Way to go US Airways
 

This just in:

Us Airways will now begin charging affiliate carriers employees (regional) for non rev benefits.

$75.00 for employees
$50.00 for spouse
$50.00 for each child
$50.00 for parents (for the right to be charged $25.00 each way domesticaly and to canada, $40.00 each way to HI and Mexico, and $100.00 each way internationally.

These are annual fees.

As a regional FO with kids I cannot afford this. What are they thinking? And why is the employee paying more than the rest of the family?
Does anyone know if they are charging US Airways employees?

It's not like flight benefits are even worthwhile any more. Spend another hundred bucks on the airline's website and you at least know you're getting on.

I'm sure they will just start charging you to be an employee soon :rolleyes:

So very true!

we just got this at trans states too! except for the employee is $125!!! what a joke. generating more revenue by charging the very people who keep the revenue moving...who comes up with this stuff?? so very frustrating.

o and its non refundable...so when i get displaced to iad in a few months(where i would not be flying any us air trips) i would lose the "benefits", and not get my $$ back at a prorated amount.

FINALLY!!!!!!After all this time I have finally found a good reason why I went to PSA!!!!!!!!!!:D










(joke)

They always charged employees (and retirees) as well. I don't know for sure how much (I retired) because there's NO WAY I'd nonrev now. My priority is too low (I think even below you guys). As Pilotpip said, it's worthwhile to bite the bullet, pay a (deep-discount) fare, and have a seat "fer sure". If you commute, though, this bites. Why are they doing it? Because they can. If nobody paid it, they'd stop (like the bag fees). Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.

We pay $50 a year a delta...i don't blame them, they don't have to offer anything technically.

They didn't charge at all at airways before?

Heck, if you're domiciled and live at an airport served by other carriers..don't pay it..and just use CASS..You can probably just sign up for the jumpseat on Airways too through CASS and not get charged a cent!

That sucks. If it makes you feel any better, our mainline charges us--and its own employees--$12.50 each way domestic. I pay in three round trips what you'll pay for the year.

<sigh>

I'm sure that's the future. :(

It must be nice to be a wholly owned :D not anually fees for now :eek:

some people have a family they like to travel with you know? and its not a matter of them having to offer anything...its about more concessions from employees and charging employees because they cant functionally run a company.

AMR has been doing that forever. I spent over $2000/yr in commute/non-rev. International to San Juan was $32.00 ea way. Now that I don't have JS privileges and actually have to buy tix, its not that bad. Allegiant and southwest have great fairs , no standby dealing with crazy gate agents who will let the plane leave with 10 empty seats while you watch them push, pleading your case to get on.

Looks like Delta is charging more now too! I just went in and looked on DeltaNet and PPR activation fee just went up to $100 and $50 for each additional person for a max cap of $200 with a 7.5% tax. Looks like it is costing more for everyone to fly standby!

Thats too bad..

When the hell is there going to be some damn good news for a change?

No wonder everyone in this industry is so bitter.

Nothing like rock bottom oil prices to have them squeeze the employees.

It definietly sucks for us. But I always ask the gate agents and rampers why they work for at airport for wages you could somewhere else and for less frustration and 10 out of 10 say for the travel benefits. I'm guessing we will be seeing some of them quiting in the near future. A perk that's not such a perk anymore. Not only will you not make the trip now to oversold seats it will cost you also.

Did your company put out this information?

Not that it isn't coming for my carrier, I just haven't seen this information come down the pipe YET.

What companies have been notified of this impending crapola?

Are you a DL or wholly owned employee? It's still $50 according to travelnet if I wanted to activate for next year and that for my entire family, parents and myself.

Go post on the "positive new day post" there is some good news for everyone there, or at least your chance to post something postive, leave the negaitvity to another thread, I'll start one if you want

Damn, this sucks. $75 is like one day's worth of work for me, and the paychecks have been tight as it is because the lines have been scaled back.

It was completely free for domestic and pay only taxes for intl.

I disgree with you that they don't HAVE to offer anything. It is an obvious benefit associated with working for an airline. Most if not all companies offer a discount or deal on their services/producs to their own employees. That is part of the COMPENSATION PACKAGE. They don't do this out of the goodness of their hearts, but to attract and retain employees. If they didn't offer anything, many, many, MANY rampers/gate agents/flight attendants would not be putting up with their BS work for $8/hr. (I don't put pilots in the group because for most of us, the primary purpose of working for an airline versus any other kind of company is not the travel benefits like it is for other types of airline employees.) Heck, many of us have to travel to work (commuters) so in a way you're charging employees to come to work. :confused: Maybe they are doing this because they know people aren't likely to quit in this economy even if their work benefits are eroding.

I have a feeling that some guys will chime in and say that we should feel so lucky that we haven't gotten charged until now, esp. because other airlines have crappy nonrev fee policies. But like I said... travel benefits is part of the compensation package for the work you do.
As far as CASS well I'm thinking about that situation too... but I primarily use US Air for commuting... and I'm wondering, if it would really be possible to bypass the nonrev fee by jumpseating instead. I remember for Delta... some of the ASA guys were saying on another thread that the computer system/gate agents wouldn't let them jumpseat (even on their own aircraft) if they hadn't paid the annual nonrev fee. I wonder if we're going to have something like that also, or we'd get locked out of The Hub if we don't pay the nonrev fee (therefore won't be able to look up loads). If that were the case, I'd be forced to pay up since I have no choice but to commute.


exactly!! :mad:

The $50 is the fee to use travelnet. The phone way of listing is still free, but a huge pain, so $50 for travelnet may be the only good thing about Delta

Indeed. CAL has a slogan for its employee travel system: "Fund the future." I'm sorry, but isn't that why you have customers?

