Airline employee perks less perky than ever
Need another reason to be nice to your flight attendants? Recently, the airline industry has been quietly downgrading travel perks for employees and retirees. These so-called "non-rev" (non-revenue) travelers qualify for free flights. Through "buddy pass" programs, they can also qualify spouses and domestic partners, parents, children or friends as non-rev (or reduced-price) fliers, depending on the airline.
Free travel perks have been a staple of the industry for decades. Depending on the airline and length of employment, they can last into retirement or until death do you and your former airline employer part. While some airlines don't publish numbers for non-rev passengers, American Airlines alone has 750,000 fliers eligible for non-rev fares. Given this number, we assume at least a few million Americans are now eligible for non-rev travel, a number that's no doubt much higher than the industry ever foresaw.
A manager at a Star Alliance carrier (who requested to remain anonymous) tells us:
"Standby travel is getting worse and worse. Especially on domestic carriers! Overbooking, tons of non-rev staff and their travel partners…you always have to have multiple backup plans, just in case."
Yahoo Finance reported that retired American Airlines employees board successfully about 76% of the time, while current employees succeed about 74% of the time. These numbers sound high, but just imagine the following scenario: You're given a free Ferrari (Whoo-hoo! Free Ferrari!). Now imagine that Ferrari breaks down one out of every four times you wanted to go anywhere. You'd probably just buy an '05 Corolla and drive that instead.
The airline manager to whom we spoke said:
"Last time I tried to fly United [roundtrip], there were 51 standbys going up and over 60 going back...not a chance I would have made it. Since I fly every week back home, it's a nightmare. Frankly, I buy confirmed tickets whenever I find a deal."
One thing to consider is that many airline employees don’t live in the city where they’re based. Airlines need employees in expensive hubs like New York, Chicago or San Francisco, and many employees can’t afford to live there, or they were transferred during the bankruptcy and merger days and don’t want to leave their families behind. They commute to work on their airline, hoping to use perks to do so.
Like Greece and its overextended pensions, airlines are simply unable to accommodate the growing numbers of employees, ex-employees, spouses, parents and children clamoring for free travel. And don’t expect it to get any better. For one thing, people are living longer: retirement is now likely to last several decades. And retirees remember the good old days, when non-rev travel meant a free seat on almost any flight, often in first class — which is probably why a group of them filed suit against American Airlines last year.
What's more, many current and former employees took their jobs for these perks. They put up with angry passengers, holiday and weekend hours, low pay and taxing working conditions, knowing a free trip to Hawaii would make up for it. And it still might — if they're willing to fly next Tuesday instead of this Friday.