[scotian]

A friend I know who works for a major USA based airline offered to sell me one of his passes which would allow me to travel anywhere that airline travels (basically all over the world), unlimited for a year. He says that he has another guy interested and we'll have to bid for it (starts at $3500) or he may be bluffing and just trying to get more money out of me, I don't want to go over $4500.

Anyway, I know that some of you guys have these passes and I'm wondering if you could shed some light onto how they work. Do I just show up at the airport with my bags and ask if they have stand by seat for a particular flight? Does the company book you through to your final destination if there are connecting flights? How often do you not get your flight and end up having to fly another day?

I'm stoked to get this ticket because I should be starting a new work gig soon that is 3 on/3 off, I can get some serious traveling done with that ticket.

So if any of you have experience with these tickets or tips/advice, that would be greatly appreciated.

[el mechanico]

Two things..

If you spend more a year on flights maybe and If you have ever had a meltdown in an airport you may want to re-consider. That deal will make it worse.

[thegmanifesto]

5 trips from USA to Europe would about make it worth it wouldn't it?

If you are doing short $300 trips, you would need 15 to break even.

Do you plan on traveling that much?

Not sure about the "stand by" aspect.

However this seems like an "all you can eat pizza" deal for $20, when you just might want a couple of slices for $6 and be full.

[scotian]

(06-25-2013 01:00 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  

Two things..

If you spend more a year on flights maybe and If you have ever had a meltdown in an airport you may want to re-consider. That deal will make it worse.

I will be traveling a lot so the cost of the ticket will save me tons of money, I only ever had one bad airport meltdown and it was with a Philippines discount airline, one of the most stressful days of my life, I find US airlines to be much better.

(06-25-2013 02:02 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

5 trips from USA to Europe would about make it worth it wouldn't it?

If you are doing short $300 trips, you would need 15 to break even.

Do you plan on traveling that much?

Not sure about the "stand by" aspect.

However this seems like an "all you can eat pizza" deal for $20, when you just might want a couple of slices for $6 and be full.

Even if I end up paying 5 Gs, it'll be worth it. Basically, I'll be flying out of Edmonton, Canada every three weeks to foreign countries, probably a lot in the Caribbean/South America, Europe in the summer. Those tickets are expensive, I just looked at flying to Colombia with Air Canada and its $1400. Even if I fly to another Canadian city, say Montreal, it'll be very cheap to fly to NYC then Mtl, round trip tickets are very expensive in Canada, Edmonton to Montreal would be about $700-800 and US airlines aren't allowed to fly between Canadian cities, but they can fly out, which is what I'll be doing.

[thegmanifesto]

Another question is what airline?

Do they have a hub in your city?

If not, you are going to have to fly back and forth from the hub all the time.

I did a Jetblue unlimited a few years back (posted about it on the thread) and it would have been ideal if you were based out of NYC, their hub.

Not as ideal if you weren't as you constantly had to backtrack to NYC to fly to another destination ie NYC - FLL, then FLL-NYC-Dominican Repub for example.

[scotian]

(06-25-2013 02:44 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

Another question is what airline?

Do they have a hub in your city?

If not, you are going to have to fly back and forth from the hub all the time.

I did a Jetblue unlimited a few years back (posted about it on the thread) and it would have been ideal if you were based out of NYC, their hub.

Not as ideal if you weren't as you constantly had to backtrack to NYC to fly to another destination ie NYC - FLL, then FLL-NYC-Dominican Repub for example.

Its with US Airways who have recently merged with American Airlines, so they fly to tons of places. I don't know about hubs, haven't looked too far into it but I know that there's direct flights from Edmonton to both Chicago and Houston, those are decent hubs aren't they?

I'm also not sure how me being Canadian will affect this, but my buddy told me it was all good.

[thegmanifesto]

Here are your route maps:

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/routemap.html

http://www.aa.com/i18n/aboutUs/whereWeFl.../world.jsp

(Which was cool to check out because I didn't even know where Edmonton was).

It looks like on US Air, your only direct is to Phoenix.

And on AA your directs are LA, LV and Phoenix.

Look at where you can go direct from there. That should answer your question if you should do it.

Seems like on AA from LA you can go a lot of places (Hawaii, Asia, Australia, some Europe, few cities in South America). Not bad.

A few trips to Australia or Hong Kong would make it worth while I would guess. The question is then can you do that?

But you are going to be doing a lot of at minimum one stop flights.

Unless of course you really want to take a lot of trips to LA, LV and Phoenix.

