Oh I don't know about that, some flight deck crew actually have a few friends, strange but true...
If my chances of using staff travel benefits have been knocked back by a revenue generating 'enhancement' disguised as a philanthropic gesture, and they have, then nobody is getting onboard using my staff number. Staff travel is already a victim of this airlines success, it should not be made harder for
EK staff to get about the network but this policy will do just that.
Even TCAS had to bag a jump seat out of the UK recently, we can't do that.