Travel Bennies
 

This hasn’t been brought up clearly with recruiters. How’s the travel benefits for XJT? Is it just on UA, if so how high up the list are you?

You are on the bottom of the list on mainline flights. Even retirees have higher priority. On our own metal, we have higher priority than mainline unless they use vacation passes at the last minute to bump you off. UAL pilots are working hard to have priority on jumpseats for all express carriers.

I’m pretty sure they gave up on this.

You won’t really have a clear understanding of travel benefits until you start using them. It’s kinda complex irrespective of the airline. Suffice to say it’s only United and you only get priority over mainline employees on Expressjet aircraft.


Edit: I must give United props for hooking up the travel benefits website to their normal United app that everyone uses.... it makes it all so much easier.

There are also Zed travel benefits which begin 6 months after DOH. This includes standby travel on Delta, American, JetBlue, Southwest, Hawaiian, Scandinavian, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, and quite a few more. Hopefully these get expanded, but who knows.

How does that work? So you can list right from the app? The same app you use your mileage plus member ID to login?

Yes, you can.

Which family members also get ZED benefits? Thanks

I believe it’s everyone on your flight benefits (parents, children, spouse), except the enrolled friend(s).

However, sometimes your family members must be travelling with the employee when using a zed fare. It depends from airline to airline.

Found this on google. (Just saying so someone doesn’t think I’m posting a secret.) I’ve been using it for over a year to show people how to link.

https://www.thegoldeneagles.org/uploads/4/5/2/4/45245885/mileageplus_and_u_id_linking.pdf

Thank you.

Given the capacity of the flight and etc, would a XJT employee and wife be able to list on a United flight from IAD-NRT?

If you wanted to. 240 open seats between Mon & Tues for example.

You can fly United out of anywhere to anywhere. And on any regional.

There are a couple of rules, but it’s pretty dumb stuff probably trying to keep people from living in airplanes lol.

Thank you. Just wasn’t clear on where XJT stood in comparison to other regionals, employees, mainline, etc. when listing for a flight.

1. You only have priority over mainline United on our own aircraft.

2. On United mainline, all regionals go behind mainline, in date of hire priority.

3. On Commutair for example, commutair has priority, followed by United mainline, then all remaining regionals including us, in date of hire priority.

Commutair’s example is also valid for all other United Express regionals.

Correction on #3.

United can use a vacation pass and that puts them at the same pass classification as Commutair or XJT since this is the XJT thread. It then comes down to date of hire.

It actually puts them in a higher priority, as they would be SA0V and express would be SA0X.

How many of those do they have each year?

Too many!;)

The argument wasn’t over jumpseat, but the seats in the back. The issue is that passenger seats are sold by United Airlines and that a 30 year employee shouldn’t get bumped by a regional new hire. You can’t go to Mesa or Express Jet and buy a ticket from point A to B. That is through the parent company. Basically, those are United routes, the seats are sold by United Airlines, and often times the airplane itself is owned by United. The various regionals are simply subcontractors paid to cover certain routes. It would be a hard sell to demand priority on another companies jumpseat, but the seats in the back are United seats, and as such United employees should be listed SA1, and the subcontractors falling below that mark.

The best fix for the whole problem is for United to take over all this flying and do it on mainline aircraft. Then there is no argument over priority.

We’d love to see that but unfortunately I don’t see it happening any time soon. The majors have given up scope too many times over a long period of time. It will most likely take just as long to chip away at taking it back. The current UAL MEC has told management that we won’t give up one seat, or one pound in scope relief in our current negotiations. Hopefully this will force more flying to mainline allowing current employees to advance and others to gain employment. For now we just sit back and watch the show.

Subcontractors deserve priority over mainline on the routes they cover. Use a vacation pass if you want to bump them off.

SK will just continue to order CRJ550s, problem solved.

Actually SA0X and SA0V are the same priority. There are multiple examples of two different pass travel statuses having equal priority through the United travel program hierarchy. The difference is that most mainline employees have a longer tenure than the express employee. For example an SA0X12 would still be ahead of an SA0V15.

Do XJT employees/family get vacation passes to up their priority?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No, Smisek took those away around 2011.

Jumpseating
 

Haven’t really got a clear answer on this. If someone with experience can chime in. My parents live in South America and NK or JBU are the only carriers that fly direct. Are we allowed per contract/company policy to list as we would to jumpseat to an international destination? Thank you

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You can only occupy a seat in the back. So yes you can jump seat but not on the flight deck.

Mainline pilots keep saying this... For the regionals that operate only for UAX, yes the planes are owned by UAL. However for other regionals like Republic and Skywest, we own our own A/C. They ARE NOT UAL property, they are property of Republic and Skywest, 100%. We should not be bumped off of our own airplane by a mainline pilot who flying for United Airlines. United Express is a brand name not a company. When United has 100% stake in a given company, then yeah they can have priority. Otherwise, mainline gets priority for their metal, and we get priority on our own. It's the agreement and the very least mainline can do is honor that.

The current deal is presently and will be honored, but it should be changed. The seats in the back belong to the parent company and a 25+ year employee of that company shouldn’t be bumped by an employee of a subcontractor who was in diapers when the mainline employee started working. The routes are mainline routes that are farmed out to the regionals. Without mainline, that airplane owned by a regional would just be a static display. Seniority should be honored.

If you want mainline seniority to apply on 50 seat aircraft, then incorporate those airplanes and their crews into your mainline fleet and seniority list.

While I don't completely disagree, I don't fully agree either. At the regionals we already get peanuts for pay in order to subsidize mainline pay, and back of the bus treatment in literally every single other fashion. The very least we can have is priority on our own planes. We literally move 60% of domestic air travel, thanks to the scope that mainline wide body pilots happily voted for...

When that plane says "UNITED" and not "UNITED EXPRESS" then by all means, a seniority system should prevail. But as long as we're making 70% less than what my other ATP, jet-typed brothers and sisters are making, slapped with an "EXPRESS" on the side and viewed as less than, our pilots will be getting priority on our own metal with regards to OUR seniority system.

I too want flying back at mainline, like much of us do. Sadly, I know it'll never happen, and even if it does, it won't be without massive concessions across the board. Hence while it'll never happen.

Mainline own the seats they sell. Integrate the seniority list and end the regional flying is the best solution.

Mainline unions would never stand for an integration with a regional, but I do think that regional flying will be reduced going forward, resulting in more mainline jobs. The pendulum swung pretty far towards the regional side in the post 9/11 world. The legacy carriers won’t get it all back, but I do see a bunch of the flying going back to the parent company resulting in the hiring of additional pilots to staff it. If I could be king we’d bring all of the flying in house, bring in regional pilots as new hires, and from that day forward the starting position at mainline would be on the rj.

I’d vote for a staple in a New York minute.

And I would gladly accept that stable in a NY minute.

I’ll provide the stapler.

When you “jumpseat” to South America on B6, are you still responsible for foreign taxes. I know when you buy a ZED ticket you are.