Baze

And travel benefits are part of the contract, not sure what your point is.

WineCountryUA

Actually I don't believe that is completely correct. But we will need an employee to better explain what benefits exist outside their contracts.

SPLITTERZ

Yes and no. Its not a right of employment.

DENviaLAX

Other then crew based dead heading rights and positive space business travel, actual non-rev travel benefits aren't apart of the collective bargaining agreement for any work group. At least that I'm aware of. It's a benefit afforded to the employees by the company. That said, if it weren't for the travel benefits, I feel as though it would certainly force the company to make the jobs more attractive via other areas. For instance, increased pay. And for the company, it's certainly preferable to give employees travel benefits which cost very little for them, versus having to pay everyone more. Which could very well lead to higher ticket prices.

freshairborne

Yes, that was my point upthread. The company could have never made any travel bennies available but who'd apply for a job here without them? Considering that there are very few employees that get as much value from pass riding as is potentially available, and it costs next to nothing to make an otherwise empty seat available to an employee (I'm disregarding the opportunity cost to the company in the realm of revenue passengers) it would not be cost effective to compensate the employees any other way.

For the record, I think UDU or any upgrading is a bad business move, made necessary because there's always going to be one carrier that does it for a day's worth of market share, only to be put back in the same order in the stack when all the others do it also. Now, the market share is the same as before but they've all given something away.

Here's a fairly typical scenario that my wife and I experienced recently: Day one, spend the day at the airport trying to go from XXX to YYY. No luck. Try again the next day, get on the flight in coach-, visit Ma & Pa for a couple days, then non-rev home, wife is the second to last person in the cabin, I'm in the cockpit jumpseat with the Cap, FO, and another jumpseater who's partner got the last seat on the plane. Lots ad non-revs experiencing what I'd experienced a couple days before (quality airport time).

Pass riding is a crap shoot, we accept that. Like I mentioned earlier, the last time I rode in FC was a year and a half ago when I bought two seats with MP miles, SYD to LAX. That, thanks to a FTer who knows the system better than I ever will, and PM'd me with the hot tip on the deal.

FAB

Yes, that's what I meant. I have zero experience nor knowledge with non-US carriers. Thank you for making that point.

FAB