United Airlines deadheaders
 

The hits keep coming. If you are a United Airlines commuter, be aware that they decided this year not to invite FedEx pilots into their "invitation only" Global Services status. It's not just a FedEx thing, but at least 6 long term Global Services FedEx pilots I'm aware of did not requalify this year despite spending over 6 figures on United airfare in 2023. Plan accordingly for 2024. To my knowledge, American and Delta still appreciate FedEx money. United...not so much.

I also got the news today that I was not invited back to GS. I spent around $80K last year on United tickets. I've already started looking at other carriers for my upcoming deadheads.

Soneone is already drafting an open letter to UA and so far have nearly 100 signatures. Any affected pilots interested in joining please send me a private message!

Does it really matter? Isn't 1K status good enough?

What does this mean? You're going to kick United commuters off your jumpseat or something?

I was 1k for years before becoming GS. There is a very significant difference between the two with the most important being how you are handled during irregular operations. For us, that’s job security. As a GS, I’ve had my reservations reworked before I was even aware there was a problem. Weather, maintenance, ATC problems, doesn’t matter. If they identify you might not make a connection, they start working a solution. Either a different flight, or they meet you at the gate and drive you across the ramp, or through the terminal to your next flight. Since it also comes with lounge access, you also gain the benefit of a United agent in the lounge who can help work issues. Can’t count how many times I’ve walked past lines of a thousand people in IAH or ORD waiting for customer service, and I’ve walked into the lounge to an agent with no line. 1k comes with none of that. Really the 1k benefits for the kind of travel we do are essentially useless. We’re flying in business class for most international flights anyway. That means you’re boarding in group 1 no matter what your status. The 1k “hotline” can take 45 minutes to get someone on the phone. You get your first choice of meal, but the food isn’t that good anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. And when the sh*t hits the fan in a commute or deviation, you’re mostly on your own to find a solution.
To each his own, but once you experienced the difference, it’s pretty easy to see the difference.

Weird that you would even consider that as an option. United commuters don’t create United policy.
We have a choice on who we deadhead on. I spent well over $100k deadheading on United last year. It’s a free market. If they don’t want my money I’ll fly on someone else. But this isn’t the first time one of the legacy airlines has tried to treat FedEx pilots as second class citizens. They typically reconsider when it becomes apparent it will cost them money. Hopefully this will be another example of that.

That makes more sense.

Although there are plenty of people on APC that would do something silly like I suggested.

Well, I won’t argue with that point. Unfortunately, you might be right.

Nah they reserve that sort of hostility for anyone who voted NO on the TA.