Originally Posted by
EWRflyr
Yes, that is true. That was announced last year when the new travel program was outlined. Those passes, when used strategically, will give them super-seniority boarding priority. They won't retain that priority for all their travel, but for trips that are really important and desired it certainly will give a leg up even over active employees who use vacation passes.
Do you remember if CAL over 25 years got fire tickets? I seem to remember something about the average retired UAL employee with 25 years or more got free unlimited passes at a higher boarding priority. Correct me if I wrong, but the study said they only used 4-6 passes a year on average within 5 years of retiring and it dropped off considerably after that. So the UAL retirees didn't lose much and the CAL retirees gained. As far as active employees, it's close to a wash unless they use up their Vacation passes(commuting). Still think higher priority for commuters is a mistake.