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This will be the first time non-reving on an airline other than my own. This will just be a domestic flight but the whole point of it is basically just to see how it works so that I can begin doing it internationally.
Can anyone give me any tips? Also, generally speaking, do Zed's have any chance at getting upgraded to first or business on Delta? Is there an upgrade fee that can be paid?
Also with Zed tickets, do you buy them with the exact flight and date already predetermined, or are they sort of general "coupons" that can be redeemed whenever you decide to use them?
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most of us with 22+ yrs seniority can't get up front--much less in coach seats these days!! The medallion members snarf them up like oxygen!
DL is not 'sposed to upgrade OAL zeds at all (except NW which will be moot issue after 23June)
I've recently had buddy pass rider change plans 3 times to get here and home over several days. good luck!
PS--first advice: avoid ATL and prob NY and CVG and SLC and...
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I have to say that I have been using delta during the last 7 years for non reving as other airline employee... and for me they are the best.
They have always treated me like their best guest.
Dont be afraid using delta, but i would recommend to always have back up plans in other airlines as well.
The problem with delta in summer is that everyone want to fly non rev with them, and there are larggge amounts of standby people in every flight.
The good thing is that almost the rest of airlines does nothave that long stanby queue, so if you do not get on delta, go to other carrier.
I also want to get to the point that it is very important to list yourself before check-in, as it helps very much at the airport.
And yes, sometimes Delta has treated me very very very well.
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Thanks for the input guys!
As for other airlines, is there one in particular tha has a reputation for upgrading non revs,..? Because we have ZED agreements with pretty much everyone.
Also, what about the tickets themselves? Are zed tickets flight specific or can they be used on any flight on any day you'd like..
I know basically nothing about ZEDs.
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Well, at least at my airline, ZED tickets have to be issued for a particular airline, for example LHR-JFK for British Airways.
But as ZEd tickets are priced based on distance and taxes, any carrier that your airline has an agreement (as an example: continental, american...) will accept the tickets for the same route. Iberia has a good costum when we issue ZED tickets which is to write at the endorsment box the following sentence: TICKET VALID FOR ALL ZED AND ONEWORLD IB CARRIERS. This sentence should advice the check-in agent that even if the ticket is not issued for his airline, she could check the staff agreements and accept it.
Most airlines will accept it without problem. So you dont have to buy as much tickets as carriers fly the route.
Other thing is to accept the ticket for a different roure that is printed on the ticket... that is the big problem for most carriers, at least at foreign stations where they are not very used with ZEDs.
There are some airlines that it does not accept ZEDs without exact city pairs as a rule. It has happened to me with Cathay Pacific and others. They did not accept a ticket issued HKG-SFO to fly HKG-LAX, even the ticket cost the same.
Others are much more flexible, specially the European and North American.
Nowadays the industry tendence is to change all ZED paper ticket to Electronic tickets, and even there is a web site that allow some airlines to issue tickets for other airline via web, with a employee code (www.myidtravel.com) You can be at home and issue your own electronic ZED tkts with several carriers. So I believe this will be the future for interline agreements. So it will be the end of preparing a list of ZEDs and going to the airport, and wait for issuing, and then listing, and all these things. And when comming back going to the airport to refund all unused parts...
Iberia has now started the web issuing project with Finnair, SAS Scandinavia, AirBerlin and Spanair. I have not tried jet.
I have tried electronic tickets but issued at the airport, so they print out a copy of the itinerary and the electronic ticket number.
I hope it helps.
John.
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Do you have access to your airline's zed agreements? We have a list, by carrier, of the terms between the two airlines. None of our zeds are ticket-able in any class but coach for nonrev. I would recommend you ask prior to trying to get a zed "ticket" at your SW counter and what the terms are for each carrier. Zeds are only interchangable with carriers that have an agreemetn w/SW. You may have Finnair; we don't--we may have EVA, maybe SW doesn't...
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My 2 cents worth:
I have non-\revving Delta as OAL (ZED hi) for 4 years now, even before NW was a gleam in Delta's eye, and I have to concur that they are the best. They always upgrade when they can (over 50% of the time).
As for ZED ticket interchangeability: Ultimately it comes down to the gate or ticket agent. Lots of ink has been spilt all over this forum and others on this subject, and I don't think there's a universal set of rules. In theory, I used to think, you should be able to use a ZED ticket in a particular price range (Lo, MED, HI) and a particular distance range (Zone, that's where the Z comes from) on any flight , any airline, in that distance range and if it's in the price range as defined by your airline's OAL agreement. I put it to the test early on and it worked between EVA and China airlines (both Taiwanese). But I have never put this to the test since, and always ended up buying more ZED tickets than needed. Specifically, I have heard many times that the ZED tickets must have the correct city pair, so the interchangeability based on zones is suspect (again, up to the agent, but who wants to run that last-minute risk?).
The "date" part of your question is definitely OK: you can use a ZED ticket anytime (up to the expiration, 3 or 6 months in our case I think)
Unfortunately, ZEDs are a bigger issue for me now, since the NW-DL merger has meant that I as a parent no longer have the great "own airline" priveleges with DL I had with NW..ALL our flights are ZED now. So a transcontinental one-way flight has just gone from $50 to $140, and so I'm flying revenue in August. Overseas nonrev trips wll probably still be a good deal, and we will probably non-rev back to southern France in October.
Good luck!
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I saw a Skyteam member(which would be on zed) listed for DL op'd INT flight that had plenty of seats in business and few in coach. All nonrev's got biz except one pair (probably a child/parent?) and Skyteam pax had coach. Flight left with over a dozen business seats open. The 2 NW emps were up front along w/buddy pass riders. Just an observation--AND--I agree, Delta business class is awesome!
