Marie,
Her goal is fine- flaunting the fact that she ONLY flies irst class on international and free, is gag-worthy. Gee if her back is such a problem that she “has” to sit in first class, how does she sit in her jump seat for that distance when she is working?
Yes, I do get that flaunting is gag-worthy but if she figures out how to get un upgrade and the seat is available so they give it to her I have no problem with her taking it. She sounds like she knows how to make the system work for her and likes to brag about it socially. No big deal.
Reading earlier posts from people in the industry, its either supposed to go as an upgrade to a paying customer or she ois supposed to pay a small amount for that privilege.
And yes, she is obviously very well versed in manipulating this system, and from past experience, others too.
“Understood. It was just a bit surprising (she tld this to my H, and to my friend I am getting is second hand) that she ONLY flies first class when travelling for pleasure and NEVER pays to sit in first class. I’d think a paying passenger would have priority for an upgrade, but what do I know. She isnt supposed to talke about it. That didn’t seem to stop her.”
She might be skilled in figuring out what routes have undersold premium cabins. It’s true that a paying pax has priority for an upgrade, but that doesn’t mean all upgrades are routinely given.
My brother does this all the time with his friend’s buddy passes. He does pay something for the ticket (10% of the walk up fee?), but they check the loads for the flights that day and take their chances, but they increase their chances by knowing the loans.
It is really bad form talking about her non rev deals in front of non employees. Very inappropriate.
As far as getting all those international upgrades, she could be exaggerating, but it could be possible. GMT is the expert on non rev travel here, but I think you could figure out the system pretty easy as a non rev. You can easily find out how many available seats are in first class, and choose to non rev on the flights that have plenty of seats. I don’t know if there are any airlines that upgrade elites into business or first class over the pond, no matter your status. The seats on those routes are filled by paying passengers, people who have some of the coveted upgrade certificates with very specific rules (and you only get a few of them), non revs, lucky jumpseaters, and maybe if coach is oversold they will move some elite status up front. It’ not like stateside, where every first class seat is filled because they upgrade everyone and their mother. Consequently, there can be plenty of empty seats on those routes.
I suspect they don’t upgrade people because it can be expensive (food and drink wise) to upgrade people, plus nobody would ever pay the big bucks for business/first, as they’d expect to get upgraded. I can see how you could figure out the system pretty easily ahead of time if you were a non rev, but then again, people can get stranded all the time in that capacity also. I had a friend stuck in Jamaica for days with her little kids. Every time she non revved, it was so stressful, but it could be pretty easy to do it on your own. I just jumpseat or preferably get a ticket. A ticket that I don’t have to pay for, hopefully!
Buddy Passes are slightly different though yes there still had to be availability. Gmt and bus, who has priority, a buddy pass flier who is paying something or a non res employee who is not paying. I’d assume the former. Yes?
I would assume the latter because I do know that the buddy pass is better if the employee who gave it to you is along for the ride and all the buddy pays is taxes so it’s not really paying something. But, I am not an expert on this at all.
I have no clue. The only buddy passes I ever gave out were to my parents when I worked for AA, and they used them without us. I’d assume an active employee would have priority, but I really don’t know. Too bad we don’t have someone who works as a gate agent here. Buddy pass fees are nominal, so they aren’t considered paying passengers in any form.
Thanks. I dont know how that all works.
I found a boarding priority chart pdf on a site with which I am completely unfamiliar, unitedafa.org. It goes from 1 to 46.
That seems to be a flight attendants union website. Dont see anything about flying priorities or boarding sequence. You can link it if you locate it.
Oh wait- there is a pdf which seems to be in airlines speak which is heirogliphics to me http://unitedafa.org/docs/benefits/boarding_priority_chart.pdf
Hesitant to link. I got there by Google. I think it’ll be a piece of cake for you to get to via that route.
ETA: Cross posted – Yes, that’s it.
Employee & SO are first priority, then employees’ parents, then other registered family/friends. I’ve flown first class as one of the “others.”
A former neighbor (15 years ago) is (was?) a United flight attendant and flew international exclusively (mostly Europe and Asia). We have not really been in touch for most of those years since we moved, and she did move back to the Twin Cities, but we did reconnect about a year ago. We flew with buddy passes from her several times. Using them was the first time I ever got bumped up to first class. And yes, if you are (were?) using buddy passes and wanted to get bumped up to first class, you had to be dressed appropriately - no jeans.
Anyway, since this story broke, I’ve been tempted to email her and see if she has any scoop on the situation. However, I suspect she’s retired by now so I don’t know how much she’d know.
Chart agrees with cap, however, it looks like buddies riding with the employee get the same priority as the employee. Makes sense if they are all trying to go together.
On another weird note, my husband just texted me that he’s sitting next to two kids that look about two and three years old, who are screaming. I can’t get an answer from him if there’s a parent in that seat, or if the kids are alone. He says the flight attendant is “working on it.” My response is that if a kid is older than two, they can’t be a lap baby, and if they’re alone in that row, he needs to find their parent and swap with them. All the answer I get is, “working on it.” I’m curious what the real story is.
OK… so I did email my former neighbor. Will see if I hear back from her. I told her inquiring minds want to know stuff!
Chart agrees with cap, however, it looks like buddies riding with the employee get the same priority as the employee. Makes sense if they are all trying to go together.>>
It doesn’t work like that at the airline my sister works for, but might at others. She still gets priority, but other employees would be above the buddies.
What’s cap (besides the screen name of the above poster) busdriver? And can’t wait to hear the update from your DH
It may be a very cranky DH if he has to keep his seat there! No report for many hours, until he gets home.
The “cap” I was referring to was the poster you were referring to.