its a fairly objective question with ample objective data. No need for rulers.

we could pick another question- who has the best work rules. From what i gather republic’s rigs are much better than the largely non-existent ones at the WO’s

Who said they were better? Stop projecting your insecurities and putting words into other people's mouth. The point is that there really isn't that much difference between the two, and there isn't. And it certainly shouldn't factor in where you choose to work. But I understand that some WO regionals need all they can plus super inflated bonuses that just scream that we are desperate to attract talent these days.

Look the question is about the best travel privileges right? Are you going sit here day and think that RPA travel privileges are better that AA mainline privileges? (AA mainline = WO) Say yes because you obviously think so.

But come on Lonestar, i would bet you a 100 dollars and round on me that one or ever have experience AA mainline privileges (24 hour check-in, 6 D1 passes a year, D2 priority with jumpseat privileges, Zed) you wouldn’t think twice about your RPA privileges.

I am not here to defend any WO work rules and conditions as I’ve said earlier, I have no skin in the game and there are reasons why I left a WO.

At the end of the day, travel privileges shouldn’t be a top deciding factor on where to go work however it can be used a tie breaker. It was for me when picked a WO over RPA. That worked for me and worked for me will not work for others.

I’m in the group of multiple options. I don’t care if I’m in the back or up front. The fact is you have a better chance when you have more busses to get from a to b. I’ve experienced this going from coast to coast using multiple carriers over one of the busiest travel days. Not to mention that if you live in a hub at a WO you’re automatically lower than anyone traveling through that hub regardless of if you checked in at 23hrs59min59sec prior to departure.

But am I wrong?

Fixed it for you

Good point. At AA, those who are traveling and are connecting through a hub will have through and transfer status added to their category which will beat out those who are starting their travel in a hub. That is because of how the system process the check-in time because obviously, those who are starting their travel at a outstation will have a earlier travel time. When I lived in Dallas, I saw a lot of this. When I lived in ORF, I benefited from this.

But I be a devil advocate, I still had those same multiple options that you had obviously will a better chance of going coast to coast on AA and lower chance as a OAL. Still managed just fine with mainline priority.

If you wanna play the game you drive to gsp an fly gsp-clt-lhr and then you get the transfer priority. Or you drop a D1. Or you do both.

either way, as noted above, AA mainline and WO have exactly identical travel benefits and they are seniority agnostic

if I’m understanding your explanation, it’s inaccurate.

lets say I’m flying
gsp-clt departing 0700
clt-lga departing 0900

i check in at 0600, 1 hour before departure
im still ahead of everyone originating in clt for the clt-lga flight. Even if they checked in 3 days ago and have rolled from flight to flight to flight because they were full

transfer pax are a fundamentally different category. It’s not just that they can check in earlier

As someone who has had both, sorry, but I like Republic’s benefits better. There’s nothing like the ability to take the Skytrain across DFW when AA is falling apart in an IROP or even just a normal day with all the revenue standys, D1T’s etc and hop on a wide-open United flight to the same exact place. The flexibility gained is absolutely worth the lower priority to me.

To each their own. One man’s trash is another man’s Miata.

Zed

we can all hop on any wide open flight

the only place you’re going on United out of dfw is to a United hub.

And what exactly prevents the WO guy from doing the same?

Yup.
Having to come up with reasons to affirm your choice to yourself this early on in your career is generally not a good thing.

None. Apply to every major/ulcc to escape the whipsaw.

I’m not reaffirming anything to myself. As someone who approached this objectively from the time recruiters walked through the door (RPA/AA WO alike), I’d say I offer a slightly different POV. Strictly outside looking in, I thought it through plenty of times. Did plenty of hw on this and thus I got my opinion.

