EA CO AS From United States, joined Nov 2001, 9955 posts, RR: 73 Reply 2, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 2345 times:
Great topic, Mirrodie!
I work for AS, and my buddies work for HP. Several years ago, we decided to take a trip to CUN, electing to non-rev on CO (neither of our companies served CUN at that time).
My friend Don and I flew PHX-IAH one afternoon, attempting to catch that night's last IAH-CUN nonstop. Our other friends, once they finished their shifts later that evening, were going to fly from PHX to AS / KLAS), USA - Nevada">LAS and then take a redeye AS / KLAS), USA - Nevada">LAS-IAH so they could meet us in CUN the following morning.
Well, we got bumped from the CUN flight that night and had to overnight at the Intercontinental Airport Marriott (great hotel for non-revs, by the way).
So the next morning, we head out for the first IAH-CUN flight...and lo and behold, there are our friends, who just got in on a AS / KLAS), USA - Nevada">LAS-IAH redeye and had partied like rock stars since they both got First Class on the flight.
So we're wide awake and they look like something the cat dragged in, but we head for the 9am CUN flight.
And we don't make it. It's oversold.
So we tried for the 11am. Then the 12:45pm. Both oversold, and there are about 30 CO non-revs ahead of us.
Needless to say, things are looking bleak.
So we had the bright idea of checking the loads on the 3pm and 8pm, both of which were totally booked. With 30 other nonrevs ahead of us, we had no shot of getting out.
The solution? The EWR-CUN flight, which was a 757, and had 70 open seats!
So we check the IAH-EWR flights, which are full.
"The LGA flight has open seats," a CO employee reminded us.
So, we schlep over to the IAH-LGA flight and get on, arriving there with 3 hours to make it to EWR.
A long, twisty, detouring cab ride through the middle of that Sunday afternoon's Puerto Rican Pride Parade (I swear I'm not making this up. It REALLY happened that day!) across midtown Manhattan and damn near $80.00 later, we're at EWR with boarding passes in our hands.
We finally hit CUN around 1am, and closed out the bars by 5.
I can't tell you about the rest of the trip, as those brain cells didn't survive the trip, but the photos certainly indicate we had a good time there!
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem - government IS the problem." - Ronald Reagan
SegmentKing From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 2304 times:
A friend and I are trying to fly FLL-LGB tomorrow on Jetblue.. not sure how it will turn out. The return on Sunday is even worse... when I booked it through their PB manager, it was wide open.. stressing WAS. Now i'm on the phone with every Pass Bureau Mgr I can find (or have cell phone #s for) to get us home. So far I'm going to have to fly Mesa from Long Beach to Phoenix, then pray I can hop on America West to Denver, then Spirit back to Ft. Lauderdale.. the key right now is getting to Denver... the Spirit flight is ;;; wide open ;;;.
My main problem is the person I'm taking with me is NOT an airline employee, and while I have a plethora of tickets on me for Mesa, Frontier, Spirit, and ATA, he does not. And he has to fly with me... ::: GRRR :::
Worst scenario is we have to find a way to get from Long Beach at 730AM to Ontario for an 1130ish flight to Denver on Frontier JetExpress.... that is booked to 47/50 no listed. ::: prays :::
anyone know of a cheap way from Long Beach to Ontario???
AA 777 From United States, joined May 2002, 794 posts, RR: 21 Reply 4, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 2255 times:
The longest ive had was:
LGA-ORD-DFW-MIA-RSW. I love to nonrev, every trip is always different. The worst is travelling with D3's because they are the bottom of the bottom of the list. Two weeks ago we were trying to nonrev from CMH-LGA. Normally a 1 1/2 hour flight, but it took us 12 hours and we had to go through ORD. Hey at least its free!
Captaink From Mexico, joined May 2001, 4370 posts, RR: 15 Reply 6, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 2222 times:
And then there are the days when you have two segments and you cant even get a seat. Right now I am trying to get my mom to fly from LGA-PHL-GND, I can't get her on any flight from LGA or EWR tommorow morning in time to catch the US395 to GND. Sad days of a non rev.
Thunder9 From United States, joined Jul 2003, 192 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 2126 times:
Hey 717-200...Wouldn't your trip have been a whole lot easier to just take I-40 eastbound?
Nate...I'd call SuperShuttle to see how much the van ride would be. Should be about 40 mins ride, since the drivers are usually pretty good in that area.
"Keep thy airspeed up, less the earth come from below and smite thee." - William Kershner
N951U From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 11, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 1946 times:
A D3 is employee families on American. D2 is employees, D1 is a higher priority... each employee gets a couple of them a year to use. Also at AA, non-revs making a connection get higher priority than others in their classification.
