Delta for where I'm going and coming doesn't really help me much. I strangely have much better luck on United over Delta.
I'm obviously the exception, not the rule.

 

Actually that is a very good point that I forgot to mention. United non-rev is basically useless. I think I have used 1 flight on them over the past 5 years. If I had to pay anything for the "benefits", I wouldn't get them.


My spouse and I were able to travel to Europe first class for $50 each on Delta. Since I work for a regional, I was only able to spend 2 days there, but when you are flying first class, that is like a vacation in itself. If you are fortunate to ever get on a United flight, FC costs a lot more. If United called to hire me? Well if I am not on regional pay I can afford to purchase a ticket. Plus then I will have vacation passes that will be able to bump all those pesky express employees off.

 

The most expensive part about travel is the airfare. Everything else can be done cheap. We have the benefit of cheap or free airfare. When I started my first regional job I had never been out of the US. By the end of just my first year I had been to 5 countries. My wife wasn't working at the time and we were doing that all on my income. If travel is what you want to do then you'll find a way to make it work. If you're unwilling to find a way to make it work then it's probably not that important to you.

I flew to Narita recently on United first class, then flew back on Delta first. It cost me $290 to list for United, and $47 to list for Delta. The Delta benefits are a huge cost savings over United if you fly international at all. Having two or three options is also great. I flew out on one airline and back on a different one because the other was full.

United vacation passes put them at SA0 priority on Skywest flights. That means they can bump you off of a Skywest flight by date of hire, and UAL date of hires are usually senior to ours. They also can put their entire family on SA0 priority by just using one single vacation pass. I've been bumped from a Skywest flight by a United pilots parents and 4 kids when the pilot wasn't traveling with them.

They also changed the travel program last year so that now our family members are below ALL United employees on Skywest flights unless they're traveling with you. My wife was trying to come out to meet me while I was on a trip and got bumped by about 15 United employees on our own flight. Had I listed with her she would have been #1.

United benefits are terrible compared to Delta, American and Alaska.

 

Another nice screw you that United hands us is a United employee that bumps us off our own metal using a vacation pass can rescind the vacation pass before getting on their own flight doesn't get tagged for using said vacation pass.

Meaning, as example, a main line United employee can use a vaca pass to get on a SkyWest plane from SLC to LAX to OGG, get on before a SkyWest employee and then cancel the flight to OGG, never gets charged for the vaca pass.

All in all, United bennies totally suck, and I bend over United flights any chance I have.

 

Wow... Bumped on our own metal. That's ridiculous

 

you can thank our PATHETIC "people's" department for that.

 

FWIW I have non reved plenty on United. They have always been very good to me. You just can't please some people!

 

I was going to say.... I used to throw bags for Air Wisco 10 years ago and never really had a problem other then, well, it's non-reving

 

Non-reving on UA with your whole family is almost impossible.

 

The fun part when you see a ua employee do that and get busted and pulled off the plane. Be sure to screen shot at 1 hour prior to see priority of the ua employees then notice it before departure. If they pull it the employee can lose all their benefits and possibly get fired. They also can't add a vacation pass inside 1 hour. IIt happened in IAH a year ago and it was glorious to watch when the express employee declared Shenanigans and got a supervisor involved and they proceeded to walk the employee off the plane causing said employee to break down in tears trying to plead her case and say she didn't know she couldn't do that. Was glorious to see in person.