vacation pass question
 

how do fees appear on our vacation pass when we are booking it?

I am confused.

I thought when we used family vacation passes they are free.

Are they free sometimes and not others?

I was looking at going to grand cayman or bahamas.

You are either looking at international taxes or you are booking first class with less than 25 years.

Vacation passes are free in premium cabins regardless of years of service. Seeing as these are international flights I'm almost certain you're looking at departure taxes. Click the little exclamation point by the total fare and it will give you a fee breakdown.

I see.
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Likely it could be a little bit of both.

I wasn't aware of the 25 year restriction.

Was this post merger?

As a former Continental employee I don't recall a 25 year restriction.

So, it looks like the cheap seats until I invest a quarter century.

We should get one real-deal vacation pass a year for the entire family, something better than what we have. With loads so high you really can't do much.

Is it possible ALPA attempts to negotiate something better than what we have in terms of travel benefits? Probably not worth spending negotiating capital on that.

What's the prevailing wisdom..."just pay us more and we'll buy our own tickets on airline X, Y, or Z"?

Business/first is free after 25 years whether you are on a vacation pass or not. To get free business/first with less than 25 years you pay UNLESS you select vacation passes. But either way, if you travel internationally you will pay the departure tax to your country of travel. That's the fee you are seeing.

I stand corrected I didn't know Vacation passes allowed free upgrades with less than 25 years. Never get first class anymore.......

Departing LHR (only, as far as I know) the class of requested seating determines the departure tax. First class pays more than $100 each.

Joe

Worth it.

Filler

Can one of you United guys explain how you bid for vacation? At SWA we have 5 rounds. You can either bid 1 week per round, few do or all your weeks in round one. The weeks one takes in round one have to be consecutive but then can be traded. So the SR 10% take all the summer weeks then trade them. That way they can get summer weeks off, spring break and say Christmas.

How is it at United?

Thanks in advance!

You bet!!

You can bid for annual vacation, in April, since the yearly vacation cycle starts in May. Pretty sure it has to do with the Mayan calendar, since we do lots of Central American flying....

Anyway, you can bid part, or all, of your allocated days (based on longevity). You put in two or three choices. Vacation start-stop dates are in 7-day blocks, because no pilot would want a vacation in other than one-week increments.

And they all start on the same day of the week (I think it is Monday).

You can also try holding back some week-long vacation days to use in "monthly bidding." In July, I can bid for vacation in September, as an example.

You put in your annual bids and monthlies, and the sytem processes it.

The awards come out, and you get nothing you asked for in the annual bid, then get assigned vacation each month by the company for the least usable and convenient time.

At least, that's my experience. :cool: