Hello, Everyone!

**StormHawk** · 08-Jul-2013, 10:52 AM

I'm StormHawk. I was just offered a position with American Eagle as a Station Agent and I've been trying to do some research on non-rev travel. I haven't received any information from them yet (this was on July 3rd, so I assume that the holiday has slowed the process a bit). Any helpful basic info would be very much appreciated!

A few more things:
This is my first airline industry job, so I'm new to all of this.
I'll be mainly working the US Airways side, from what I've been told.
I had a few trips in the works before I saw/applied to the opening:

LAS over thanksgiving week
Also planning a honeymoon, considering French Polynesia. I'm putting this on hold until I find out details of the new benefits.
She loves Paris and studied there for a semester, so I got the idea that we could do a whirlwind to Paris for the proposal now that it may be financially possible. (I had been planning on the Eiffel Tower at Paris, Las Vegas on our next trip as the closest I could get) Am I crazy?

Thanks, everyone! I'm just a bit overwhelmed with all of the information that I've been reading.

**isppilot** · 08-Jul-2013, 11:24 AM

Hi StormHawk and welcome!
I did French Polynesia for my honeymoon. Would highly recommend it but be prepared to spend $$. We took the Paul Gaugin cruise during part of our stay which I would highly recommend. We got a great interline rate and met many CO folks on the cruise who also booked an interline rate. We were a little nervous as we couldn't book the interline rate until at least 90 days prior but we had booked everything else months before that. Tripadvisor has lots of info if that's where you decide to go.

Since it was our honeymoon, I used AA miles to book a confirmed ticket on Air Tahiti Nui. AA has agreements with Air Tahiti Nui and Air France. Booking with a travel agent like Costco or a travel agent in French Polynesia is recommended and you could probably get a better deal that includes air and hotel.

**Migflanker** · 08-Jul-2013, 11:37 AM

Welcome aboard StormHawk, I think you’ll find the Forum’s ZED travel article http://nonrev.net/content/119-what-zed-fare.html quite useful and you can drop AAZED http://nonrev.net/general-discussion...ed-travel.html a line if you have questions.

LAS over Thanksgiving could be tricky- we’ll talk about it.

**StormHawk** · 08-Jul-2013, 11:40 AM

Thanks for the info. Are prices on flights into BOB reasonable with the agreement? Bora Bora was going to be out as a possibility because of the price of flights alongside the hotel, but this could bring it back as our number one choice.

**isppilot** · 08-Jul-2013, 11:55 AM

If you are going to go to FP, definitely do not skip BOB or at the very least take the 7 night Society Island cruise where the ship will spend 2 nights in BOB. There are no direct flights to BOB. You will have to fly from LAX to PPT on Tahiti first and then take a 45 minute puddle jumper to BOB. Air Tahiti Nui is the international airline that gets you to PPT. From there, you will have to take Air Tahiti. Unfortunately, AA does not have a zed agreement with the "domestic" Air Tahiti. I usually don't use travel agents but for FP, you definitely save if you go with one and they can probably get you a decent rate. IIRC, I booked on the airtahiti.aero website and paid about $200 r/t pp.

**mrs767er** · 08-Jul-2013, 11:55 AM

Hello StormHawk. Welcome to a whacky sort of life--the airline industry!! Take a look at luxurylink.com--for several options for exotic honeymoon locations. Maldives, Mauritius, Bali (a personal FAVE) and Thailand, too. You can get some serious pampering for a righteous price at the last 2.
You came to the right place for travel advice--interline and non...

**StormHawk** · 08-Jul-2013, 12:12 PM

Thanks again for the responses. I'm trying to get a grasp on all of this, it's exciting stuff to me.

It seems that I've read a lot about folks retiring from various airlines with 25-30+ years in. I'm finishing up a marketing degree and can see myself sticking around once I graduate until retirement. Anyone have thoughts on/experiences with that?

**spongebue** · 08-Jul-2013, 12:57 PM

I'm with United as my first "big boy" job after graduation as well - though I'm in computer programming, not marketing or anything like that. But even still, there are obviously plenty of people that retire from the airline industry with benefits, and also many who move on. You'll probably have to take it one year at a time. Unfortunately, there really aren't any promises of what those benefits will be 25 years from now - or even after retirement. For example, with UA our retirees lost buddy passes and also fly at a lower priority than they used to.

Also, just keep in mind. Those days and places you'd like to go somewhere? Las Vegas over Thanksgiving, Hawaii anytime, things like that... you're definitely not the only one that has that idea. You have to be very careful with where you go. Other people can make similar plans. Oftentimes they'll be paying customers, but sometimes you'll get nonrevs piling in a day before departure. And with a low seniority and probably low priority as a non-mainline employee (that is, you work for Eagle, not American) you'll have to get used to seeing your name last on the list. We've all been through it.

**StormHawk** · 08-Jul-2013, 02:07 PM

Once I get load access ill have a better idea of when/where will be good. For now I'm working with dates I have free from class and such.

**spongebue** · 08-Jul-2013, 02:18 PM

Yeah, I've had to work with that too. I worked 3 jobs plus I still had a couple classes to take. Since I had such low seniority at the airport job at the time, I was stuck working weekends. And of course weekdays were tied up with other jobs + school.

It may suck and you may not be able to get out like you hoped, but remember: you've got your foot in the door. Soon you'll be done with school, and you'll have a reasonable schedule. One where you can take time off and go somewhere. And it'll be great.

Are you working where you live now? That's my biggest issue. I only have 2 weeks vacation per year (which sounds great, but I don't have the luxury of trading shifts like I used to) and it all goes towards visiting home for now. Though it doesn't help that the mother-in-law has some health issues, so once that settles (hopefully for the better) we'll be able to use a little more time going somewhere else. Or you can get creative. The wife and I are talking about visiting some cousins. In Honolulu. For a day. Flights are looking surprisingly good on Saturday.

Thread: Hello, Everyone!

LinkBack

Thread Tools

Display

Hello, Everyone!

This post by isppilot liked by 3 users:

The following user likes this post from Migflanker:

This post by isppilot liked by 2 users:

The following user likes this post from mrs767er:

The following user likes this post from spongebue:

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions