SLF3.
When travelling (Business Class) on a UA flight as a non-rev, I was asked by the ground staff to move to another seat as there was a pax who was sitting in a seat with inoperable audio/IFE, and so I was moved to the defective seat and the full fare pax was moved to my (working) seat. I moved without so much as a murmur, but when settling into my new seat, the pax sitting next to me sussed that I was a non-rev.
"How come you get to sit up here in Business on a staff ticket when I pay X$$ to sit here?" she demanded.
I was about to formulate a tactful reply, but the Purser, a flight attendant with 20+ years with UA happened to be standing adjacent. She leant over, and what she said really hit it home.
"Madam. When you fly on United, we give you frequent flyer points to say 'thank you' for flying United, to reward you, and to give you an incentive to fly us again. You can use those frequent flyer points for upgrades to Business class, or for free tickets.
As a United employee, we are fortunate enough to get some privileges. We work hard, the pay isn't the best, but part of being in the industry is some well earned travel benefits. And when there are empty seats up front here after all the upgrades are processed, we are given the privilege and 'reward' of sitting up front.
Now, I have purchased Ford cars all my life. I always and only buy Ford. But do you think that Ford recognises my loyalty? Do they give me a Free Car after so many purchased? Do they give me a free 'upgrade' when I buy a lower grade car to a nicer more fancy model. Of course not. But if I worked for Ford, do you think I'd get a great deal on a Ford car. You bet I would. Do I begrudge that? No.
So when all is said and done, I don't think it's too rough a deal when one of our own get's the chance from time to time to get a little special treatment.
SLF - Do I agree with 'detoriating service' because of working crew spending too much time chatting with Non Revs. No, of course not. But if you (or your company) have opted to purchase a cheapy ticket rather than paying for the Business class service, AND you have opted not to upgrade using the points that said airline gave you for free to reward you for your custom... should you still begrudge a staff member sitting in an otherwise empty seat?
You say "if you routinely upgrade staff before me, do I have any incentive to fly you?". I don't know a carrier out there who would say 'No' to you using your points to upgrade to Business Class several day before travel because they wanted to 'keep' seats for staff. Even 'on the day', at United (who has one of the 'best' employee upgrade programmes), they will ALWAYS accommodate on the day upgrades first before staff are accommodated.
And finally, in closing, I would remind you that on our 'cheap' tickets, we travel 'sub load'. These 'cheap' tickets, especially ID90's, are often not much less or sometimes even more than the cheapy advance purchase tickets you can buy from some Travel Agents or the Internet. Yet, for this 'privilige', we get to go standby. So if the flight is full, we get left behind. Paying for our own hotels trying (in some cases) for days to get on a flight. If the flight were to make a detour due to weather or mechanical problems, us sub load pax would have to sort ourselves out while 'regular' pax are given hotels or alternative transportation. So when all is said and done, I don't feel an iota of guilt about sitting up front. Many many companies give their employees perks of some sort, and hearing constant employee bashing about sitting up front feels somewhat unjustified.