Flight Benefits at your Regional?
 

Looking for insight into travel benefits with your regional carriers. Transitioning from 135 to 121 at the end of the year and big factor is travel bennies as a feeble attempt to offset the QOL issues. I welcome any insight or subsequent flaming. Usually some diamonds in the rough. Thanks in advance.

You will have higher priority if you work for a wholly-owned.

Gold, I saw a previous thread about Endeavor where it appeared they had inferior DAL benefits to SKW. Any truth to it?

Duke, I agree (based on my experience) that working for a wholly owned will get you better travel benefits, but do NOT pick a regional based on that particular topic. You will have inferior benefits to the mainline employees, and besides, you have the jumpseat.

Of all the reasons to choose a particular regional, pass benefits is NOT one of them!

And just to add, these benefits are renegotiated on a regular basis. So what you have today may be gone tomorrow. At LASA, we went from free travel on DL to $50 to $211 for a family of 4 (per year) in just a few years time. And our priority went from S3 to S3C overnight. So we are just barely above a buddy pass.

It's so useless it shouldn't even be called a benefit. In fact they call it a "privilege" now. Basically you won't get a seat until after every mainline newhire, gets on, every mainline retiree, all the mainline retirees kids, then pilots and families of the latest sellout wholly owned get on. Not to mention that the latest revenue management gurus are overbooking everything and achieving 99% load factors. So basically you're not getting on.

Well, using the Cass system you can jump seat on delta internationally, if you work for any regional.

Domestic is straight jump seat, same all around. Obviously higher priority for own a/c, wholly owned then other airline.

I work at air wisconsin. We get the same zed fare benefits as any usairways employee. So internationally is the same as working for psa/pdt or airways.

Actually Envoy employees ride on the same level as AA employees on all Envoy and AA flights. Priority is also based on time of check in, so a new hire Envoy employee (and their spouse) could be ahead of the most senior AA employee if they checked in first.

They recently got ride of all fees for domestic flights. Jumpseat is still seniority based of course, and the policy is subject to change with the merger. But overall, Envoy has great benefits.


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Thanks Centerline, I appreciate the warning. I'm looking for strictly for in base QoL, not interested in quick upgrade or commuting.

Thanks moonwolf, Awac is at the top of my list with hopes of a Philly base. So JS is the way to go domestic? As opposed to try trying non rev? Pros/cons for going international in regards to USair/awac vs another carrier through Cass. Apologies for the naive questions.

The pass bennies were okay, but honestly a good travel credit card is infinately better. I spent nearly a decade at a regional and would tell you to try almost anything else. A good 91 or 135 outfit is light years beyond what a regional will offer.

^^^^ this
As far as travel benefits go, envoy has some of the best! They are the exact same as legacy American and as he said solely based on time of check in. Unlimited non rev travel for spouse , children and parents... 16 "guest travel(buddy passes) passes per year. We also now get 6 higher priority passes per year which people usually save for travel around holidays.

Good to hear Shiner, I'd heard of the domestic fees with Envoy. So if traveling with a spouse you book non rev? Do you know what kind of fees you are looking at with Envoy on int'l?

Depends on the destination. Usually it's just the taxes associated with the flight(which isn't much) but sometimes there'll be embargoes in place which will cost you more. Last time I looked first class to London was around $100 or so...

International can be pretty steep as far as fees and vary greatly based on destination and class. Domestic fees are now waived as part of the merger including Registered Companion. Parents still pay those fees though.

Thanks HIREME

Great to know Jvw700! Sounds like a +1 with Envoy.

To add to the Envoy travel benefits, they are AAG level so that is why there is no difference between AA and Envoy. Additionally, as long as it is branded AA or "eagle" boarding priority holds. So you can bump a republic pilot and his family off a republic aircraft.

Checkin time is good to because once you check in, you don't have to worry about some senior family of 6 checking in last minute. We do have 4 higher levelpasses we can use sort of like vacation passes called D1

When traveling with the wife I usually wear business casual so I can take the Jumpseat if need be, but I've always got a seat in the back. We went to Mexico from dfw and paid $120 total for the both of us.

We still pay the fees for all first and business class flights. First class on a widebody will totally spoil you. I'd pay the fees every time for that seat and service.


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My experience is strictly based on the US Airways system. PSA pilots have higher priority than Awac and other non wholly-owns when it comes to jumpseating on US airways mainline flights just as they do with non-reving. I've shown up to the gate more than a few times at the last second and bumped Awac pilots of the jumpseat based on my priority level. Mainline pilots do have priority over wholly-owned pilots. Most airways planes do have two jump seats. Jumpseating is not allowed on US Airways for international flights. You have to list as a non-rev to go international on airways. Going International on Airways in fairly cheap. Anywhere from $50-120 for a round trip usually. Upgrade to first class is $100 each way for international flights. Some times you can get a first class upgrade for free.

