I work for another United Express carrier, and our benefits started 2 weeks after employment began for United flights. I think US Airways is right away, or probably close to it. And yes, children, spouse, and parents get benefits. Parents have to pay a $25 service charge with US Airways for each segment, and enrolled friends (person of your choosing for single employees) will run into some taxes. The IRS sees that as a taxable benefit, so a value is assigned to each flight (depends on a lot of things) and while you don't get charged that, your taxes are based on wage + value of flights taken by enrolled friend, rather than just your wage. So $100 in imputed income as it's called could lead to $30 less in your paycheck because of taxes.