Feliz6

ID90 blows along with standby anything these days. Barely a perk. Yes I’m bitter.

AirBear

I used hotel points and airline miles for my wife and I to fly 1st class roundtrip CLT-HNL and stay in a nice Hilton for a week, all for free. So I'd say the points and miles are worth something.

Tippy

Everyones preferences are different. I almost never used my standby/jumpseat benefits at the airlines, we usually paid for tickets for the peace of mind. I prefer a free room here or there or an upgrade when I'm on vacation etc over MAYBE a free flight if there's seats open but we have to connect in DFW and wait for two missed flights... just my way of life.

Flyfalcons

Looks like the latest PIC bid award went to within 6 or 7 numbers of reaching our post-furlough hires. Good news for sure.

C2078

Soooooo true. At NJ, you have almost zero control over which airline you fly, so the points get sprinkled across multiple airlines, and you have to plan way in advance to use the least amount of points. And the Hotel points are being devalued year after year. Both are becoming less valuable year after year.

I get fed pretty decent at my current job, and have the highest PD in the industry, yet I will never consider PD income. It is to eat and have an enjoyable time on the road, not that NJ folks are able to do much of that with the long days and short layovers.

Having experienced both points and pass travel, there is simply no comparison, even with flights being full lately. The amount of money we have saved and the opportunities my family has gained with pass travel are unmatched. My family has used passes no less than 6-7 times each this year, it has allowed us to make trips we would of otherwise not have been able to do, and saved us tremendous amount of money. The key is flexibility and having good insight into loads. And not to mention wife and I will have pass privileges once I retire, until I die, not that NJ folks would be able to use them anyways since many are flying deep into their 60’s and 70’s.

C2078

Why don’t you add the context to that… the two airlines where probably 200k+ points, which most likely took you 3-4 years to accumulate. Same with the points. So a nice paid vacation every 3-4 years is definitely nice. I can do that once, maybe twice a year, granted maybe not in First, but more frequently for sure. In my 10+ years at NJ I never accumulated more than about 80k miles per year across all airlines. Math doesn’t lie. 7/7, 20 tours a year, times 2 flights x 1,500 miles average per trip (and that is high, many were shorter trips and multiple car rentals). Unless you are in a city that exclusively flies one airline, or constantly doing transcons, it takes years to accumulate miles.

Same goes for Hotels. I stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village many years ago for a full week for 100,000 points 😳. That same stay today is about 500,000.

You may be that 3% that flies almost exclusively on one airline and gets a lot of transcons, or flies the extra tour per month by being on the CC72. Good for you. But it takes years for the average 7/7 person living in the average city to accumulate any serious amount of points to use semi frequently.

Deserthusker

Netjets does allow us to pick a preferred airline now. I would say 90% of the time they honor that. If they book on another airline and your preferred is close in price they will change it. It helps if you live in a base that has one major airline. I live in SLC so I get mostly delta. I did make diamond last year and have a delta reserve Amex so I compile the miles for multiple trips a year. Probably won’t make diamond again as delta just upped the required MQDs to make platinum and diamond. It is nice that diamond or the reserve card gets you skyclub access. Nice place to hang out on day one when they keep changing your brief. 😝

Das Auto

Yeah, well I've experienced both too and being stranded at the airport sucks. Loads can say whatever they want, but if an earlier flight cancels and everyone rolls over onto yours you're S.O.L. Happened to me on several occasions. No worries when you have a confirmed seat. Similar to the 121 vs frac commuting argument.

The points do add up. I took my family of 4 to Europe and back last year on American. Doing the same next year on United, and just got back from a week in Mexico, American miles and Marriott points.

There were a couple of occasions where I scored 1st class on Continental international non reving, but domestic, forget it. Especially with your family in tow. I can't count how many times there was one seat available so my wife and I played rocks and scissors. Both needed to get back for work.

One time the seats to Cancun were wide open. We had Costa Rica as a back up. By the time we got to the airport both were oversold. After waiting at the airport all day we ended up taking a flight to Memphis TN. Not quite the margaritas on the beach we had in mind, but still had a good time. Like you said, "flexibility is key." That's great of you're retired.

It's good to be proud of where you work, but exaggerating and making false claims depreciates the value of the information on these threads.

v1rotatay

Is that like an easier version/regional subversion of rock,paper,scissors?

Deserthusker

It’s the version where you always go with scissors cause your wife goes with rock. Happy wife happy life.