Staff travel

[Togalk]

Our airline seems to be charging a lot for staff travel so Im just trying to get a sense of what different airlines charge for staff ID tickets. Space available, or ID 90 tickets.
For example. North America to Australia and North America to Europe. Just a rough estimate.
Do any of your airlines just charge you a service charge + taxes or are they all exactly ID 90's?
Are they upgradable?
I heard that some airlines donate the money they get from staff travel to charity? Any truth to that?
Thanks.

[Doors To Manuel]

Many airlines subscribe to what is known as the ZED fares agreement for interline staff travel. Ticket prices are fixed according to distance bands, and then can be 'low' 'medium' or 'high'. For example Western Europe to East Coast fall into a band that ranges from a low of $59 to a high of $136 for a one-way. However certain taxes and fees are usually added on top which in Europe can sometimes be higher than the actual fare itself.
Some airlines use ZED fares to charge their own employees, while others have their own internal arrangements. There is no hard and fast single benchmark.
And, no, I have never heard to an airline donating employee fares to charity.

[Panama Jack]

ID90's are almost dead. As Doors to Manuel stated ZED tickets are the game and thankfully so (although it remains to be seen how flexable they remain, compared to now, after everything goes electronic by the end of March 2012). Our airline mostly has ZED agreements but only a very few ID75 agreements which is quite expensive.

Yes, I worked for an airline previously which gave free ZED tickets on own airline (you paid the taxes). That was a concession negotiated with the union to lessen the pain of the pay cuts and furloughs after we emerged from bankrupcy protection. I would have preferred to pay for the ZED tickets and not have gone through an involuntary loss of employment.

Keep in mind that if you travel to North America or through Europe a substantial portion of your ticket price is taxes. The breakdown is clearly listed in your ticket.

[B737NG]

It is true that some portions to and from Europe are "heavy" on Taxes, and as the taxes are in € the exchange rate is taking a share as well.

I had cases where the ZED Fare was higher then the ID90 as the trip was not far, usualy less then one hour to fly but due to the arrangements there was only ZED available and not ID90.

I am still missing the old days where you could ride with your valid licence on a jumpseat on the given day, Aviation was great at that time. Spain is still a option for that. In UK you cant even think about it, it would be a offense.

[AAIGUY]

ID 90 better on a 'route' ie.. LA to MIA via DFW or NYC as its 10% the fare for the route..ZED are cheaper point to point.. when those points add up.. it gets costly..

Recently bought Vancouver to Cabo on USAIR for $107 usd online... Zed tickets via LA were 120 usd.. TAXES x 2 ect..

Also ID routes generally allowed J and F.. so you could buy premium travel.. Zed = Y

[PCLCREW]

I heard that some airlines donate the money they get from staff travel to charity? Any truth to that? :D


ha ha ha ha ha... sorry mate dont mean to laugh but if mean charity as the CEO just bought his 16yo daughter a new BMW as charity then yes.
This is the United States of corperate greed every penny of that money lines the pockets at the exec level.

[atpcliff]

My US airline has an agreement with Delta. It sounds like a ZED fare, but it is not called that.

All of the prices do not include the national/airport taxes, fees, customs charges, etc.
$50 one way/$100 within the 50 states (works out to about $150 with taxes/fees).
$200 round trip to Canada/Mexico/Caribbean.
$450?+ to Europe....and more than that to Asia and Australia.

It is space available, so if the plane is full of paying passengers you cannot go.

The other thing we have in the US is "Jumpseating". Pilots/Cabin Crew/Dispatchers/FAA, etc can "Jumpseat". You fly in a seat, if available, for free...and most US carriers all do this for all the other airlines. If you are in "CASS", an Identification system, then pilots can ride in the actual cockpit jumpseats, if no PAX seat in the back is available....and many larger planes have two cockpit jumpseats. Cabin Crew can typically use the cabin crew jumpseats if no PAX seat is available.

cliff
KHSV