daniellam

I've noticed that a lot of FTers seem to confuse "revenue" vs "non-revenue" tickets.

They seem to think that a ticket paid with $$$ is a "revenue" ticket while a points/award ticket is a "non-revenue" ticket which is not the case.

Tickets paid with cash or miles are both considered to be "revenue" tickets. The only difference is the "currency" (which can be cash or miles) that is used to issue the ticket.

The only time a ticket is considered to be "non-revenue" is when an airline staff member or travel industry employee (or their family members/nominees) flies either for free or at discounts that are not available to the general public (including passes).

From now on, would FTers please start referring to tickets that they paid for with $$$ as "cash tickets" instead?

Instead of saying "I flew from XXX-YYY on an AAdvantage redemption in F and from YYY-ZZZ on a revenue ticket in Y", you should say "I flew from XXX-YYY on an AAdvantage redemption in F and from YYY-ZZZ on a cash ticket in Y".

JDiver

I certainly won't be doing that. I've been flying ~70 years on revenue and award tickets, and I honestly don't think I'm "confused".

IMO, an airline does not perceive, record or treat a ticket paid for miles as a "revenue ticket".

84fiero

I've often had the same thought, that the term is, strictly speaking, imprecise, though not incorrect per se. However it's one of those terms that within a certain context or group has a generally understood meaning. Within other groups of people it might cause confusion. I think most who have been on FT for a bit understand what is being conveyed with "revenue ticket" in context.

Now if I said "revenue ticket" to my mother or to my friends who rarely even fly, they may not know what I was trying to say. Context is important in communication as is knowing one's audience.

That said, I see people here on FT using "cash ticket" quite often - a bit more frequently than "revenue ticket" IME anyway.

Of course you might say that "cash ticket" implies using paper currency, as opposed to a credit card, if you really wanted to be pedantic!

sbm12

Depends on the airline, I suppose, but award seats are very, very different from non-revenue bookings on every carrier I've flown the past 20+ years. I'm pretty sure *A explicitly calls that out in some of its rules for member carriers but too lazy to go digging for that reference now.

BearX220

No.

CPRich

No here, too.

Airline employees pay for their seats through the work effort they put in every day. At least, if you're going to argue award seats like this, you can do the same with employees.

I'll stick with what 99.9+% of the audience uses.

Besides, I haven't paid for a ticket with cash since forking over $19 on-board a People Express flight in th e'80s/

sbm12

Not at all the same thing. Nowhere close.

GUWonder

US airlines do perceive, record and treat tickets paid for using miles as "revenue tickets".

There are a litany of agreements and regulations/rules in various parts of the world that mean "revenue tickets" include tickets paid for by the independent consumer in cash (or cash amounts via financial intermediaries) or in miles/points/loyalty program currencies or a combination thereof.

Just because airlines may treat customers on revenue tickets using miles/points worse than those flying on high-fare, revenue tickets using cash (or near-cash equivalents/substitutes) directly doesn't change the nature of US airline mileage program award tickets being revenue tickets. They are revenue tickets, and there is nothing confusing about that.

GUWonder

How do you pay for the taxes on your revenue tickets using miles from each and everyone of the current US airline programs? Forking over your bank card details for the cash settlement mechanism to routinely work on those revenue tickets using miles?

84fiero

Not totally correct. For accounting treatment, a mileage redemption often will be recorded as revenue in the airline's accounting, depending on the accounting methods applicable for that company.

This article explains the process from beginning to end with AA as one example:

https://www.traveldatadaily.com/american-ffp-analysis/

Award tickets of course may be "treated" differently in terms of certain travel or ticket policies, etc.

mahasamatman

First of all, he never claimed he did. I expect he paid by credit card.
Second, paying for a ticket is not the same as paying for taxes on an award.
Finally, I challenge you to find anyone in the world who has booked an award from every current US airline program.

GUWonder

Same difference. Settlement mechanisms for revenue tickets handle the taxes on the subset of all revenue tickets that include mileage tickets used by the US 3 airline programs

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?

So do you really dispute that tickets issued using miles by say AA, DL and UA aren't revenue tickets?

CPRich

Credit cards are not cash.
I forked over a $20 bill to pay the $19 fare on-board PE in the 80's. I've paid for many, many tickets on a credit card, but haven't used cash since, AFAIK.

CPRich

You get to fly in exchange for other activities. Airlines don't just give free travel to random people off the street, there's a quid pro quo, just as with award travel.

sbm12

Award travel isn't free. That's the first lie commonly spread.

Second, airline employees have access to travel based on their contract/employment agreements. That's a very, very different scenario than someone collecting points.

Redemption tickets ARE revenue bookings to an airline, especially in the USA. GAAP and other accounting rules require that.

Finally, "fly in exchange for other activities" also applies to paying (cash or credit) for a ticket.