Well, I forgot about that aspect.
The groups of persons that can travel on
our A/C is strictly defined in the OPS manual. It includes a.o. family members of employees, but not crews from other airlines. Slightly longer story why that is so...
For that reason, other airlines are generally reluctant in granting us deals, because they don't get anything from us.
That's why we are very grateful for the few deals there are, but those don't get you very far when you'd really need them.
So when you take your wife on a trip, you have to consider the worst case. If she has time and is indepentent (speaks English a.o.), she might just wait for the next CV flight. But if you need to get her out quicker, you're gonna buy her a biz-class ticket one-way, taking up easily half your month's salary. If you get a cheaper deal - fine, but don't count on it. Time to sort things out could be very limited, too.
I've always been lucky so far (5 times total)
, but there's always a chance it goes wrong.