Thoughts on a Non-Rev forum on FT?
 

Hey everyone...

There are a lot of people on FT who either work for, are significant others of, or are somehow associated to an airline of the world and thus have flight benefits to use on their own and hundreds of other airlines.

In addition, these folks are also some of the best and most informed contributors to various forums.

As such, it would be great to have a forum where non-rev benefits and topics can be discussed such as:

- Policies and procedures by airline
- Standby priority for pax and their travel companions
- Requests/offers to check flight loads for those traveling standby on OALs
- Tips/tricks on what to expect from various airports, gate agents, airline help counters, etc.
- Offers to help other non-rev pax stuck in tough situations

...and so on.

I think this would be a huge benefit to the community and one that many folks would really enjoy.

Thoughts?

Are airline employees allowed to discuss all these topics in a public forum, or query airline databases and post the results in public, without violating any company policies? Any risk of disciplinary action if their airline employer finds out they're posting on those topics?

Having seen some airline employees lose their jobs in the past for public posts, I'd be very concerned about how detailed the discussion can be without repercussions.

The answer to that is: it depends. Every airline has different policies. The standard rule is to not discuss that you are flying non-rev in front of paying passengers while you are at the airport, on-board, checking in, etc. Discussing this on a forum such as FT is fine.

At the end of the day, each person is responsible for what they post, just as everyone else is on other forums.

Bolding mine: My concerns exactly as the airlines (and hotels & car rental companies) read Flyertalk and I would not want this to become a place where a) employees fear to post valuable information for our benefit because they could be "endangering themselves" and b) F/t could become known as "the place where airline employees get fired (yes, that's a stretch but ....)

I can't see why such topics cannot fit within existing airline forums.

I see no reason off the top of my head that it wouldn't work. Though would lay people be allowed/encouraged to participate? I could also see some worry about employees potentially getting into trouble which I obviously don't want.

Just a tidbit from my experience: if an employee or pass-rider posts on FT, they're usually very quickly shot down with an "ask your employer" or "ask your employee contact" and told FT is not the place to discuss these subjects. I have no idea how that got started, and it's never been (AFAIK) a policy from the forum leadership, but it seems to be the case.

Here are some examples of responses I've seen:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/20970266-post4.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22731852-post27.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13435942-post4.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...-question.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...nfo-forum.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ut-travel.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/15478871-post6.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/20164087-post4.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/10713973-post2.html

With responses like that, I'm not sure a forum that deals with questions like this would do well.

Then again, there's room in the online world for discussions like this. As one poster in one of the above threads said:

Regardless, one thing we need to do on FT if we want to host discussions on this topic is to make sure it is clear that this kind of discussion is warmly received and welcomed, not shunned, regardless of whether we create a designated forum for it.

Might be nice to see some airline employees post their thoughts on the topic. Right now the OP, who doesn't identify himself as an airline employee, is the only one that comes close. If there is a demand, we need to hear from those members.

This thread was just started on Friday.

IMO some of the hostility regarding buddy pass questions derives from the suspicion that they have been purchased when the person cannot ask the employee.

This recent TravelBuzz thread happens to be a perfect example of such incidents:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-question.html

After reading everyone's comments, I will add the following:

- Yes. I am an airline employee. If you have a need to know more, PM me.

- The most common response above that I see is that there is a concern about what people can/cannot post, how/if that could affect their job, and what airlines think about the information being posted.
My response: As I noted above, everyone is responsible for what they post on any forum. People can choose to participate and add value where they want on FT. Everyone should be encouraged to participate, and those not in the business are welcome to ask questions or lurk if they are interested in this type of subject. This could be a huge recruiting tool for airlines (just kidding :D).

To Jackal's point - I think the DL forum is a bit harsh to begin with, BUT, I would guess that since the question isn't relevant to the majority of those in the forum, the lack of interest created the hostility.

At the end of the day, a forum like this would be an immense value to those of us in the biz. Flight benefits are one of the most important and valuable perks of working for an airline. Using them is becoming much more difficult these days due to higher load factors on flights. A forum like this on FT - a flyer-centric web destination - would be the first of it's kind and a huge value to the community of fellow airline employees.

Agree that this may be a primary cause of hostility, but the other problem that is clear is that there are many many FT people who begrudge non-rev travelers their flying privileges, since they don't subscribe to the upgrade scenarios that the airlines have decided to employ. So I would think that a separate forum, perhaps a sub-forum under "Special Travel Interests" would be a good place for general discussion outside the specific airline forums. In that way, one would have to go looking for the discussion rather than having the discussion as part of the normal airline forum.

Been 10 days now.

You still seem to be the only airline employee posting here. Maybe the others that are here just don't want to discuss that information in public.

In fairness, most of the airline employees probably spend most of their time in their respective airline forums & may not know TB exists & that the topic has been brought up for consideration. If people know of airline employees posting in the airline forums, they might want to PM them a link to this thread so we can get more input, pro & con.

Cheers.

Agreed. I don't think it is appropriate to go posting all around FT about this thread. I doubt many people check this forum unless that have a reason to post (guilty myself).