Priority List Question

[wcs]

How do a family of D1's get on the list as D1T's for a ORDLAX flight leaving tomorrow at 12:05pm at 4:00pm today? Europe flights would have arrived this afternoon and there are flights before that today and tomorrow .

They probably originated on a flight from someplace like BUF, SYR, GRR, CLE, DTW or dozens of other cities that connect in ORD.

 

[LuxuryLiner]

There needs to be changes to the Non Rev policies. Seems people don't read them or don't understand them, and ask 20 questions and get 20 different answers. I think there should be a video or lesson viewed or taken before your passes are activated for new hires. There are new hires at DFW who have been on the job for a week wanting to send their parents and D3s around the world while having no knowledge or experience with nonreving.

 

[Rogallo]

Ignorance is bliss!

 

[1AA]

It's just the way the system is set up now. It's less than 24 hours, then a lot can happen. NR travel now isn't for the faint of heart. Even when you plan and watch for open flights to possibly get on, the company takes those open seats and sells them for pennies on the dollar to the internet discounters. The company should at least give the employees a stab at those un-sold seats first. So then that brings us back to paying for non-rev travel. There is the catch, Doug offers all employees free travel; unfortunately, there isn't any seats left to get on a flight cause the company dumped the open seats to the internet discounters for next to nothing. Then the discount ticket purchaser shows up to the kiosk, and promptly upgrades to first class for $50.00. lol

It's just the way the system is set up now. It's less than 24 hours, then a lot can happen. NR travel now isn't for the faint of heart. Even when you plan and watch for open flights to possibly get on, the company takes those open seats and sells them for pennies on the dollar to the internet discounters. The company should at least give the employees a stab at those un-sold seats first. So then that brings us back to paying for non-rev travel. There is the catch, Doug offers all employees free travel; unfortunately, there isn't any seats left to get on a flight cause the company dumped the open seats to the internet discounters for next to nothing. Then the discount ticket purchaser shows up to the kiosk, and promptly upgrades to first class for $50.00. lol

Those damn kiosks!

 

[eolesen]

My friend working at LAX said everyone goes to LAS..SFO...SAN then returns to LAX as a "T" just so they can get on the SYD...HKG and Hawaii flights. Does the company monitor this? There's a Facebook page called AA Nonrev and employees claim it's legal and not against the rules....just curious..

I can tell you what the policy used to be when I managed things... You can check the Trip Book or Jetnot or whatever it's called now to see if it was changed, but this is what AA used to enforce.

You cannot claim thru in your home/base city, including co-terminals. Therefore, if you work at BUR or ONT, you can't be a thru at LAX without violating the intent of the rule.

The policy isn't enforced thru NRTP or Sabre. It's an honor system. Sometimes people got caught or reported by other travelers or by agents at the hub. HR would usually revoke travel for a year for someone like Jim's former co-worker. If they lost their job, then there was probably a lot more to the story.

Going back to the original post... It's entirely possible for 1230 to be the first possible leg for someone flying out of South America or Asia. I don't know AA's schedule that closely anymore, but especially with holiday pulldowns, backtracking might have been the only way back to LAX for someone. Or, maybe they just really wanted to get J or premium economy for the long-haul...

More generally -- you can also be a thru on the next day on a routing where the schedule doesn't permit a same day connection on any other routing. Someone coming in from a station with only 1 or 2 flights could very well be a legitimate ORD-LAX thru for noon tomorrow. Again, schedule dictates, and if Sabre recognizes the connection, I'm fairly certain they'll get automatically listed as a thru.

 

[Jeepney]

There needs to be changes to the Non Rev policies. Seems people don't read them or don't understand them, and ask 20 questions and get 20 different answers. I think there should be a video or lesson viewed or taken before your passes are activated for new hires. There are new hires at DFW who have been on the job for a week wanting to send their parents and D3s around the world while having no knowledge or experience with nonreving.

