Non-rev Travel

“What do you mean you’ll decide on the way?” she said, understandably looking confused. This was in response to what I said when she had asked me when was my flight back. And then I explained it to her too, like I have to dozens of my other friends.

I work for an airline and like any employee of any other airline around the world I too, get flight benefits. Chipotle employees get free burritos, physicians get free medical insurance, Amazon employees probably never pay for shipping and so on. We? We get free flights. Flight benefits or the Non-revenue (Non-rev) travel is what this is about and I hope by the time you are finished reading this post, I would have given you an idea of how we, the airline employees travel.

So let me first explain how it works. Let’s say there are 186 seats (16 in First and 170 in coach class) on an A321 aircraft going from PHX to SNA (We breathe these 3 character codes day in and day out). The airline manages to sell its entire First class cabin and 150 out of 170 seats in coach. This means that there are 20 seats on this aircraft, which are going to fly unclaimed. Really? No, let me correct my last sentence. There are 20 seats on this aircraft for which the airline is not going to collect any revenue. They become Non-revenue seats. Since the plane will fly to SNA anyway, the airlines let their employees travel on these seats for free or for a nominal charge (which is like buying chewing gum, really). This is called Non-Rev Travel. The travel, for which the airline doesn’t make any revenue, but provides as a benefit to its employees. These benefits can also be extended to our spouses or girlfriends/boyfriends, parents and children.

Now take a moment to comprehend what this means for us. And let me help you with some examples (this part is going to make you feel jealous). This means that long distance relationships are not really long distance for us. Depending upon the flight schedules we can actually go have dinner after day’s work with a significant other working in a city 1500 miles away and still show up to work the next day. Or for a more relaxed itinerary, we can attend lunches, dinners, birthday parties, family functions etc. over a weekend almost anywhere in the country just as easily as we would attend those in our city. There have been times that I have gone back to my college campus just to watch a movie with friends. My favorite is the time when I missed a flight to California. I did not want to go back home from the airport so I took the flight to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico instead and I had a good time. Think absolute randomness, on crack.

Airports are our second home. We move through the airports like Matt Damon in a Bourne movie. We always have a packed carry on ready to go at a moment’s notice. We can breeze through the security lanes and make other bookings for our trip (hotels, tours etc.) on the fly, literally. We have seen more places than any average person, gone to those corners of the world where you would never plan a trip otherwise. Heck some of us have more flying hours than some pilots.

So all this sounds really cool doesn’t it? Well, now let me show you the other side of the coin. I spoke about the unsold seats before, which is what our whole travel plan is based upon.  Do we always have unsold seats on a flight? Hell no. What happens if there were no unsold seats on a flight that we wanted to Non-rev on? Nothing, we simply don’t get to fly on it. Suck it up and either go back home or wait for the next flight (which might also be sold out again). Ever seen those 3-4 passengers hanging around the boarding area close to the gate who look oblivious to the boarding announcements and everything else happening around? That’s us. We are praying for a couple of you to forget to wake up in time, get stuck in the traffic, get delayed through security, go to the wrong gate or miss your connection (I know, that’s mean). Anything that leaves your seat unclaimed before it’s time for the flight to takeoff and get those seats assigned to us.  But do you see the problem with that? We can’t ‘plan’ for our trips!! We don’t know until the very last moment whether we are going to get on the flight or not. Well, usually we have enough information about the flight loads to make a call beforehand, but more often than not, it comes down to the scenario mentioned above. Sometimes we get to the airport in the morning but are only able to fly out in the night after 4 scheduled departures. I have slept over at a Hawaii airport because I couldn’t get on the last flight out of the island. Mostly, our trips are short weekend trips where we plan too much in too little time. We can beat you hands down on the quantity of the trip count but the quality would be up for debate.

So it’s not all that rosy. But don’t get me wrong. Flight benefits are undoubtedly one of the best benefits an employer could offer (go back to hating us). But if you do the math and try to quantify the benefits we get, it doesn’t come out to more than 25 grands of pre-tax money. So if an employer pays me 25 grands extra than what I make today, I can very well sustain my current travel habits. Given the fact that airlines are not the best paymasters, you can too. It’s just a mental block to think that you can’t travel like us because you don’t work for an airline.

After flying my brains out for the past 4 years, I have realized it’s not about how much I pay to make all these amazing trips or whether I get my flights for free. It’s about the wanderlust. The knowledge of the world, the right and wrong, acquired through experience. If I make you a News Reporter tomorrow and tell you that’s only job you can have in the whole world, then you will learn reporting the News. And you’ll get good at it. I have learned that all you need to do your job well in the corporate world is a decent IQ, communication skills and common sense. And trust me, nothing inculcates more common sense in you than traveling. Take a couple of trips alone and by the end of it you’ll find yourself to be a much more confident and smarter self. Just take it from me.

So just pack your bags, pick a destination and take that trip you always wanted to take. You won't regret it. Fly safe.