757Driver

If you have 10 years with the company coach travel is free system wide and a graduated charge for first based on distance. 25 years or more and first is free. Under 10 years is fee based with range charges. Basically domestic would cost $12.50 each way.

Upgrades have now been extended to International which really cuts down your chances on getting up front on long haul flights.

EWRflyr

One thing to remember is that a PS passenger is always included in the passenger totals because they are on positive space travel and confirmed in a seat.

Also, Continental employees get "Vacation Passes" each December which move you up in priority over other employees and are fee-waived. Most people save them to use for vacations and overseas trips so they can list in first class on strategic flights with availability. These are fee-waived for employees, spouses, children, parents. Domestic partners/travel companions get to use them free as well but you will incur the tax on the value of the flight for this added benefit.

Regular employees will show as SA3PXX (normal non-rev listing) or SA3VXX (vacation pass listing) with the XX being the year of hire for boarding. If you pull up the non-rev list on Employee Res it will sort in priority order and will give you an idea of where you will fall if you listed using each method. SA1s before SA2s and SA3s, etc. Within that vacation pass travelers come before regular non-revs (Vs before Ps)

So an SA3P80 (1980 hire on regular listing) would come after an SA3V05 (2005 hire on a vacation pass) as an example.

SA4s are dependents, spouses, etc. SA5s are buddy pass riders. Priority for these goes to SA3 if traveling with employee.

Employees first (sorted by vacation pass and year), dependents next (sorted the same), retirees next (sorted by years of service) then buddy pass riders traveling alone.

FYI, ExpressJet employees currently fall under the same listing and non-rev travel policy as CAL employees based on their date of hire. So it is conceivable that an ExpressJet employee (and family members) could get on before an active CAL employee. This does not apply to the CAL jumpseat though.

Clear as mud? I probably could have explained it better.

dojetdriver

Anybody wanna take a SWAG on whether or not those stay, or get dropped when it's all said and done? UAL has NO such thing.

It's not just pilots, it's currently ALL ExpressJet employees as far as SA travel on CAL goes. This will probably go away when the dust settles, and it will be more along the line of the way just about every other legacy does it. It could be argued ALL day long as far as whether or not people agree with that, don't care. Just sayin'.

And if I remember correctly, don't the catering people get a higher SA travel ALL the time over even CAL employees?

Also, CAL just eliminated JS priority for COEX/Continental connection pilots over any OAL pilot. Now first come first served. This is contrary to the way just about every other airline does it.

Rocketiii

I didnt read through to see if this was stated already, but the pda.continental.com is a great site. But for Iphone useres,there is a new Continental App at the appstore that has a much nicer interface and does everything that pda.com does. Its nice to see at the gate while the agents clear nonrevs, etc in real time.

757Driver

I agree, the Express priority thing is going to be history. As for the Jumpseat change I haven't seen anything official announcing the change so I don't think thats happened yet.

WS01

i m a UA furloughee and was able to list myself and eligible family members on a CAL flight, it says at the end just before the last step the amount it will cost and that since it can t be payroll deducted i will receive an invoice.
haven t actually flown the trip but it looks like it s valid to furloughees too

ualratt

Again, furloughee are considered employees of UAL with regards to travel within the UAL system (United, ualexpress, CAL). Active vs inactive only applies for travel on other airlines. When you attempt to use the employeeRes (CAL system) through the link found in the new UAL intranet site "Flying Together", it automatically shows your UAL information including your travel eligibles.

EWRflyr

I went back and edited my post. I didn't catch the "ExpressJet pilot" part when I was proof-reading my explanation. I meant ExpressJet employees but didn't say what I meant. (Guess that makes me one of those pilots who thinks the world and airline only revolves around us. Jab at myself.)

In regards to the catering thing, I know a flight attendant who came over from Chelsea. I asked this very fact because I had heard this as rumor. I was told very clearly that this IS NOT TRUE for the regular catering person. They board at the same SA3 level as CAL employees. Chelsea supervisors and managers get SA1 and SA2 travel like other management personnel at the company. Again, this was right from a relatively recent former Chelsea caterer (not supervisor).

The last will all need to be hammered out, but in the end I feel the company can do whatever it wants as long as it applies equally to all employee groups. As of right now, employee travel is not a contractual thing so the company controls the program as it sees fit and can change it anytime they wish.

I would still like to see vacation passes, perfect attendance passes, our EmployeeRes system, active airline employees first, dependents and retirees next, buddy pass travelers next, OAL employees/dependents last.

The whole jumpseat issue needs to be addressed with this combo. Own airline pilots first, Express/Connection carriers next, OAL pilots next and possibly then own airline FAs (could be an issue for many pilots... no offline FAs in the cockpit though). FA jumpseat: own airline FAs, Express/Connection FAs, own airline pilots, Express/Connection pilots, OAL FAs, OAL pilots.

Unlimited J/Sing for all eligible: we have seats we take bodies. None of this "well your carrier only takes one of us so only one of you gets to go" even though five guys might be waiting to jumpseat with open seats. I guess I am advocating for the JetBlue way of doing things. The company knows commuters exist. No one "likes" commuting. The company doesn't like it and we would prefer not to have to do it. But since it happens, a company that truly cares about its employees and about the operational excellence of the airline would do all it could to make getting to work easier.

757Driver

Don't any of you find that its completely bogus that we have to PAY to fly on each others airline? Didn't DAL/NWA immediately exchange pass travel on each other not using ridiculous ZED fares at corporate closure?

Yet another insult from Uncle Jeffy that does nothing but put more money in his back pocket.

Keep your lame *** ZED fare, FUPM

dojetdriver

I would also. Even though myself, nor my parents are allowed to use my 30+ vacation passes. As far as retirees ago, again, that could be argued all day long on whether or not it should stay CAL's way or UAL's. I believe now at UAL, a retiree is a BP6 level, where the active employee is on a BP8. Could be wrong about that though as far as the number goes.

I'm pretty sure that both UAL and CAL both do it this way currently, as far as pilots go. But I agree, JB seemed to get it right YEARS ago while everybody else was pretty slow to catch up.

One big difference between JS'in UAL vs. CAL. UAL will almost always give you a first class seat if open. If not, the gate agent will usually assign an economy plus seat when they are open. Always grateful for that, as well as the UAL FA's offering to put my bag in the closet when there is room.