I had an acquaintance (25 years ago) who applied to the company to become a ramper only because he could go visit his grandmother for free. He got the job and successfully visited granny, then quit since he new in advance he didn't want to do that work. People are strange.

 

[eolesen]

Back in the day at AA, we had to wait six months for passes... By the time six months went by, you had heard all the horror stories and had a chance to soak it in.

 

[ChrisUS]

Your question doesn't make sense. Where are you coming from to be at ORD for the ORD/LAX flight? What airline are you flying into ORD? Are the family members arriving at ORD on different airlines from different originating cities?

If you are not a true through passenger and want to game the system to make it think you are, don't bother. It's been tried and the possible penalties for attempting to game the non-rev system include termination. I know of one case where a DFW employee flew DFW-AUS on one PNR/Non-Rev listing.. Then attempted to fly AUS-DFW-CDG (IIRC) on a different PNR/Non-Rev listing as if his travel had originated in AUS. He is no longer with us.

We were coming from a city in NY state. Flying on AA. What I was wondering, when I checked the priority list the DAY BEFORE the flight, someone was showing on as a D1T. That really would be impossible since the flight out of ORD was at 12:05 pm. Someone was playing games! Not fair for the people in ORD trying to get on!

 

[ChrisUS]

The Hub employee has an advantage because all your World destinations fly out of those stations and if they can't get on the flight they can go home without any added expenditures of needing to stay in a Hotel and try again tomorrow.

That's the idea behind the through employee getting priority. The "spoke" employee can be out a lot more money if they don't make the flight and have to get an overnight Hotel for them and they're family.

The D1 or 2T is the best solution for making sure that Hub employee doesn't have that unfair advantage. If anything it can actually wind up working against the Hub employee if he really needs to get somewhere just as bad as that spoke employee.

And "If" the original poster is trying to "game" the system it would be a very stupid thing to try. Absolutely not worth the risk of losing your flight privileges or even worse, your job.

Flying without paying is a risk game. If you don't want to run the risk you should pay for a ticket like every other non airline employee has to do.

I wasn't trying to game the system! I was calling out the employee who WAS gaming the system. When I got to my airport, I asked the agent to pull up the PNR of the family on the list to see where they were coming from. DTW!!!!!! HOW dos a non rev from DTW get to be on the list for a flight sunday at noon on Saturday at 4:00 pm???

 

[jimntx]

We were coming from a city in NY state. Flying on AA. What I was wondering, when I checked the priority list the DAY BEFORE the flight, someone was showing on as a D1T. That really would be impossible since the flight out of ORD was at 12:05 pm. Someone was playing games! Not fair for the people in ORD trying to get on!

No, not impossible. One shows as a through passenger once one boards the inbound flight. There are still quite a few International flights into ORD--some of them quite lengthy. As long as they didn't have a 24+ hour open jaw in ORD, they would show as a through passenger as soon as they boarded the flight in Timbuktu or wherever. The time zone thing does strange things sometimes as far as the 24 hour advance check-in--especially if you cross the International Date Line in the process.

I'm not saying that there isn't some monkey business going on, there could be. But, if what you said happened actually happened, you need to file a complaint with the appropriate travel department. Though the system is programmed very well and is adept at catching no-nos, it's not perfect. A glitch in the system or an unexpected situation may need to be brought to the attention of those who manage the NRTP.

Addition:
Chris I just read your post about the D1T originating in DTW. Aside from the fact that the agent could lose his/her job for disclosing to you information from another passenger's PNR--you really have no right to know anything there--this sounds like a situation that needs a formal complaint. I don't see how that could have happened otherwise.

 

[ChrisUS]

Well against policy or not it still sounds like a crummy way to cut in front of the line against your fellow coworkers who want to get to places just as much as you do.

If the company doesn't monitor the "scam" then they should. That scenario above would be very easy to catch if it was a same day travel.

Set an example and restrict a few travel privileges for a few months and that BS will stop dead in its tracks when word gets out.

