Smart man. That's how I'm doing it.

 

The S2's are not positive space. As mentioned you pay a 50 dollar per year fee to non rev travel. That covers all the passes for your family and parents. If you fly in a market with customs, immigration or tax fees those will be in addition to the one time yearly charges. The UK is the worst in that regard.
Boarding priority is by standby class. The S means standby. The number after is your class. As a employee you and your family normally ride as a S3. Parents, retirees and non dependent children are S3b's. You get 6 flying days a year where you can fly as a S2. They are informally called vacation passes. It simply moves you ahead of the hoard of S3's.
S4's are the eight passes you can give to anyone. There is a per mile charge. That cost can sometimes be the same as a discounted real ticket on domestic flights. They are more valuable on international flights. They are hard to use on peak travel routes however will work with careful planning and timing.
There is no additional charge at Delta for riding in first or business class. If there are seats in the front you will be boarded there. Domestically on any route with business travel it's unlikely you will be moved up as the FF upgrade list sucks those seats up.

 

If you are trying to ride on a Jumpseat pass but somebody has higher priority, do you automatically get moved to an S3 or is it a good idea to list as an S3 and for the jump?

 

Once you buy a RT, it is good for one year. So even if they only want a OW, you can use the unused portion for a different trip. Just pay the difference in ticket prices.

 

LOL, no. All using one does is put you ahead of the S3's. However, those S3's that were ahead of you almost always also have S2's, and can change quickly to that. Its not uncommon to see 20+ people standing by for 2 seats, all 20 of which burned an S2 in a war of attrition. Sometimes people even wait til the last minute to list, to see if they want to use an S2 or S3, so they don't even show up on the standby list until almost time to board.

S2's can help in some situations sometimes, but they are nowhere remotely close to positive space.

 

I don't think that's the case. You still obviously listed a BA/BS degree, so less than 4 years shouldn't be a negative in the slightest and will most likely be a positive. While most take around 4, its not that uncommon for people to finish in less than 4 years. They know that. CLEP'ing in 2 is impressive.

 

In your exact example, you would "flow back" to an open cabin seat if there is one. However once you book the jumpseat its yours, and if you lose out to the FAA or some other higher priority (it won't be a line pilot as once you book it seniority has nothing to do with it) you will get a cabin seat.

We should be able to non-rev list with a move up to the JS if the back is full, thus preserving our cabin priority etc. but so far we can't.

This is a long standing IT issue. You are not supposed to "dual list". You either have to choose one, or talk to the gate agent and if they are awesome (many are) you can say "here's my listing but if I can't get on I'd like to list for the JS" or something like that. You could still get burned by a company pilot actually booking it, but that should at least protect you from an OAL walk up. However, if you really need to go and the JS is available, just book it and you own it.

However sometimes company pilots don't show, so if you're listed in the back because of that you could still get burned by an OAL who nabs the JS at the last second and runs down the jetbridge and gets the JS on a full flight leaving you stranded before you even realize what's going on. We need an IT fix to address this, so for now a good gate agent and/or extreme situational awareness on your part is the only defense.

 

Appreciate the response. I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary, or had made my app incomplete, I was just curious.

CLEP'ing the first two years of college wasn't all that hard. A couple of High School classes had counted with college credit as well. CLEPs, college credit classes in High School and AFROTC classes counting towards my degree, wasn't hard doing my Bachelor's in two years.

 

Waiting till the last minute was spawned by E- Bay dufos....

 

Thanks for the detailed response!! So if you do "flow back" due to FAA do you have basically a guaranteed seat? Above S2's etc.