[Lothario]

Scotian do it buddy, No questions asked, You can even plan your trips by calling the airlines and asking which flight has the least load and track which days and flights have least loads and fly on those days.

I had some family members who were using this site to check the passenger load on flight they were trying to board. I don't have the password but you get an Idea.

Yes you should only try to get on Direct flights and for connecting flights you will only be booked till your connecting destination.

Overall a great deal if you can travel a lot .......

[zatara]

How many days of holiday leave are you likely to be able to get in the next 12 months? Thats the main issue I think. That and how much a year can you afford to spend on vacations? Flights are only 25-50% of the cost of a trip generally, for me anyway.

In the past 12 months I've flown 75,000 miles. And I've spent approx 4500eur on flights doing it. So the offer wouldnt have been worth it for me allowing for the fact that I'd put a fairly decent premium on having my seat guaranteed going to airports, especially on long journeys with a few connections. And this required 65 days of leave from work - probably a fair bit more than most people can get in 12 months.

From thegmanifesto's post it looks like your airport isnt much use as a hub so you'll constantly have to get connecting flights elsewhere, thats worth bearing in mind too. You might end up stuck in LAX fairly easily if you get a connecting flight down but can't get on a flight to a more interesting destination.

...but saying all that unlimited air travel is fairly incredible. One of my friends has ID90 flights (he buys flights for 10% of cost and then flies on standby) because his mother works for a legacy airline here and he completely abused that during the summer months when we were in university to fly all over the world. Now that hes in a 9-5 office job though he can't really take advantage of it properly.

[Duke Castile]

Scotian,

I paid 3k to be the registered companion. The girl books my flights and checks seat availability. You just then have to pay the tax on the seat. Right now for me to fly back to Vegas first class it will cost about 600 bucks. Business class is a little under 500. If you have ever flown either it's totally worth the comfort.

Sometimes you will not get on a flight and be stuck for quite some time but you also don't have to book in advance, so factor in that awesome level of flexibility.

Put it this way, just the flight from Japan to lax is about 10k usd first class.

4500 by comparison is a steal.

Think about getting pampered with hot towels and sleeping after having a bunch of drinks and a very decent meal and then waking up and deciding to watch one of many streaming movies before getting a delicious snack and washing that down with a beer.

[Tigre]

Sounds awesome.

You're going to need a new passport - the one you have now will be full of stamps for sure.

Small logistics consideration. You might want to be conservative about your return flights back to Canada. Like start heading back with 4 days remaining on your holidays in case you have to fly the long way home.

[Seadog]

On the surface this looks great, however after living abroad, and getting about 8 3 week vacations over almost 2 years, I don't know if I'd go for it. 2 years ago I would go for it in a heartbeat. The difference experience makes.

My main concerns would be that I've traveled with some flight attendants before, and standby tickets aren't all they're cracked up to be. Especially if you need to be somewhere.

Basically (as they explained it), of all the flights with empty seats, you can get bumped last minute if someone either buys the ticket, or someone with more seniority wants it (union rules type stuff). Essentially you don't get the ticket, you just put your name on a list. Then last minute tickets are assigned. Not sure how that would work for a guest, perhaps you'd be on the level of your host's seniority? Then you'd be forced to buy a last minute flight back on your own dime. This guy was petrified about that and was checking the system constantly. Could you just show up at the airport and say something along the lines of "I wanna go somewhere today, what has free seats?"

Also the bigger issue is me personally I'm just getting tired of travelling. Even a short flight means basically the whole day is shot. Long flight's you're looking at 2-3 days shot. And if going half way around the world, there's another 1-7 days jet lagged. Equal amount of time once you return. I've lost entire 4 day vacations sleeping through the days (had fun at night though).

I've done a few trips where to save money or because it was busy I've had to constantly be on the go. Changing accommodations, rebooking flights, last minute trying to figure out bus schedules, packing, unpacking, getting used to a new area or city. Honestly all that shit just gets tiring. Leaving the bar every hour to check back at the hostel to see if they've had any cancellations because you have no where to stay the next day but want to stay in the city. You spend as much time getting yourself organized as you do actually enjoying stuff.

[Qwest]

I have one myself on United, and for me its great. Just flew London-LAX yesterday "Business First" class for $304 in taxes. Feet kicked up, sipping champagne and getting some rest is priceless. Don't ever get 1st domestically (or Carribean or Canada) because people with miles get free upgrades for those, but I dont give a shit about that.

Keep in mind that you will probably need to fly on AA "metal" as they say. Meaning you will not be able to fly on the partner airlines, but the plane actually has to say United or AA on it.

What does this mean exactly?

