Been scouring the web for American Eagle's flight benefits but not too much can be found, other than 24 buddy passes (parents can use) and taxes on travel. Does anyone here have the inside scoop on how good/bad the pass benefits are on Eagle?

Good - 24 one way passes for parents per year
- Check in time is deciding factor on who gets called first instead of seniority

Bad - Everything costs money from your paycheck. Enjoy that trip to Aruba, but be ready to have all the taxes and international fees taken from your pay.

- It's roughly $15 per leg for short flights and up to $25 for coast to coast coach. A two leg commute will destroy you financially as the month wears on. First class is $25 on a short flight.

- Don't even consider anything out of Dallas unless it's the first out or the last one in. Even then you'll never see Las Vegas. With that said with a little work you can get anyone where they need to go one way or another.

PM me with anything else

I never had any problem getting in/out of DFW - neither have my parents or my wife - and I fly there a lot.

The 2 leg commute is definitely a financial destruction device!

The benefits are pretty good compared to some other places. My wife and I went on a Caribbean vacation and only spent about $100 - $150 flying there and back and most of it was 1st class. No complaints really except if you commute it will shrink your paycheck considerably.

But the "beer man" pretty much covered it. 24 buddy passes. Parents and Spouse (or travel partner) only for the first 24 months. Then you can add extras. After 24 months you no longer have to pay for yourself to fly.

I haven't had many problems getting out of DFW either. ORD, to get back home to DFW, maybe a different story.

You can always hop on other carriers. If I can take SWA, I will over AMR.

Just tell the gate agent you want a 1W (cockpit jumpseat pass)....no fee required. $$$ problem solved.

You can't do that. The gate agents are instructed to assign a seat in the cabin if one is available. Requesting the 1W can get your travel benefits revoked if you anger the wrong gate agent. We apparently don't have a right to the jumpseat when seats are open. Please don't ask me how I found this out or why I needed a union rep to go and talk to my chief pilot about this travel policy - just believe me and it should be in the travel book.

One more thing....

A lot of people don't know this, but my parents used to use up all of those 24 one ways. On top of those you get either 4 or 6 round trips (I forget) on American Connection. As long as you don't touch an Eagle or AA flight you can connect on them and it all counts as one leg.

Example: CID-STL-JAX is one leg and taking the same flights back would be one round trip. However if you take AA from JAX-STL on the way home it eats up one of the 24 passes.

Throw in some ID90s and you've got some busy retirees for parents. Not to mention they give more leeway on those loans from flight school.

If it is to or from work, it is a total tax deduction... in other wordsm keep good records and it's eventually.....free.

That must be a recent change... I remember it being no D3 (buddy passes) for the first 2 years... and no employee/spouse free D2's until on year five seniority...

if that is correct, it is a good change; well done Eagle !

That is not cool. Way not cool.