I concur!!! If I had gotten on the flight to ORD, I would have been ahead of the phonies anyway but this irks me for the hub employees. I don't like the system but it is what is! PLAY FAIR!!!

No, not impossible. One shows as a through passenger once one boards the inbound flight. There are still quite a few International flights into ORD--some of them quite lengthy. As long as they didn't have a 24+ hour open jaw in ORD, they would show as a through passenger as soon as they boarded the flight in Timbuktu or wherever. The time zone thing does strange things sometimes as far as the 24 hour advance check-in--especially if you cross the International Date Line in the process.

I'm not saying that there isn't some monkey business going on, there could be. But, if what you said happened actually happened, you need to file a complaint with the appropriate travel department. Though the system is programmed very well and is adept at catching no-nos, it's not perfect. A glitch in the system or an unexpected situation may need to be brought to the attention of those who manage the NRTP.

Addition:
Chris I just read your post about the D1T originating in DTW. Aside from the fact that the agent could lose his/her job for disclosing to you information from another passenger's PNR--you really have no right to know anything there--this sounds like a situation that needs a formal complaint. I don't see how that could have happened otherwise.

As I said in a later post, this really didn't affect me since A: I should have been ahead of them anyway and B: never got on the flight to ORD. It does irk me that there are people out there that cheat the system. I was hoping that someone in power just might be reading these forums and close a loophole or slap a hand.

 

[jimntx]

I doubt seriously that anyone at Centreport with any authority is reading Airlineforums.com. It doesn't seem that any of this stuff that we post on here gets up to management--see also my comments about the lack of passengers on some routes that continue to operate. As I said, sometimes you have to file a complaint before a glitch in the system is discovered. There was a very short time in the past that one could list as a D2 and check in only to discover that you are #15 among the D2s with 4 available seats and no D1s. You could then cancel your D2 and relist as a D1, check in, and put yourself at the top of the non-revs on the standby list

That loophole has been closed. Once you check-in you can not delete and relist for the same flights with a different priority. That's why you have to be careful in listing as a D1. You don't want to burn a D1 on a flight that has plenty of seats available. (Yeah, I know. There's no such thing anymore for the most part, but sometimes it can happen. Just browse PHX-MCI loads for a week or so.)

 

[UPNAWAY]

I guess I am not understanding, you can check in 24 hrs prior so when he checks in on Saturday is he not a D1T on Sunday for the ORD-LAX leg and a D1 for the DTW-ORD leg?

 

[ChrisUS]

I guess I am not understanding, you can check in 24 hrs prior so when he checks in on Saturday is he not a D1T on Sunday for the ORD-LAX leg and a D1 for the DTW-ORD leg?

He was flying DTW ORD LAX on Sunday. Yes, you can check in 24 hours in advance on Saturday. He would appear on the DTW priority list for sunday as a D1 and you could view this list on saturday. However, he WOULD NOT appear on sunday's ORDLAX list as a D1T on SATURDAY until he was CLEARED ON SUNDAY. He was on that list as a D1T on saturday already. I know it's a bit confusing to explain but do you get it now?

 

[ChrisUS]

I doubt seriously that anyone at Centreport with any authority is reading Airlineforums.com. It doesn't seem that any of this stuff that we post on here gets up to management--see also my comments about the lack of passengers on some routes that continue to operate. As I said, sometimes you have to file a complaint before a glitch in the system is discovered. There was a very short time in the past that one could list as a D2 and check in only to discover that you are #15 among the D2s with 4 available seats and no D1s. You could then cancel your D2 and relist as a D1, check in, and put yourself at the top of the non-revs on the standby list

That loophole has been closed. Once you check-in you can not delete and relist for the same flights with a different priority. That's why you have to be careful in listing as a D1. You don't want to burn a D1 on a flight that has plenty of seats available. (Yeah, I know. There's no such thing anymore for the most part, but sometimes it can happen. Just browse PHX-MCI loads for a week or so.)

Yeah, I doubt so too. Oh well.