Heck, the person who experienced both travel benefits sided with RPA bennies. With that

With that, I digress.

and for free

Was thinking wife and kid, but i get it

Personal situations vary and if you don't live in a place that's well serviced by AA/UAL/DAL the respective benefits might hold less worth to you.
That being said, like it has been pointed out a number of times in this thread, WO travel bennies do not differ from the mainline in any way, shape or form.
​​
Think RPA's options are better? That's fine, your choice.

well they get free on any AA if WO or ZED just like any other though OMG RPA gets one step higher on the bottom of the list.

Sewage Mate, 1st Class is indeed better than Sewage Mate, 2nd Class

Let's try to bring a little objectivity to this here.

On balance, the AA WO privileges are probably a bit better, but not a lot better. I've traveled long-haul on 20 segments now in my time at Republic, and have gotten business or first on 18 of them and premium economy on the other 2. If you know what you're doing, it's not hard, even with an AAC/SA5X/S3C priority. D1s/D2s are great, and I wouldn't complain at all about having them, but I definitely would miss passrider access to UA and DL. As much as anything, simply having access to the loads makes commuting less uncertain, and therefore less stressful. Of course there are apps like Staff Traveler, but it sure is nice to make an evaluation with multiple airlines based on actual data.

There are lots of buddies and ZEDs traveling that the non-WO regionals with AAC have priority over, particularly to places like South America. Those are all people we'd be behind (or at even priority with) without our benefits on multiple airlines.

Somebody above also brought up the point of IROPS that I don't think was given enough weight. Flights are generally full (particularly pre-COVID), and it's not always as simple as waltzing over to a wide open flight on another airline with a ZED/jumpseat. I am consistently above multiple other people on both United and Delta, and that priority has gotten me where I needed to go where a lower priority wouldn't have.

That's not to mention the priority for the jumpseat I enjoy on both UA and DL, so when IROPS strike and there are a boatload of offline pilots trying to get on I have peace of mind knowing that I have priority over them for both seats up front and in the back.

Again, on balance these types of things don't happen regularly (though lately they seem to be happening more often) and the D1s/D2s would be incrementally more valuable, it's flat out wrong to say there's no argument for why non-WO flight benefits are more valuable. In every IROPS situation I've been able to travel, with a priority that is not at the bottom, on an unaffected airline (excepting widespread weather events, obviously).

I'll also add that in my 3 years I have watched a full flight leave without me exactly twice, both on the United side, and in both instances I caught a flight an hour later. So I think there's a lot of merit to the notion what we lose in priority we make up for with flexibility. Depending on where you live and where you're trying to go, that can be very useful.

Your thoughtful and reasoned post brings a lot to the discussion. Thanks!!

You make some great points. I will admit, in some situations it will be nice to able to have access to live data in terms of loads on all AA/DL/UA flights and the flexibility in the event of IRROPs as there were times where IRROPS mad me have to completely jump from Plan A to Plan E jumping on Fed Ex in the middle of the night because of the I knew I was getting on UA or DL either to get out of town. You are absolutely right, for the giving the priority, you have gained flexibility.

I will add, FedEx and UPS are the best kept secret in terms of needing to get somewhere depending on where you are going. If you live in place that has access to likes of DHL flights or Amazon flights as well, those are also options for jumpseatinf as well.

LMAO at these clowns thinking having WO benefits on only one airline is better than having slightly lower benefits (but higher jumpseat priorities) on 3-4 mainline carriers + zeds on everyone else.

Having mainline level benefits on AA isn't worth much when DFW/ORD is getting pounded by thunderstorms and AA is in total meltdown. Being able to instantly check loads on other carriers without having to call a buddy or get on staff traveler to be able to find a flight out of town and actually get on because you'll have priority over the WO schmuck who only has AA benefits can be quite invaluable.

