Why I don't give out buddy passes.

This is a very bad time of year to non-rev, always has been. Mid-late August is chock-a-block full with back-to-school traffic and end-of-summer vacations. A far better time to non-rev is from mid-Sept through mid-October. Loads tend to be lighter then.
 
This is a very bad time of year to non-rev, always has been. Mid-late August is chock-a-block full with back-to-school traffic and end-of-summer vacations. A far better time to non-rev is from mid-Sept through mid-October. Loads tend to be lighter then.

Even 8 years ago when I started in this silly game, that was the case, but over the last few years there really hasn't been a "slow time" anymore. It used to be the week after New Years was slow too but now you can hardly find a seat.
 
It doesn't slow down much after school starts anymore? Bummer! That was always "the" time to try to get anywhere.
 
Even 8 years ago when I started in this silly game, that was the case, but over the last few years there really hasn't been a "slow time" anymore. It used to be the week after New Years was slow too but now you can hardly find a seat.

Very true. I fly commercially regularly, and I can't remember the last time a domestic flight I was on had a light load. 95% of the time, I'm jammed into a CRJ200 with 49 other people.
 
I was always leery of giving buddy passes to people, and when I did, they knew damn well what they were getting themselves into. I also made sure they had Plans B through E setup in the event they got stuck. My wife and I non-revved the crap out of the US Airways system when I worked for them, but we got stuck a few times and had to bite the bullet and buy a walk-up Southwest fare (plus the bus tickets from ORD to MDW).

I've been preaching this in my Sig. for years...
 
It's interesting to see how often people will draw conclusions based on their own or other's assumptions and then use these conclusions to try to belittle others (such as the family in the article).

I do have some sympathy for the family because I don't expect people to know everything about everything, so mistakes will be made. If they make the same or a similar mistake again, then it would make more sense if they don't find any sympathy.
 
It's the Internet.

If we read an article and didn't opine about it, there would be no forum.


Sent from my TRS-80
 
My older brother uses my buddy passes a lot and somehow has had nothing but good fortune. He completely understands the risks and is more than capable of coming up with plans B through Z. But somehow he never needs it. He has been number 12 for 2 seats on a plane to LHR and somehow found himself sitting in business class. He also decided to take on the risk of traveling on a buddy pass the weekend that United decided to switch to its new reservation system (during which United was saying "We're not even sure if we will be able to get paying customers where they need to go). Somehow he rode business to and from Hong Kong via ORD.

Every time he uses one I feel the need to remind him "your previous experiences are very atypical, so don't get used to it." But somehow it always works out. Hell, even once as a paying passenger on Air Canada he requested an upgrade on a flight out to Tokyo (wasn't elite or anything) and they gave it to him, just because.
 
It's the Internet.

If we read an article and didn't opine about it, there would be no forum.


Sent from my TRS-80

This forum is much more than an article, Doug. :) Also, there are better delivery methods for sharing opinions.
 
I set some friends up with some buddy passes back in July. Family of 5. Bad idea. Thankfully I was able to convince them 2 days prior to travel to cancel their plans and try to find another way. They weren't happy, but they have to deal with what this family just went through. Needless to say I will not be doing that again.
 
It's interesting to see how often people will draw conclusions based on their own or other's assumptions and then use these conclusions to try to belittle others (such as the family in the article).

I do have some sympathy for the family because I don't expect people to know everything about everything, so mistakes will be made. If they make the same or a similar mistake again, then it would make more sense if they don't find any sympathy.

Wow.

Well, I guess even Hitler had sympathizers. (And what thread is complete without a good Hitler reference :))

I don't think it is, or should be, a matter of knowing everything about everything. It is a matter of know about what the hell you are doing before you do it. I may not be able to build a house, but I certainly read the instruction manual before I use a power tool.

They didn't need to know the entire encyclopedia of non rev travel, but they should have at the very least known how it pertained to their trip.

Beyond that, if you don't have enough money to feed yourself and your kids for 4 days you need to STAY HOME and save some cash for a trip you can afford.

Sorry. No sympathy.
 
They're probably not broke, just didn't want to spend any more money.

Lots of broke folks have smart phones, DLSR's and spiffy cars that ask for buddy passes because they have no money.


Sent from my TRS-80
 
Wow.

Well, I guess even Hitler had sympathizers. (And what thread is complete without a good Hitler reference :))

I don't think it is, or should be, a matter of knowing everything about everything. It is a matter of know about what the hell you are doing before you do it. I may not be able to build a house, but I certainly read the instruction manual before I use a power tool.

They didn't need to know the entire encyclopedia of non rev travel, but they should have at the very least known how it pertained to their trip.

Beyond that, if you don't have enough money to feed yourself and your kids for 4 days you need to STAY HOME and save some cash for a trip you can afford.

Sorry. No sympathy.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda... right? :)

The interesting thing is that everybody usually preaches about "common-sense" hindsight after something happens to someone else, but not many people actively try to prevent things from happening or actively strive for improvement. For instance, good parenting skills appear to be a necessity for people that wish to have children, so why do I have to learn about art in school? How will art directly improve my life? Replacing art class with a parenting or similar class would probably be a better option to help improve society.

Apparently, in this society, the scale between "bitching" and "doing" heavily leans toward the "bitching" side.
 
Fine, so they didn't have a clue what they were doing. They had the full picture by the end of day one. No excuse for staying there five days. I have no sympathy for middle class panhandlers.
 
Even 8 years ago when I started in this silly game, that was the case, but over the last few years there really hasn't been a "slow time" anymore. It used to be the week after New Years was slow too but now you can hardly find a seat.

I always take vacation late April to early May, and for the past five years I've had no problem non revving internationally. No Spring Break, summer hasn't started, no high season anywhere and the weather is just about optimal anywhere in the world.
 
Fine, so they didn't have a clue what they were doing. They had the full picture by the end of day one. No excuse for staying there five days. I have no sympathy for middle class panhandlers.

I'm not really sure about what their thought processes were. What I am sure about is that, whenever I need a smile, I can always come here.

:)
 
Derg said:
They're probably not broke, just didn't want to spend any more money.

Lots of broke folks have smart phones, DLSR's and spiffy cars that ask for buddy passes because they have no money.

Sent from my TRS-80

And make asses of themselves in rape threads...
 
They're probably not broke, just didn't want to spend any more money.

Lots of broke folks have smart phones, DLSR's and spiffy cars that ask for buddy passes because they have no money.


Sent from my TRS-80
Just because they have those things doesn't mean they necessarily have the money to spend on $600 round trip flights out of LGA at that time because maybe they had other major expenses that they just had to pay or will shortly (say, weddings, medical bills, and cremations). ;)
 
Just because they have those things doesn't mean they necessarily have the money to spend on $600 round trip flights out of LGA at that time because maybe they had other major expenses that they just had to pay or will shortly (say, weddings, medical bills, and cremations). ;)

Really? Then dont take the flight. Or dont let married, dont get sick, and let the county claim the body.
 
What if a friend gets you a buddy pass, you purchase an airline ticket on the same flights under a different name, with refund insurance, and phone in to cancel that trip the "other person" was going to make while waiting at the gate to board your flight?
 
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