The excuse I heard about the $50 non-rev fee was, if the company didn't charge us 'something' for the passes, then the IRS would want to tax us on the imputed value of every pass we used. I'll gladly pay the $50/yr vs. paying Uncle the taxes on all those free non-rev tickets value.

Here's a funny story; Years ago the American Airlines pilots were in contract negotiations with Robert Crandall. He made the claim that the passes the pilots got were worth $10,000 per year, per pilot!

The pilot's union came back with, "OK, you can keep the passes, give us each $10,000 more, every year, and we'll buy our own tickets!"

Crandall quickly dropped that subject!