Retiree Flying Non Rev - Help!

My father is a retired captain with USAIrways living in Pittsburgh. He and my mother purchase airline tickets rather than using pass privileges because they have heard that seats just aren't available....especially for retirees. I know...why not call and find out...but they don't. I live in Orange County, CA and would like them to come for a visit and try using the passes. Can anyone tell me anything about the pass process for retirees and how easy/difficult it is to get on a flight particularly to Southern California? Thanks bunches!

I guess it depends on how many flights are in/out of each airport and how comfortable they are waiting for plan b if they can't get on first flight.

My husband's father was a total pain in the hiney about pass travel. He had a buddy pass for his "lay by side" so it could be an issue at times for seats. He always wanted to go someplace like Vegas (which was one problem) or Portland Maine (on an RJ, minimal flts/day) He'd start with calling 3 months in advance to have them listed and then ask about seats every 2 wks. Oh yeah, and he didn't want to fly from DTW (first home) or ORD (later home) so he'd drive 5 hours to leave his car here for 4 days. Talk about frustration!! So, if the folks are NOT like that, they might be able to successfully nonrev w/out driving you crazy. Fares might be so low right now, they could do well with tkts. Sorry I can't help w/your pass bureau issues but I thought I'd share and hope your family is much easier to deal with!!

My FIL is retired UA captain and has the same attitude. They never use their passes or my DH's and buy tickets instead. On John Wayne Airport, the DL flights usually have space I actually usually get upgraded on the way back when I fly for work which is somethin' when you're talking flying in and out of ATL with all the medallions. Not sure of the amount of flights in/out of PIT to SNA, but it is a super easy airport to fly in and out of as I'm sure you know. I would just watch flights for about a week and see how many non revs get in and out of PIT and SNA. Not sure how helpful that is but understand your frustration!

As a parent of an ACTIVE 9E (pinnacle) employee, I must say that we have used our pass priveleges to the max, often to get from Connecticut to So. Cal. Of course, we've usually done it one 'our' airline, NW, and have been very fortunate to get out there 3x /year over the last 4 years, usually BDL-MSP/DTW-LAX/SNA. Sometimes it's been nail-biting, which I have no trouble with bit wifey does. Of those 24 round trips, we have had to sleep at LAX once, but other than that have always gone on the day we chose (carefully). Besides that one mis-fire, we've had a few close call, like Good Friday before last (stupid or what?) when we arrived in early in DTW from Hartford and had to watch one west-bound plane after another leave without us until we got the last 2 seats on the last one, and only because the weather had caused mis-connects. Oh yes, and the time of the LAX sleepover we also couldn't get back to BDL from MSP and had to settle for LGA and rent a car. And out of MSP, getting on he LAX flt is always a nail-biter because space is always tight, but with the above exceptions we've always made it.
But without the pass priveleges, we would have seen our granddaugthers (oh and yes, the son and daugther-in-law) much less.
In addition to all the travelling to the West Coast, we've done about as many trips to MSP to see the other son & grandson, all very smoothly.

There is lots of chatter about that we will soon loose all that when the NW-DL non-rev systems merge, but we're hoping.

So..it all depends how much your nerves can take vs. how much your budget can afford. Good luck!

If all else fails....why not just buy them tickets? I know we have fares as low as $89 each way from PIT-SNA and we have an average of 4-5 flights per day...if you plan ahead you can get some great fares and they will be guaranteed a seat...nowadays nonreving is becoming harder and harder and it probably won't get any easier in the near future. We also don't charge any fees for changing their itinerary and we offer great senior fares (65+) if they are elegible...if there were my folks, I'd buy them a ticket!

Also consider buying them a ticket to a Hub - did that with dad to go tot the UK - A RT to MSP and nonreving to the UK...