Travel Benefits
 

Do any/many of you use your travel bennies, i.e., vacations or trips on days off with spouse or whomever, or is it more trouble than it's worth?

of course people use them. I've never had a problem. it really isn't that much of a hassel, unless you're traveling with a family of 4.
you have access to see the loads on flights, just check them and pick your best option.

We do both domestic and international, and it usually works fine because we avoid doing peak season or peak travel days. For some reason we never have much trouble getting there, but occassionaly my SO has to buy a return ticket. She's pretty busy so it's worth it for her not to spend an unplanned extra day non-reving.

If you plan your travels based on realistic loads and leave yourself an extra day to return, you should be fine.

I have always worked at regionals that had multiple major codeshares, which provided extra non-rev flexibility, ie you could just list when necessary without having to get a stack of ZED/ID90 in advance.

Can someone briefly explain what "ZED/ID90's" are? I'm brand new to the airline industry (just git hired last week).

It's basically a code to describe the level discount available to employees.

Check with your airline's employee ticketing office to see what fares are available to you - not all airlines offer the same deals.

Thanks for the info.

ZED and ID90 are how you non-rev on airlines other than the one(s) you work for. On your own airline, (and their major partner(s) ) you can list yourself using a web page or phone number, it's basically an e-ticket for standby travel. You can do this on the fly, at the last second while you are walking up to the gate.

To non-rev on most other airlines (depending on agreements with your airline), you buy a voucher for a reduced fare standby ticket. The disadvantage is you need some advance notice for the destinations and airline(s) you want to use, and you have a lower standby prior than on your own airline (and affiliated airlines).

ID90: Basically you pay 10% of the full-fare walk-up price. ID95 would be 5% of the regular fare.
ZED: You pay a fare based on the mileage between city-pairs (this is new and is replacing ID90.

Ok, now I get it. Makes sense. Thanks!

Did you get hired by SkyWest?

However, the ZED is based no Zones, Zonal Employee Discount. I can't remember the zones, but something like 0-599 miles, 600-2000 miles, 2001-4000 miles, ect. They don't add up the mileage in your journey, just look at the distance and see which mileage "zone" it falls into.

LAX to AKL, $215 on a ZED round trip on QA. ID90 was about $550.