RAFA Travel Benefits Committee Updated 2/1/2013 Travel Benefits Home


Pass Travel Strategies: First Class vs Economy and using Vacation Passes

Note: retirees with 25 or more years of service fly FREE in all cabins. Retirees with less than 25 years of service pay a service charge for premium cabin seating (FC and BC). If you can’t afford or do not want to fly in a premium cabin, then simply list for economy travel.

On United:
We suggest you list in FC. United upgrades all Mileage Plus flyers on domestic flights, so getting a seat in FC is rare, but MP flyers are NOT automatically upgraded on international flights, so it’s worth a shot!
If FC and BC are full you should automatically be assigned an available Y seat. If you paid for FC/BC keep your economy class boarding pass and your confirmation number! You may have to request a refund at united.com>reservations>refund policy. See instructions here: employeeRES.Quick Links> Request Refund.
If you list in Y and Y is full, you should be boarded in a premium cabin if seats are available, United will send you an invoice for the premium cabin if you retired with less than 25 years of service.

Traveling on United using a vacation pass:
Retirees only get 8 vacation passes per year (good for 4 roundtrips), use them carefully!
Reasons to use a vacation pass: 1) it has a much better boarding priority for you and your accompanied pass riders and 2) it’s cheaper than using a personal pass for premium cabin travel (if you have <25 Years of Service).
If you list with a vacation pass and the load drops enough so you can board without it, change it to a personal pass. Save your vacation pass for a “rainy day”. But remember:

Pass riders cannot change pass types less than 1 hour before domestic departures or 2 hours before international departures.

To change pass types (vacation>personal or vice versa) you must create a new listing; be sure to cancel your original listing. Use employeeRES, mobileres (https://mobileres.ual.com), or call the ePass Line at 866-359-3727.

If you listed with a vacation pass and you’re boarded on that flight, then the vacation pass is used up regardless of the class of service you get. Got Y instead of FC? Sorry, vac pass is poof!

Didn’t get on?
If you listed with a vacation pass or a personal pass and you're not boarded on the airplane, the listing is rolled to the next flight (same day) and used there. Note: in Shares the CSR must roll all un-boarded standbys to the next flight before closing out the first flight; otherwise each standby must be rolled over individually. So, it’s OK to remind gate agents if they haven’t done it yet.

At the end of the day, if you're still stuck at the airport, you must cancel your listing and make a new listing for the next day; gate agents cannot roll standby lists over to the next day.

Compiled by Kirk Moore, RAFA Travel Benefits Committee