Non-revving is enjoyable sometimes, a nightmare other times. There is nothing like 30E on a MD-80 for a 4.5 hour flight (I did that last night). Rolling from flight to flight is always fun.... I spent 8 hours one night trying to get to St. Louis before I gave up (as a D2.... all flights were oversold, plus all of the replacement F/As trying to get to work in STL).
It was very nice the other night flying on a revenue ticket.... checked in online, walked into the airport 40 minutes before departure, cleared security, bought dinner, and walked right onto the airplane.
Pe@rson From United Kingdom (England), joined Jan 2001, 16776 posts, RR: 58 Reply 12, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 1932 times:
Is there a website dedicated to carrying documents and therefore travelling for less?
GroundStop From United States, joined Jun 2003, 611 posts, RR: 9 Reply 13, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 1907 times:
Back when I was in school in Tallahassee, I was working for Piedmont on the ramp. My folks still lived in Northern Virginia. For some reason, going north wasn't a problem, going south was always an issue. One long Sunday, I had to fly from IAD-GSO (BE1), GSO-CLT (100), CLT-MSY (734), MSY-PNS-TLH (BE1). That was back in the Commutair and Air Midwest Florida Panhandle days.
Srbmod From United States, joined Mar 2001, 14263 posts, RR: 62 Reply 14, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 1887 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW FORUM MODERATOR
My most legs in one day were as followed:
ATL-MCO 777-200
MCO-JFK 777-200 (same a/c I flew ATL-MCO on)
JFK-ATL 767-300ER (I barely made this flight, it was the last JFK-ATL flight of the day, and I got the very last seat onboard, thankfully it was in business.)
Now in terms of flight time, the three times I did ATL-PDX-ATL on an MD-11 averaged about 8.5 hours in the air total.
Meechy36 From United States, joined Nov 2001, 301 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 1815 times:
My worst experience was when I was flying for Eagle out of Miami and commuting from Boston. A snow storm had hit he Northeast and my flight was cancelled as we taxied onto the runway. This was a Friday afternoon and they had already cancelled the last flights that night and the first one on Saturday morning. I knew I was screwed as Saturday is cruise day and at the best of times the flights are full. A kindly agent helped me out and suggested I go MIA-LHR-BOS as those were the best options at the time. All flights to DFW/ORD/RDU/BNA and LAX were full and since I worked for Eagle I didn't have cabin jumpseat privilidges. I looked at her like she was nuts but she said that was the best option. I normally wouldn't have cared if I got home or not but it was my nieces Christening and I was the Godfather, I knew my brother would kick my ass if I didn't get home in time.
I flew in first to LHR, cleared customs, went to the checkin area and asked to be put on the list as a D2 through, the agent looked at ME like I was nuts, and said there isn't any connections in LHR, I told her I had just come in from Miami and was going to BOS. She thought that was hysterical and gave me a coach boarding pass. When I was onboard the aircraft I heard my name followed by the dreaded "And, please bring all your belongings with you." I get my stuff, head to the front and there are still plenty of seats so I can't figure what is going on. The door is shut and the purser tells me to take any empty seat in first! The checkin agent had called the gate agent and the gate agent had told the purser of my trials and tribulations.
A few years later I was hired by AA and started flying international and she was the Purser on my first trip on International to London. I told her how much I appreciated what she had done for me, of course she didn't have a clue what I was talking about. As for the agent in MIA I carried around a box of candy for her for 2 weeks until I finally saw her. The wrapup to this story is she was right, I checked Sabre and the first flight I would have made it out on to BOS wasn't until the PM Airbus on Monday night.
I stopped nonreving once I started to fly international, I was going to great places while I was working and the last thing I wanted to do on my days off was head to an airport and get on a plane. The 2 times I have traveled this year I bought tickets, it seems the flights are full and with kids the last thing you want to do is be stuck in an airport away from home.
B747-437B From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 17, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 1797 times:
December 1996 I was up in Chicago for Christmas and decided to head out to Madison, WI to have lunch with some friends on the 23rd and fly back that same afternoon. Loads were wide open so I bought my ID90s on UA. We left ORD without a hassle but on approach into MSN it started hailing. Circled for a while and diverted to Des Moines for fuel. Back in the air but MSN is now closed, so we divert to MKE and UA ships us over to MSN by road. Arrive around 3pm, but now my flight back is cancelled 'cos the airport is still shut. Nothing going anywhere. Stay the night at the friend's place in Tomah, WI (about an hour north). Next day the weather still sucks, so we drive out to La Crosse (LSE). I try to get an ID90 for the American Eagle flight down to ORD, but they cancel the inbound due to weather in Chicago now. Finally get an ID90 on Northwest up to MSP where I spend another 6 hours before grabbing an 8pm flight back down to ORD. Got back to my hotel in downtown Chicago just before midnight on the 24th December evening. Whew.
