Believe me, they know what you are up to! On recent tech refreshers pilots were told that a "data-matching" survey was being undertaken on commuters. Apparently this was to form the basis of this new policy. They know where everyone lives, when they normally arrive at work and whether they travel standby or firm. The new policy states that if you abuse the "privilege" of staff travel it will be withdrawn. Trying to "sneak" through on standby on the day of departure will not be worth the risk.
It's a damn shame as this affects the approx 50% of Air NZ pilots who live outside of AKL and has the potential to seriously damage all of the goodwill and morale that our CEO has built up with pilots and management.
