Originally Posted by
saxman66
This is exactly what appeals to me. My friend and my SO love playing the FF miles game, and never seem to want to use my current non-rev benefits anyway.
Also how do hotels work when deviating? If you have to commute in the day before, are you on your own for hotels? When on a normal trip can you collect the hotel points and get status, etc? I thought I heard you can with the rates Fedex pays for hotel stays.
It sounds like maybe you're currently at a company that uses commercial flights to position you also?
On a deviation, we are allowed to check-in 2-days early to any hotel in the city in question. I think most pilots try to use the scheduled hotel on our pairing for convenience but we're not restricted to that one. Any hotel we can find a room in via any normal method is acceptable. The only restriction is that we are limited to the maximum per night rate for that city published by our expense department. As long as we don't exceed that rate, our travel bank funds will cover the hotel. So when I know I'm deviating, I usually call the front desk of our scheduled hotel first and see if they're willing to let me reserve a room at the FedEx crew rate a day early. Just use the crew mastercard we all get and the charge eventually shows up in our list of expenses. Most of our hotels are pretty accommodating as long as they have rooms available. The only one I've had consistent trouble with is the Sheraton in HKG. They usually want to charge us something closer to full price for the extra night. I've been able to find a nearby hotel using Kayak when I deviate in early there.
Getting points for stays is hit or miss. From what I can see, FedEx usually gets a pretty good deal on our hotels, especially domestically, so I don't think the rates they pay factor in too often. It's sporadic enough that I don't pay that much attention. If we check-in a day early, it's pretty common for them to give us credit for that stay since we're paying with a card and then not credit us for the scheduled stay. Our training hotel for non-MEM based crews in MEM gave me credit for the direct billed 50+ nights I stayed during 777 transition (Hilton property). Some seem to be better than others but I'm not sure what luck guys are having these days domestically. Often we get the "your company's paying and it's a crew rate" so no points. Internationally Hilton and Marriott seem to be the only ones I am able to accrue the occasional points for stay with. I should probably ask more consistently. Narita Hilton always says "no" but I think the Shanghai Hilton does.
One annoying restriction is no deviation expenses allowed in the domicile city. So I can't expense my commuter hotel the day before a non-deadhead trip or any ground travel expenses in that city if they're necessary.