KaiTakFan From United States, joined Oct 1999, 1562 posts, RR: 12 Reply 20, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 1640 times:
One of my most memorable non rev trips was going to Hong Kong.
Left Phoenix to Los Angeles on UA exrpess. Flew on UA 124, A mid night flight to ORD. I was seated in 12A on the upper deck. After landing in ORD at 5AM, we spent the day in down town Chicago before going on UA 895 to Hong Kong, in seat 17H upper deck. We stayed in Hong Kong for 3 days before going home. We flew on ANA 912 to NRT. The flight was alot of fun for 20 year olds to be drinking it up. In NRT we then flew to SFO. once again in seat 17H on the upper deck. We got into SFO to find that all the SFO-PHX flights were packed. after missing 3 flights we got desperate. we flew down to LAX. However all LAX-PHX flights were jam packed. Before leaving SFO my friend called his girlfriend in PHX and told her to start driving to Los Angeles!! What a girlfriend eh? an hour later we are on the ground in LAX. We figured for the hell of it we should try for the oversold PHX flight. The gate agent told us that the plane had two seats that had not been checked into yet. 10 minutes left they began paging the missing passengers. 5 minutes before depature the gate agent is looking down the hall way to see if anyone was running to the gate. With a big smile on her face, she said "alright guys... your going home!" Sadly my friends girlfriend was already 2.5 hours into the drive and nearing the california border. That trip still stands as a great memory in all my standby travels!
SegmentKing From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 21, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1540 times:
Just a note, Bryan and I made all of our flights ok. the 7AM FLL-LGB flight ended up going out full, stuck in middles (3E/4E) but workable...
We got to Long Beach to find that SuperShuttle does not have a dispatcher there, so 3 drivers fought over our business... and all 3 tried to overcharge me... one guy wanted $33 a head, another wanted $65 total, etc. Thank God I'm familiar w/ them.
Anyway, flying back was good.. we made it out (and sat together) on the 7AM (SUNDAY mind you) Long Beach - JFK flight, landed at 318PM, ran to gate 7 for a 340PM flight to FLL, and again we got to sit together (woohoo)... 27D & 27 E...
last row is a biatch, but at least we made it home... I think the hardest part of flying on Sunday was the 4 hour drive down the Keys
Cody From United States, joined May 1999, 1841 posts, RR: 13 Reply 22, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 1466 times:
One night in PHL I was trying to non-rev on US Airways to PIT, but everything was full. Rather than get a hotel room, I non-revved from PHL-LGW-PIT. I was in England less than an hour, slept in the middle section of coach and got four meals out of it. I would do it again, and almost had to do it tonight!
Dtwintlflyer From United States, joined Jul 2003, 301 posts, RR: 3 Reply 24, posted (6 years 4 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 1418 times:
Before 9-11 it was always great to non rev on AC....YYZ to YHZ. It would always come down to one seat left and of course there would be other couples there, but they didn't want to be split up. I would take it because I would sit in the jumpseat up front and my wife would be able to get the first class seat. Happened at least 4 times!! Non rev travel can be fun, but at the same time stressful..thank god for ID-90 with all the other airlines. That has bailed us out too.
UPSfueler From United States, joined May 2003, 430 posts, RR: 1 Reply 25, posted (6 years 4 months 2 weeks 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 1320 times:
The best and funnest one I ever did was ORD-IAD(777-200),IAD-LAX(747-400)
LAX-SNA(EMB-120) overnighted in Orange County then flew SNA-ORD on the competition AA (757-200)
26 BAGSMASHER: LAX-MSP-DAY for 35 minutes then DAY-MSP-SNA then drove back to LAX cause LAX flt. got cancelled. All in one day. about 4,000 miles
27 Dispatch: If traveling on a VUSA voucher counts: Delta Airlines: BUF - SYR - BOS - ACK - BOS - ALB - CVG - SLC The omelet at Nantucket around noon was great Pet
28 Tom in NO: I've actually non-revved twice, and I'm not even an airline employee!!! (I'm in airport management). Years ago (mid 80's), the trade association that
29 Deltabobo: I worked for Delta at GSP, and i loved Non rev so much. I flew GSP to ATL MD-88 DL ATL to MCO 777-200 DL MCO to TPA 737-200 DLX TPA to JFK 737-200 DLX
30 JayDavis: My wife and I tried to non-rev for a trip to Hawaii last year in August from DFW. We missed the 3 non-stops to HNL and OGG on AA. The gate agents told
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