I was reading here earlier that if AA/Eagle guys did that they would get disciplined. Pretty much if you requested the jumpseat and there ended up being seats in back on your own airline, you'd be in trouble. Therefore making guys pay to commute or ride on their own airline. I think its even more if you ride in first. Maybe some AMR guys here can say if this is true.

I really don't mind paying $50 for riding Delta. After that, no charges to go anywhere and can sit in first also. It's about the only thing good at Delta.

You actually pay during your first 5 yrs. After that its free.

Yes, we have always had to pay. The airline is still responsible for taxes on the 'price' of the ticket as well as airport head taxes etc.

Too complicated to charge each person based upon actual usage so it all goes in a pot - If you live in base and stay mostly at home you end up subsidizing the commuters and travel happy types.

INCORRECT!



You could list on the phone for free, but the second you try to check in at the airport, they are going to get you. This happened to me last year. Tried to check in at Orange County after listing on the phone, and all I got was the option for emergency travel, asked the check in agent what was going on, and she pulled it up and said, "oh you need to pay the activation fee. Can I have a credit card?" So no matter what way you try to get around it, Big D is going to get your money!

I still think of the old orange smiley-faced airplanes when I hear that name....

I never do it since I live in houston but what does this do for my buddy passes I have with them?

This is for DCI.

This is for mainline.


Keep in mind that they can push the DCI employees a lot farther than the mainline employees. (They have to keep the cat ranchers somewhat mollified if for no other reason than to keep the AFA out.)

Just more proof why nobody should accept jobs at any of those places.... you are your own worst enemies.... take a worthless job, then do nothing but complain about it... the answer was to NOT take the job.

You could be furloughed and not have any bennies? :) DAL has been doing this for a while it seems. I dont see why non-mainline guys are getting upset about this. Contract carriers are not mainline, thus if we dont get mainline bennies, do we have a right to complain? I'm seriously asking......

Do we have a right to complain? Yes, it's called free country. No but seriously, I know ranting here doesnt do any good but I still think it's unfair. Contractor or not, our flights help make up the US Airways system.
I guess you can say I should be thankful I'm not furloughed 'cause then I'll have no bennies... but then again, if I didn't have this job, I wouldn't have to commute, so I wouldn't need those benefits in the first place.

This is they way it is for us at SkyWest....and probably other contract carriers!

It's interesting, for a while there we had the worst bennies as far as money at CAL, but I thought it was worth it because we were getting to travel at the same classification as CAL employees. All my buddies at other carriers would tell me how great it was to just pay a one time fee or no fee at all per year, and how the classification didn't matter.

Well, now all those poor guys travel below mainline and pay just as much as we do. I have to admit a lot of our guys here at XJT complain about our bennies, but I get 8 free round trips a year (vacation passes) to go anywhere, typically international first class is what I get. So it balances out, even though regular pass travel is $25 round trip (domestic); and with the improvements it looks like we're on par with most majors.

It's interesting to compare, but just remember guys, it's your management and the language in the CPA that determines what you get. I could not believe when both Colgan and CHQ got their respective contracts, that the managements were ok with their employees getting SA5 status on CAL...that's lower than retired or any active employee or family members at both CAL and XJT. I just couldn't believe it. I have friends at both, and they thought for sure management was going to negotiate something better.

When did they stop charging? When I worked there they charged the yearly fee with a cap of $250.00/yr. Sounds like it is actually cheaper now than it was.

Very true, and I admit I was being a little disingenuous by leaving that bit of information out of my previous posts. However, for me personally, I preferred pass traveling at PDT, when non-revving was free unless you wanted to travel in a higher class than coach. I think I jumpseated within the Airways system exactly twice in as many years, only because coach was full. It was a lot less headache--and a lot cheaper than in the CAL system--just to list and get a seat.

What do you expect from management? Their the ones that come up with this bull crap! Maybe that is why CBA's exist.

USAir does not currently charge their mainline employees for non rev travel.

They used to charge an annual fee of $150 per employee or around $270 per family to non rev on USair. (unlimited travel for employee, spouse, children and parents)

Dave Siegel eliminated the annual non rev fees when he was in charge of USAir. There was never an explaination of why the fees were eliminated.

However, this caused another problem in that some employees started receiving 1099's for 10% of the value of the airfare that their travel card designees used. They had some quirky formula that caused "1099 imputed income" for some unmarried employees and not for married employees. This then caused income tax issues for those employees that were subject to the 1099's.

I always thought that the 1099 problem would go away if the annual fees were put back in place.

What has been said is correct; it is just about impossible to non-rev on USAir these days.

Is yours still showing $50? My account is showing the new fees for next years activation.

For Delta travel it is quite a spike in the fees but for the amount that myself and my family use them I cannot complain one bit at all. Would you rather have 1 round trip ticket from ATL or a years worth or free standby travel, first class (if open), international travel? I know which one I would pick. Besides I think we all knew this was coming. This is Delta's solution to not charge us for each flight based on mileage. That was before my time so I don't know all of the details but this sounds like a better solution for everyone.