Slightly lower is an inaccurate description. For the benefit of anyone else reading, AA nonrevrs are sorted as follows

D1 (employee “vacation” pass)
D2 (standard employee)
D2R (retirees)
D2P (parents)
AAC (republic et al)
D3 ( buddy passes)
ZED

Each of the classes above is fully seated before the next gets anything. AAWO employees have d2 standard and an annual d1 allocation same as all mainline employees. It’s not an inconsequential difference.

the point about flexibility in an irrop is well taken. But, for me, the “value” in nonrev was long-haul premium family travel. To get 4 lay flat seats to paris or Buenos Aires… AA mainline benefits are the way to go



The 4th mainline carrier is who?

Yeah now imagine having that option on multiple airlines, instead of just being limited to AA.

That difference in priority matters less on international as there are no free international upgrades.

And also, imagine being overseas and the one AA flight cancels and you gotta get home? Those UA/DL bennies make that a LOT easier. That actually happened to me.

the 4 mainline would be Alaska, which I’ll admit, pretty useless unless you live in SEA or PDX.

Flexibility is always the name of the game, and definitely more so when it comes to being a lower priority. Ironic that you used EZE as an example, I just got back from there and we (myself and my parents) had no real issues getting J on AA both directions (just don't tell anyone about the JFK flight lol).

I definitely have to sweat it out more that D2s do a lot of the time, but I've made it work!

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

That moment when one riff-raff thinks they are better than other riff-raff only to realize one day that they are all indeed riff-raff...

you remind me of the guys that put Airman first class rank on and then try to boss around other Airman hahahaha

as I said earlier in the thread, this is like trying to argue which hooker has the best herpes

by all means if you think that travel bennies are the deciding factor ya'll go for it !

Whatever. I offered my perspective.

we can all find examples of when a different toolset worked better.

Considering the totality of the circumstances, I find AA mainline nonrev benefits superior to those offered by republic.

(FYI that doesn’t mean I think Republics are bad or that WO is a better job/career)

I think you're arguing a strawman. This is a discussion board about a specific topic. I haven't seen anyone anywhere argue it's the most important thing, or even one of the top few things one should consider, but being that it is a part of our compensation package, and for people like myself who love to travel it can be especially relevant. If you don't care about travel benefits, that's your prerogative. But it's ridiculous to tell others that it shouldn't matter to them.

I'm not really clear what your point is or how you feel like you're furthering discussion here. Particularly when your premise that regionals have inferior privileges is demonstrably false in the case of AA and its WOs, which have the exact same travel benefits.

I had benefits on three carriers at my precious regional. Then I got hired at AA.

AA flight benefits are the same as AA WO regional benefits, and I can say that the AA benefits are way better. The better priority is so much better than flying as AAC/S3C/SA5X.

There was the one time when the AA flight cancelled and I ZED my whole family on United coming out of Europe, and having the three benefits would have saved me a little bit of money. But the majority of the time, higher priority I have as a mainline employee is better for me.

I meant to say previous, not precious haha

I wish I had time to travel on my days off.

No kidding. Travel bennies are cool and all... for flight attendants and commuters (I'm in the latter).

Let me ask a slight OT total noob question...

If you're flying stand by, are you able to check luggage? Can't imagine doing a week+ abroad in cold weather with just a carry on, but maybe I'm doing it wrong.

You’re doing it wrong. I did a two week trip in Europe in October through Jordan and Switzerland. All with an international carry on. Just plan to do laundry. That being said, you can check luggage. It will always go through with or without you. So while you may not make a flight, your luggage will. That’s only good when you’re going home.

international bags don’t get on a plane unless the passenger is confirmed on board.


That being said, checking bags as a nonrev is a horrible idea. Even if you gate-check the bag after getting a seat, they might pull you off and leave your bag on if it’s a domestic flight.

that was my point. Still stands international not withstanding. My international story was saying that nonreving around with an international carry on is something that is easily done for weeks at a time.

Word I didn't understand what you meant the first time but now it's clear.

as noted… you’re doing it wrong

wash
hotel laundry
layer
rewear
wash/layer/rewear (ie only need “clean” touching your skin)
buy clothes
ship things home