Non-Revenue Travel (Traveling Standby), AKA How I Afford To Travel

I thought it would be helpful to dedicate an entire post to traveling non-rev, so future posts of mine make more sense on the travel end! I'm going to try break up the odds and ends of traveling standby in a way that makes sense to someone who has never heard the term "non-rev" as well as dive into my own flight benefits as an airline employee. 

Flying out of Orlando, Florida at sunset

Summed up in a single sentence...I afford to travel by traveling standby using my flight benefits which basically means I can list myself for a flight on the standby list but am not guaranteed a seat, I'll only get on the flight if they have empty seats. The standby list is broken up into two main categories: revenue and non-revenue. 

Revenue standby would be passengers that missed a flight, or passengers who got bumped from an oversold flight, something like that. Basically people who had paid for a guaranteed seat but for whatever reason didn't make the flight they paid for. These people will always have priority on the standby list.

Non-revenue standby AKA non-rev is mostly airline employees and their friends and family traveling for free or extremely discounted. The non-rev standby list is broken up further by class. 

DISCLAIMER: this is all specific to the airline that I work for, other airlines have standby lists set up differently. 

For my airline, the standby list is separated into four main categories: D1, D2, D3, and lower standby. The priority is in that order, so D1's will always be called before D2's, etc. Employees are given a small number of D1 passes to use per year for priority on the standby list, and I also believe D1's are used for employees traveling on business? I've never used mine, so not entirely sure. D2's are the employees, retired employees who retired with their benefits, employee parents, employee spouses or registered companions, and I believe employee children. D3's are employee guest passes given out to friends and extended family, and lower standby is employees from other airlines who paid a fee to fly on your airline. 

To break down the list just one step more...the priority within each of these groups is decided based on time of check-in. So if my flight is at 10:23pm on Tuesday, I will make sure I'm on a computer ready to check-in for my flight at 10:23pm on Monday. The earlier you check in...the higher you'll be in priority within your little sub group! Again, this is just for my airline, I know others do it differently. 

Okay so hopefully everything is making sense so far. I'm just going to through an example for what happens when they load the flight! Say one flight has 10 available seats, and 12 people on the standby list. The gate agents will call for passengers in the order they have on the list. Starting with any revenue passengers, then D1's, then D2's (this is usually the largest group), D3's, etc. until the plane is full. If there are seats open in first class they will usually go to the employees who listed themselves for any class rather than the revenue passengers since the revenue passengers didn't pay for first class. But they will always give you a choice of seats when possible, so if they have an aisle and a window open, they'll ask what you prefer. They're normally really good about accommodating requests when possible!

When you get to the gate you'll almost always see a screen with the standby list, and once you clear the flight you'll have a check mark by your name. Sometimes you'll see someone BELOW you clear the flight before you, and the reason for this 90% of the time is that they are qualified to jump seat. Jumpseat? I don't know on that spelling but regardless, there are some seats on the plane that can only be utilized by qualified and trained airline personnel. This basically just includes pilots and flight attendants. Since I'm not qualified to jumpseat, a flight attendant who checked in after me could make it on the flight before me and take that seat.

Example for what the standby list might look like:

Revenue

1. Smith, J
2. Smith, L

Non-Revenue

      3. Smith, S

      4. Smith, K

      5. Smith, R

So in this case they would first call whoever J. Smith is, J. Smith goes up to get their new boarding pass and seat assignment, and they continue down the list until the flight is full or the standby list is cleared. 

Flying into Queenstown, New Zealand

Okay now on the costs! Again, can't say this enough, this varies by airline. For my airline, I fly free everywhere domestic, and I'm pretty sure Canada and Mexico might be free as well...I haven't tried to list for those before so not entirely sure on that one though. My registered companion is also technically free for domestic flights but I have to pay taxes on her flight out of my paycheck. My parents pay a small amount for domestic flights, and my D3's AKA friends and other family pay a little more. Some numbers for you on a nonstop flight August 17-20 to New York from Los Angelos would be as follow: 

• My registered companion or spouse and myself are free for both first class and main cabin.
• Parents: $137.70 roundtrip first class per person, $63.10 roundtrip main cabin per person.
• Friends and other family (D3): $312.50 roundtrip first class per person, $237.90 roundtrip main cabin per person.

These costs will differ by location and time of year, but that's a domestic example. International flights are a little different; employees DO have to pay for these flights, but it's a very small amount. Apparently it's basically paying the airport taxes of the international airport or something like that. Here's an example for flying nonstop to London, England from Chicago, roundtrip, August 15-21. I don't have my parents passport info on my account yet, so I can't tell you what they would cost but it would fall somewhere in between these two values!

• Employee/registered companion/spouse: $279.61 per person first class, $177.51 per person main cabin.
• D3: $671.81 per person first class, $469.71 per person main cabin.

Now let's look at the same dates, roundtrip, but nonstop from Chicago to Tokyo, Japan.

• Employee/registered companion/spouse: $40.21 per person both first class and main cabin.
• D3: $502.41 per person first class, $382.41 per person main cabin.

Finally, let's look at the same parameters but nonstop roundtrip Miami to Lima, Peru.

• Employee/registered companion/spouse: $62.36 per person both first class and main cabin. 
• D3: $432.38 per person first class, $338.36 per person main cabin.

Hopefully that gives you a helpful idea of what it costs to non-rev! For my airline I have to book the flights for me, my parents, my D3's, etc. through our employee website, and any costs would go onto my credit card. Nothing is charged until you clear a flight though, so you don't prepay anything. I know of at least one other airline that instead gives you a link or code from the employee and you would use that to book your own flight. Also, our employee website tells us how many open seats are on each flight so you have a good idea of whether or not you'll make a flight. All this makes it easy to list for multiple flights on different days and you have the flexibility to change them whenever you want or need! 

And that sums up non-revving pretty well! Well, hopefully. Hopefully this all made sense, I know it took me awhile to understand the whole non-rev process! I've non-revved a few times, and it's a STEEP learning curve. The first time I attempted to fly to Denver through Phoenix I didn't make a flight because it was spring training and the Phoenix flights were all full...(duh). A few weeks later I flew to Orlando through Phoenix and had no trouble getting on! So it all depends on timing and location.

That's all I have I think. So if you read travel blogs or follow travelers on social media and are curious as to how they afford to travel, or what this non-rev business they refer to is...there you go! The main benefit to working in the travel industry in my opinion!