Thread: Nonrev Tips

Originally Posted by spongebue

I think that going into a hub is pretty hard (lots of delays, carryover, etc) but if you start with the first flight of the day going out of a hub affected by bad weather, you should be good on at least one flight (barring cancellations, and hub-to-hubs may still be difficult with massive rebookings from other cancellations)

You are absolutely right I experienced that a lot that's why one or two days before my trip I always look at the weather...

Originally Posted by Migflanker

Yup, the optimism of the buddy pass rider.
You can tell them
they’ll be spending hours at the airport
they‘ll be bumped
they’ll be in a middle seat between sumo wrestlers,
their return date will have to be ”open” and you’ll be giving them a 24 hour “pack up notice“
their return flight will involve a roundabout route with at least one connection (which could be DFW)
and that bad weather anywhere on the planet will throw a monkey wrench in the entire operation
AND STILL they’ll want to fly to Hawaii for “free”.
Trust me, I paint a very dark picture when asked about passes.

Me too.
I must confess I become addicted to this game I get to the point that flying confirmed becomes boring, no challenge, no suspense, maybe I need to go to nonrev anonymous :-) ...

Another point regarding "clubs", you can purchase one-time passes on e-bay for a fraction of the cost. United normally offers one day club passes for $50 per person, but I've seen them on e-bay for 2/$40. Plan ahead.

Originally Posted by Migflanker

I paint a very dark picture when asked about passes.

I was talking to a new neighbor about my wife working for Delta and our travels. He said "Well if you have any of those free passes they give you and you can't get rid of them just let me know." I chuckled a little, explained that they aren't "free", then gave what I have learned to be a great response...I said "It's not that wouldn't do it FOR you but that I wouldn't do it TO you". I then explained the process in dark detail and told him that he would hate me and we would probably never speak again if he tried to get somewhere on a buddy pass. Seems to work.