was very difficult to have a home life, even as a single person, because friends found it difficult to include you in activities and plans.

Economic conditions as well as the improved viability of using the internet and webcams for virtualized classrooms has cut that travel by 75% or more, at least at my employer. I spend more time working from home, and have had to use personally funded trips to help me maintain frequent flyer status. I'm not sure I'd want to go back to where it used to be, as I kind of enjoy having a house and a personal life with other folks in my area.

I was maintaining 2nd tier elite flying status on 50k BIS miles per year for $2600 +/- $100 each year, and racking up far more miles with bonuses. The first year (25th anniversary of AAdvantage) I flew just under 51k but earned 273k miles including all the bonuses.

All my flying has been on my own dime, doing Mileage Runs on the weekends, and saving the vacation for overseas in upper class on awards. As can be seen in my signature below, I did it is pretty good time, and still have 1.3 million miles to spend on more trips.

Get a job you enjoy is the most important thing. The flying you can do on your own, and you'll likely enjoy it a lot more that way too, since it will be your choice.

Steve32

Take heed to what everyone here has posted! I've only had 1 year when I had 130,000 BIS miles and learned that there are three kinds of trips:

1. Pure business -- conference, business meeting, etc. It's tough to enjoy the journey--even with upgrade and club membership in hand--when you're thinking about what you'll need to say and do, or digesting what transpired.

2. Commuting -- a multi-month assignment to another city. I flew back home every 1-3 weeks on my own dime. These trips weren't too bad, since I'd always look forward to coming home, and you do settle into the routine of a regular route. Club membership is a must.

3. Vacations / Mileage Runs! -- Complete freedom. Creative routings. Your choice of interesting aircraft. Low/mistake fares to places you never thought of visiting. Bump voucher for a 3 hour delay? Sure. And best of all, not an iota of work waiting for you at either end. It's the joy of the journey, pure and simple, with nothing in your mind or in your way.

The ideal job to me would include just enough business travel to get you to mid- to high-tier status at your favorite hotel chain, and enough EQM, salary, and vacation so that you can collect the remaining EQM on your own.

The goal is a job with a high hourly rate with a lot of time off. The glamour of heavy biz travel wears off quickly. As long as you have enough free time and a decent level of income, you can work the deals here to fly wherever you want.

I'm also a leisure 100K flyer. Granted, some of the 100K come from B fares, which give 150% EQM. I love to travel, don't have kids, and I'm self employed.

filed under "incredibly obvious stuff people say"

It is but it isn't. If I knew in my 20s what I know now, I would have never considered the stability of a staff job and gone for the less secure but much higher-paying freelance world. When I refer to a lot of time off, I mean being able to work or vacation whenever you want, not just getting 4 weeks instead of 2 working at some company.

If I read your sig line right, you have my dream job. Talking into a microphone from home for cash

^^