Who killed non-rev shoulder season?

bike21

bike21

9-5 Ruins Lives
Rant time, leaving this week to go gallivanting across Euroland and can't find good seats let alone many seats across the Atlantic. I've noticed this the last several years since Covid and when work from home became a thing. Miss the days of post Labor Day easy breezy non-rev.

I'd like a refund please and may I speak to the manager.
 
bike21 said:
Rant time, leaving this week to go gallivanting across Euroland and can't find good seats let alone many seats across the Atlantic. I've noticed this the last several years since Covid and when work from home became a thing. Miss the days of post Labor Day easy breezy non-rev.

I'd like a refund please and may I speak to the manager.
Click to expand...
Computer-optimized everything trying to optimize seat capacity, frequency, and fares to make errythang full always
 
I hear ya. My SO and I use to venture almost monthly on non rev trips, intl was the majority and usually we’d get fortunate and end up in lie flats.

The last 2 years it’s been next to impossible it seems to get a seat in general that we’ve succumbed to purchasing seats, and cutting back our traveling significantly.

Like @Roger Roger said, with all the data collection, algorithms and ai tech being used, it seems the airlines have figured out how to fill most seats. It doesn’t help also some airlines are letting folks change flights for no fee, standby for earlier flights, etc.

I still am not sure how folks are affording all this travel. It’s hard to imagine this many people putting several thousand dollar trips on credit cards.

To end on a positive note I am happy airline are making profits which pays my bills and allows me to purchase said tickets but sometimes I want the cake and eat it too.
 
I feel bad saying it but it really has gotten hard for me to see the same value in flight benefits that I used to. I had a couple weeks off recently and had the same issue. Anywhere in Europe was single digit available seats that I knew wouldn’t last. Throw in being a commuter and it gets less desirable to go to the airport and inevitably play “scramble to figure out plan D” on your days off. Doubly so spending a lot of your vacation wondering what wrench will be thrown into your plans with the added time pressure of getting back to work on time.
 
Sculprit said:
I hear ya. My SO and I use to venture almost monthly on non rev trips, intl was the majority and usually we’d get fortunate and end up in lie flats.

The last 2 years it’s been next to impossible it seems to get a seat in general that we’ve succumbed to purchasing seats, and cutting back our traveling significantly.

Like @Roger Roger said, with all the data collection, algorithms and ai tech being used, it seems the airlines have figured out how to fill most seats. It doesn’t help also some airlines are letting folks change flights for no fee, standby for earlier flights, etc.

I still am not sure how folks are affording all this travel. It’s hard to imagine this many people putting several thousand dollar trips on credit cards.

To end on a positive note I am happy airline are making profits which pays my bills and allows me to purchase said tickets but sometimes I want the cake and eat it too.
Click to expand...
It is amazing how flights are so damn full, feel like we're on the cusp of another credit bubble.

www.usatoday.com

America has a credit card problem. Is it 2008 all over again?

The numbers suggest a small but growing share of American consumers have fallen into a pit of credit card debt. It's hard to dig out.
www.usatoday.com

Forgive the USA Today link, but I'm also going to rant about the lack of free sunshades...errr newspaper these days too.
 
bike21 said:
Rant time, leaving this week to go gallivanting across Euroland and can't find good seats let alone many seats across the Atlantic. I've noticed this the last several years since Covid and when work from home became a thing. Miss the days of post Labor Day easy breezy non-rev.

I'd like a refund please and may I speak to the manager.
Click to expand...

I've also found it to be much more difficult post covid. Premium cabins rarely happen now whereas precovid I was able to get it on long haul flights pretty regularly.

If you play the credit card points game, one of my friends turned me on to pointhoud.com and its been pretty amazing. It finds the cheapest flights in points and walks you step by step how to transfer the points you have to whatever other loyalty program to search for and book the flight. He flew with his wife from Miami to London for 5k points each in coach. I was able to get 2 business class flights for 30-40k points each from Copenhagen and Krakow to the US last year. I have an upcoming trip to China and pointhound had it for 90k points and I stupidly did not book it before the tickets sold out so we'll probably be in coach on standby.

If you pay for the premium service it sends you the best deals regularly.

I'd also recommend paying for iddeals.com to see actual loads on other airlines as staff traveler or the faces on myidtravel can be unreliable.
 
JordanD said:
I feel bad saying it but it really has gotten hard for me to see the same value in flight benefits that I used to. I had a couple weeks off recently and had the same issue. Anywhere in Europe was single digit available seats that I knew wouldn’t last. Throw in being a commuter and it gets less desirable to go to the airport and inevitably play “scramble to figure out plan D” on your days off. Doubly so spending a lot of your vacation wondering what wrench will be thrown into your plans with the added time pressure of getting back to work on time.
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Try being a family of 5. Not much point much of the year.
 