You will not be flying from Asia to Europe direct. If I fly for example to London, and then want to go to Barcelona, I have to buy that ticket because United only partners with a regional airline for that and its not United "metal". I can get to Barcelona on United, but I need to fly back to Newark and catch the flight to BCN. So if I'm in asia and want to go to Europe, I need to go to the states first in order to do so. The couple exceptions for me are Sao Paulo-Rio I can do, and also a few asian countries to Bangkok. This is also the same with Delta and I'm sure on AA its the same also.

Other things of note. Fisto mentioned having to have his girl book his flights for him, which still works but I wouldn't be as keen on. I am a "Enrolled friend" and have full access to see the flight loads, seats open, and book myself. I can do this at the airport on my phone, reroute myself, etc and I like to have that added flexibility when in a rush or I missed a flight. Check to see if you will be able to book yourself and have full online access. Not a deal breaker, but good to know.

The other thing you want to know is what is the "seniority" of the employee. This means what year did they get hired. If you are on a pass of someone who got hired in 2013, you are going to be last on the list and only ahead of buddy passes.

As G mentioned, you only have limited options direct from Edmonton so you will be doing a lot of one stop flights at a minimum. Flying standby coming back to work also, you better plan it right to make sure you dont get stuck and will probably want to leave a day early to make sure if flights look tight. I rarely if ever get stuck, but it can happen. I also live in LA which is a United hub so there is almost always SOME way home for me. It may be ass backwards, but it gets me there. This is another reason to have your own access to book flights and check loads. Nobody will be more interested in getting you back to work on time than yourself. The employee may get annoyed with constant requests, etc.

Lastly, that seems a little pricey for an AA one to me. I can probably get you a Delta one a little cheaper than that in about a month from an employee I know there. I am already hooking someone else up also and he told me there should be a few of them. I think it will be $3500 flat (definitely not more), not bidding against anyone else or any shit like that.

Taxes paid:

Domestic flights:
United= 100% free
Delta= you pay a small tax whether its 1st class or couch.

International:
United=pay a tax based on the class you fly. (ie. LHR-LAX, coach= $157, Biz First=$304, First- $357)
Delta=you pay the same tax no matter what the class. Its higher than United Coach I think, but less that 1st for sure)

AA??? I dont know, so find out how it works with them.

Hope this helps and let me know any more questions you have, I'm pretty well versed in this game.

[scotian]

Thanks for all of the good advice guys, I have to do some more research into this, the ticket is available in about 2 weeks so I'll let you guys know if I end up getting it.

[Love charm]

Qwest, if you got any more of those pass then I am certainly interested.. (sent you a PM).

Seems like we will be opening up an office in LA, so will be travelling back and forth from London to LA quite a lot..

If any one else can get me a pass on delta or united then it will be a real life saver..

LC

[TheBulldozer]

Are any of these available for purchase via a website or private market, or is this more of a word of mouth type of thing?

[Belize King]

I got a plug who can hook up a companion pass. He is the dude who gets me my buddy passes for 250 which is relatively cheap. PM me if you are interested. He has a Delta connect.

Flown standby for my Rio trip and Thailand trip this year. Out of 6 trips that were 8+ hours I got in Business class once. It depends on the cities you fly to and the season. Low season international is pretty easy to get business class. I have only been bumped off two flights. They were during peak season though. One was leaving the sunday after the Thai New Year.

Do it. I am thinking about doing it next year after my contract runs out.

[booshala]

Very interesting thread... I fly over 100k miles a year so I think I have pretty good knowledge of airlines, but I've never really had the opportunity to buy into something like this. A couple of questions you should probably ask before forking over the dough:

1. Are flights always stand-by?
2. Are you eligible for automatic upgrades?
3. Do you have to fly US Airways metal or can you use *A partners?
4. How does the upcoming merger with American (a Oneworld partner) factor into this?
5. International upgrades, yes or no?

As you mentioned, domestic and to a lesser extent North American route upgrades aren't all that great but flying coach internationally sucks ass. Also, I've read it's a huge no-no for employees to sell them for personal gain (although I'd totally do that if I were in his position) and the last thing you want is to shell out $5k and then have your dick in your hand if your friend gets sniffed out and your passes are invalidated.

Interesting Link: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national...-1.1316324

That being said, in 2012, I spent just under $3000 for my paid flights and used the earned mileage on these flights (in addition to other sources) for my international trips in business... I'm almost positive that these aren't mileage earning flights, so you probably should factor that into your calculation. I think your max cost of $4500 is pretty spot-on.

