I disagree...it depends on whose using it and how/why. If you know what your doing, it's not a big deal.
That really depends. With all the RJs around, you pretty much have to be watching loads like a hawk up to an hour before they board. One cancelled flight could kill your plans for the next couple of days. Your only other option is to only travel in off periods when the loads aren't that heavy, which to me seriously reduces the "benefit" of pass travel. For example, my parents wanted to fly on an airplane that I was operating, so I figured "Cool. MEM-MOB-MEM in the middle of the week should have two empty seats for them." Nope. It was oversold by 4 on a Wed in the middle of low travel season. On a DC-9, it would have been half empty (or half full depending on how you look at it I guess). But, since it's an RJ.....
Now if you're doing a lot of international routes, with a lot of seats on the a/c and not as much competition on the route, then things are a bit different. Fewer people for more seats with less economic pressure on the tickets = more open seats to non-rev. But when pilots can't make it to work on a normal basis from JAX-MEM (the flight is ALWAYS oversold, and we've ALWAYS got at least 2-3 JSers trying to get on), I'd say the benefit is pretty much nixed. Toss in an alternate, and you're more than likely bumping paying passengers b/c of weight issues, which screws the guys trying to non-rev on the next one (or two or three) flights.
In the NWA system, you don't have the option really of saying "Well, I won't take the RJ, I'll take the DC-9 or the A320." A lot of the cities ONLY get RJs. IND-FLL and IND-RSW? Those are RJ cities, and they REALLY, REALLY shouldn't be. I think IND-FLL recently got changed to a DC-9. The only reason an RJ isn't doing MEM-DEN anymore is b/c Frontier started that route, and NWA doesn't want to lose the market share. MSP-SLC is our newest RJ route that should be a mainline route. If NWA is still running an RJ from MSP-SLC in ski season, there's gonna be fights.
I don't call it a benefit if I have to get stressed out to use it, personally. If I wanna fly from MEM-MCO, there's no way to avoid that stress, even in low travel season. The back-up plan is to split the family up if there's only two seats, and I'll JS on someone to get there through ATL or IAH if I have to. If it were a "benefit" as they call it, I shouldn't have to split up my family to use it. I don't have to split them up and go to separate doctors to use my medical benefits. I haven't used my pass benefits since I've been working at PCL not because I don't want to, but simply b/c I can't get my family on any flights to places they want to go.
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