I've never used one since I don't live in a delta hub and they aren't that useful to me. Every Delta destination would cost at least two passes per direction to connect through a hub. After being at the company for a year you get 10 buddy passes per year that you can give to anyone. I'm not sure how much they cost on average since I haven't used one.

 

You pay at lot of money to be at the bottom of the standby list, that's how a delta buddy pass works, and you only get six a year.

 

Only useful for select international flights, and your buddy will probably have to buy his own ticket to the hub.

But when all the stars line up, it can be a good deal...I've had friends go biz class to europe and asia. The off-season flights can be wide open since they usually can't down-gauge the equipment...you just have to pick the time of year and day carefully.

 

Yep, I only let friends have buddy passes for wide open intl flights and have them buy a ticket domestically if need to be to get to the intl gateway. On very rare occasion do I try to let friends buddy pass domestically.

The saying "friends don't let friends buddy pass" exists for a reason

 

"Lose-Your-Buddy Pass"

 

When you get to training, do you get to bid for your base or is it assigned. If you get to bid for your base, what would you guys recommend as a good list given I will be commuting from ORD.

Also can you do standing bids to either the CRJ or new EMB at ORD in training.

Thanks

 

You should be able to request your base, in order of your class seniority. If you're going to be flying the CRJ, hopefully you get based in ORD! Otherwise, if you're going to be in the Brasilia, it might be a long haul from anywhere I would say SFO would be best and seems to be easy to get to from the bottom of the seniority list, but LAX or SLC would probabably be great also since it's not a multi leg commute. Good luck!

 

Sorry I forgot to mention I will be on the Brasilia.

I was thinking LAX/SFO would be first choice but not sure what would be after that. Preferably something with lots of direct flights from ORD

 

I got the Email to fill out the questionnaire.. How long after you submitted it did it take to set up an interview?

 

I commuted from ORD to both FAT and SFO for over a year. LAX was a little more junior than SFO but I stayed in SFO because it had more commutable trips and the crash pads and hotels were cheaper. LAX crew rates on the hotels are pretty expensive. The commuter hotels near SFO offer pretty good deals. Flights to both SFO and LAX are easy. There's almost a flight every hour. I ended up in the jumpseat quite a bit in the summer but hardly ever got bumped. It's easy to just run to another carrier if there are other jumpseaters.

Fresno is a nightmare of a commute. Flights LAX and SFO to FAT are almost always oversold and Brasilias are weight restricted. The one benefit to FAT is that it has the cheapest apartments and crash pads. I was able to split an apartment with just one other guy for $350/month in FAT where a 10 person crash pad in SFO will be $200+.

In just six months of commuting to FAT I got bumped for the jumpseat on probably close to 50 flights and had to drive LAX-FAT twice after missing the last flight of the night. In a year of commuting to SFO I got bumped for the jumpseat twice. You'll have to decide whether your money or your stress level is more important to you.

If you have questions about ORD to Brasilia commuting PM me. I've become pretty good at it.