[Vicious]

Unless you travel A LOT I don't see the value in this. You shouldn't calculate the equivalent cost for buying tix on Business/First class tickets because you'd never buy those anyway (you redeem points for award seats or do points upgrades). I travel bundles but with some smart routings and use of open jaws you could probably have the same itinerary for far less money.

[booshala]

(06-26-2013 04:48 PM)Vicious Wrote:  

Unless you travel A LOT I don't see the value in this. You shouldn't calculate the equivalent cost for buying tix on Business/First class tickets because you'd never buy those anyway (you redeem points for award seats or do points upgrades). I travel bundles but with some smart routings and use of open jaws you could probably have the same itinerary for far less money.

Seems like scotian would want to go somewhere 2-3x a month which would seem like a pretty good cost-benefit proposition if he makes at least one trip a month overseas. But I don't want to speak for the OP.

I remember you mentioning that you purchase US Airways miles when they have the 100% bonus promotions, so I'm pretty sure you are quite savvy with the miles/points game, Vicious.

[T5_Income]

I'd do it man, I am flying out of Edmonton Saturday, and I paid $2100 to go to Japan for a week ( 2 cities in Japan, Tokyo-Osaka) so If you did that twice, it's almost worth it. Sounds like a sweet deal.

[Duke Castile]

I'm with AA and you don't have to fly metal. It's with any partner of the one world alliance.

My girl has some seniority there so I don't get bumped.

I do need to check into managing and booking my own flights though.

Vicious, I know it's not economic to view the cost of 1st class but the opportunity is now an option. So his next best alternative is flying coach for more money. He has to weigh the utility into the price.

[Qwest]

(06-26-2013 11:24 AM)Love charm Wrote:  

Qwest, if you got any more of those pass then I am certainly interested.. (sent you a PM).

Seems like we will be opening up an office in LA, so will be travelling back and forth from London to LA quite a lot..

If any one else can get me a pass on delta or united then it will be a real life saver..

LC

I got your PM and will keep you posted on it.

(06-26-2013 03:33 PM)MaleDefined Wrote:  

Are any of these available for purchase via a website or private market, or is this more of a word of mouth type of thing?

The employees are not allowed to sell the passes, but more than a few do just that. The airlines also kind of know it, but just dont be stupid and they dont question it. With that being said, word of mouth or bang a stewardess and you're in.

(06-26-2013 10:22 PM)Fisto Wrote:  

I'm with AA and you don't have to fly metal. It's with any partner of the one world alliance.

Interesting that AA does that. Are you on there as a domestic partner or something? With Delta even the employee cant fly on anything but the metal without paying ZED fares for the other partner airlines. I'm guessing you also have to pay ZED for partner airlines? Domestic partners on United or Delta have that as well, but regular companions do not.

(06-26-2013 04:42 PM)booshala Wrote:  

1. Are flights always stand-by?
2. Are you eligible for automatic upgrades?
3. Do you have to fly US Airways metal or can you use *A partners?
4. How does the upcoming merger with American (a Oneworld partner) factor into this?
5. International upgrades, yes or no?

That being said, in 2012, I spent just under $3000 for my paid flights and used the earned mileage on these flights (in addition to other sources) for my international trips in business... I'm almost positive that these aren't mileage earning flights, so you probably should factor that into your calculation. I think your max cost of $4500 is pretty spot-on.

1. Yes, always standby
2. Depends on the airline. United you have to pay, Delta it is.
3. With United and Delta at least it depends how you are registered. (ie, Domestic partner, friend/companion)
4. Not 100% sure, but you should have benefits for both. On United, I now have all United and old Continental flights.
5. Yes

What you spent last year on flights really means nothing unless you are only planning on using the pass for the same amount of travel. The POINT is that now you have the ability to travel much more, for less.

I spent about $1000 on travel the year before I got the pass. Once I got it I probably traveled $10-$15K+ year 1 not including the value of the upgrades I flew.

[Duke Castile]

Yeah sorry, I pay the zed fare which has been a pittance.

[thegmanifesto]

Fisto and Qwest, how are you getting your taxes so low on these flights?

Here is my recent Euro flight:

FARE:799.00 USD
Taxes/Carrier-imposed Fees:618.20

Total:1417.20 USD

Almost half in taxes.

----

Also, scotian, don't underestimate the non-direct flights.

Everytime you add a stop, you are talking more lost bags, hassles, re-checking bags (the most retarted thing on earth) etc.

I just had a "one-stop" that cost me an extra 5 hours and a re-route to a less convenient airport.

And this was from a major airport. Expect that tons when Edmonton is your base.