JordanD said:
I feel bad saying it but it really has gotten hard for me to see the same value in flight benefits that I used to. I had a couple weeks off recently and had the same issue. Anywhere in Europe was single digit available seats that I knew wouldn’t last. Throw in being a commuter and it gets less desirable to go to the airport and inevitably play “scramble to figure out plan D” on your days off. Doubly so spending a lot of your vacation wondering what wrench will be thrown into your plans with the added time pressure of getting back to work on time.
Click to expand...
I feel the same way now. Early in my career I couldn’t wait to nonrev on my days off. Then life choices made me a commuter for several years and it sucked any fun I had out of nonrevving. Recently had a couple weeks off and didn’t have the desire to go anywhere “fun” so decided to go visit my elderly parents instead. Getting home took me 3 legs (although the first leg was only because I flew out of the airport near my parents and not the major international airport 2 hours away)
 
To the folks that work at Delta, did I see correctly that your MEC put out at some point that in the next contract they are working to secure enhanced flight benefits or something to that extent, or am I making this up?
 
JordanD said:
I feel bad saying it but it really has gotten hard for me to see the same value in flight benefits that I used to. I had a couple weeks off recently and had the same issue. Anywhere in Europe was single digit available seats that I knew wouldn’t last. Throw in being a commuter and it gets less desirable to go to the airport and inevitably play “scramble to figure out plan D” on your days off. Doubly so spending a lot of your vacation wondering what wrench will be thrown into your plans with the added time pressure of getting back to work on time.
Click to expand...
It certainly has gotten harder, but we refuse to give in. I'll keep non-reving out of spite and refuse to use our positive space tix until we're in a true pinch.
 
Sculprit said:
To the folks that work at Delta, did I see correctly that your MEC put out at some point that in the next contract they are working to secure enhanced flight benefits or something to that extent, or am I making this up?
Click to expand...

Establish new, and improve existing, pilot travel benefits.

You now know as much as the 17,000+ of us not in the MEC/NC. There's loads of rumors as to what that may be, and even more individualized dreams of what that may mean. Personally, I'm much more upset at potentially losing the 25 years of travel seniority I get from her if my wife decides to retire this year, sure beats my not yet 5 years.
 
RORO said:
I've also found it to be much more difficult post covid. Premium cabins rarely happen now whereas precovid I was able to get it on long haul flights pretty regularly.

If you play the credit card points game, one of my friends turned me on to pointhoud.com and its been pretty amazing. It finds the cheapest flights in points and walks you step by step how to transfer the points you have to whatever other loyalty program to search for and book the flight. He flew with his wife from Miami to London for 5k points each in coach. I was able to get 2 business class flights for 30-40k points each from Copenhagen and Krakow to the US last year. I have an upcoming trip to China and pointhound had it for 90k points and I stupidly did not book it before the tickets sold out so we'll probably be in coach on standby.

If you pay for the premium service it sends you the best deals regularly.

I'd also recommend paying for iddeals.com to see actual loads on other airlines as staff traveler or the faces on myidtravel can be unreliable.
Click to expand...
We have a metric ton of Amex points saved up and probably should figure out something to do with them for once.

I use Staff Traveler regularly, but didn't know about iddeals. Need KLM loads again since they stopped offering on StaffT.
 
Karnage said:
Establish new, and improve existing, pilot travel benefits.

You now know as much as the 17,000+ of us not in the MEC/NC. There's loads of rumors as to what that may be, and even more individualized dreams of what that may mean. Personally, I'm much more upset at potentially losing the 25 years of travel seniority I get from her if my wife decides to retire this year, sure beats my not yet 5 years.
Click to expand...
Well hope yall get something great, and we follow suit.
 
Sculprit said:
To end on a positive note I am happy airline are making profits which pays my bills and allows me to purchase said tickets but sometimes I want the cake and eat it too.
Click to expand...
Fair point, but also I don't think it's a big ask to be able to utilize our benefits. Management tricking us into paying for what's free is next level •housery.
 
azmedic said:
I feel the same way now. Early in my career I couldn’t wait to nonrev on my days off. Then life choices made me a commuter for several years and it sucked any fun I had out of nonrevving. Recently had a couple weeks off and didn’t have the desire to go anywhere “fun” so decided to go visit my elderly parents instead. Getting home took me 3 legs (although the first leg was only because I flew out of the airport near my parents and not the major international airport 2 hours away)
Click to expand...
It's a shame. I get some amount of FOMO but sometimes the stress just isn't worth it. The only place really open for us was Japan and apparently it's god awful hot and humid this time of year with rain forecasted everyday, plus I was dreading the nonrev game. We ended up doing a roadtrip to a bunch of National Parks in the Southwest and it was awesome. Beautiful, relaxing, and actually felt like a vacation.
 
JordanD said:
It's a shame. I get some amount of FOMO but sometimes the stress just isn't worth it. The only place really open for us was Japan and apparently it's god awful hot and humid this time of year with rain forecasted everyday, plus I was dreading the nonrev game. We ended up doing a roadtrip to a bunch of National Parks in the Southwest and it was awesome. Beautiful, relaxing, and actually felt like a vacation.
Click to expand...
We thought about Japan for this trip, but apparently it's Golden Week x1000 right now. Silver Week which hasn't happened in 11 years.
 
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