Great info snipper, Envoy's benefits sound on point. I really like that.

[QUOTE=Shiner;1669241]When traveling with the wife I usually wear business casual so I can take the Jumpseat if need be, but I've always got a seat in the back. We went to Mexico from dfw and paid $120 total for the both of us.

We still pay the fees for all first and business class flights. First class on a widebody will totally spoil you. I'd pay the fees every time for that seat and service.

Ha, I'm sure I'd be paying for it too. Great to hear it's possible to get past the terminal with the lady every once in a while. Great price.

That's awesome. Thanks for the Airways side of things. I was hoping the prices were right around there for int'l. Can't beat that upgrade price. Hopefully enough time off to be able to use it. That priority sounds nice with PSA.

For Republic Flights under American branding... this should almost never happen. Republic pilots have no access to JetNet (program used to make, change, and cancel nonrev listings, check in, and to see AAL flight loads). They are required to e-mail the corporate office at least 5 days in advance to make a listing, and then receive standby tickets (first time you see your PNR) in the mail.

This system is so completely useless I can't image why any republic pilot would try to use their American benefits (though I have seen some try.)

We do have access for all the other codeshare nonrev systems.. this is only a problem for AA branding.

Skywest gets those same AA "benefits." Only your spouse and kids are eligible. Parents are not and if you're not married you can't designated a travel companion. Everyone has to pay a segment fee. Since I'm not married and have no kids and my parents can't use my benefits they're beyond useless. If I listed using our benefits I'd have to pay for something that I can get for free by listing for jumpseat.

I don't know who in management agreed to that crap.

Envoy pilots can also bump AWAC pilots out of the JS. We also have the same priority on USAir like PSA and PDT.

UA for XJT we get sa0x priority on our own company and sa2x on Skywest. Sa5 on mainline or other regionals. UA can use vacation passes(which we don't have) to bump us off our own acft... F-up but that's the way it is. Definitely can make commuting interesting.

Any idea where Mesa fits into to this? I've emailed the union JS chair to find out exactly what the priority is for the US Jumpseat, but haven't heard anything back yet. Envoy is part of the wholly owned now? Is Mesa also on that level?


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Mesa is not wholly owned, so they come down to Outside JS. It's my understanding that it's... USAir/AA, Wholly Owned (PSA,PDT,Envoy), then everyone else.

Envoy pilots are allowed to be on the Jumpseat for international flights on AA. Hopefully this doesn't change with the merger. Also you can "Jumpseat" on UAL or DAL internationally as long as there is a seat in the back open for you. Totally free leaving the States and just have to pay the international taxes on the way back. Crews will usually give first or business if open.

Envoy has always been wholly owned! PSA and piedmont were wholly owned by USairways now all three are wholly owned under AAG. Mesa is not so your travel benefits are subject to what was negotiated under your contract to do AAG flying.
As far as the jump seat goes, usually you have priority on your own metal.

Who cares what the benefits are. You wont have the time or the $$$ to use them anyway! Lol

That and can't get anywhere with your family because everything is full or you're at the bottom of the list.

The nice thing about AA/Envoy is that you (if you decided to keep your access up to date) have access to passenger reservation system so you can see what the gate agents are doing working the flight.

You have access to how many seats are unassigned and which passengers are potential misconnects (so those seats are available for reassignment to people on the standby list.) As the gate agents work their way down the standby list, you can see if your family is going to get on the flight or not.

Endeavor Pass Travel Benefits are about to get a whole lot better Oct. 1. Better than any other DCI carrier. Also we get jumpseat priority over everyone else except a Delta pilot. Unlimited international travel for you and spouse(partner). Parents don't pay yield fare anymore. Various other improvements, fly confirmed for less, etc...

Still no buddy passes. Womp womp.

Who cares about that. They are completely worthless anyway.

After using the search function I'm bumping this thread.

Would like to get the most current info for your regional. Ideally wind up being able to stack-rank the regionals with regards to travel benefits.

I've heard Envoy is #1. Is that still true?

Thanks.

Flight benefits don't tend to change much so you can probably rely on the info from last year.

The wholly owned airlines are at the top of the bottom of the stack... If it's just you and you are able to ride the jumpseat, 98% of the time you'll get where you want to go within a few hours. If you are trying to travel as a family needing 3-4 seats.... just buy them seats and see the prior statement. (this is in the Delta system but I've heard the same about American, and United doesn't have any WO.)

if you aren't a 25 year captain, this is more true than you ever want to know.