10 Tips for Nonreving

Remember that old Kenny Rogers song "The Gambler"  Know when to Hold 'Em, Know when to Fold 'Em, that could be a nonrev song. You have to know when to try and when its not worth it.  A recent news story today got me thinking about nonreving.  So I thought I'd share my tips from the past 12 years.



1) Take the First Flight of the Morning
I can't say this enough or often enough.  Sure you want to sleep in, but do you want to get to where you are trying to go?  Or is sleeping more important? If you answered sleeping, nonreving might not be for you.  You always take the first flight of the morning (see I said it again) even if it looks bad you have the potential of paying pax oversleeping, this means more seats for you!  Also guess what happens to those later flights you wanted to take so you could sleep?  The pax that overslept that first flight....are all on the later flights...in front of you.

2) Be Nice to the Gate Agents
This is really a tie with #1.  These are the gate keepers to your beloved flight.  Yes, yes, but they are mean and unreasonable (not everyone is nice) but ultimately it doesn't matter.  As my mom would say "Life isn't fair."  Weather they are nice or not they decide the fate of your flight.  98% of gate agents are nice (if not a little stressed) but there are some that are clearly having bad days.  This is really of no difference to you, you treat them all the same.  You treat them as nicely as possibly,  the words "I'm sorry" "Thank you so much" "I appreciate it" are all phrases you should use.  It doesn't matter if the gate agent is a fire eating dragon munching on a small child behind the desk, you are still nice.  Never lose your cool or start yelling, besides not getting anywhere, you're libel to get your nonrev privileges revoked.  Even if they are doing something clearly wrong and screwing you, there is not a lot you can do, remember you are riding for free...or close to it.
Example: I once had a gate agent (on a flight that had 25 empty seats left) not call any nonrev's.  There were about 15 of us standing there waiting.  Not one of us moved, even when she said final call for boarding.  One poor guy who clearly hadn't ever nonreved before finally approached her with his security document and must have said something like "Is this the right flight?"  She went ballistic.  Like nuclear ballistic.  "You are a nonrev, that is NOT a ticket, I will give you a ticket if there is room, you need to wait over there."  Should she have been awful? No.  Am I glad that guy took one for the team? You bet, she didn't seem as if she would let us on until he walked up.  Would that have been me? Heck no.  I didn't want her saying I was rude and having my privileges revoked.

3) Have a Plan A, B, C, D, E, and F for FUN
Have as many plans as you need to get there.  Dh and I were going from Chicago to San Francisco one time and we went from Chicago to Kansas City to San Diego to San Francisco.  Yes it took forever BUT we got there.  Also learn when its in your best interest to do this.  Sure we could have waited a few hours in Chicago to see if we got on the direct flight to Oakland BUT it would have been close and if we would not have made it we would have been screwed and not gotten there at all.  Sometimes it's worth it to 3 leg it to make sure you get there.  Also look for alternative routes, I once flew from Houston to Milwaukee instead of into Chicago....gotta do what you gotta do.

4) If You Have to be Somewhere Don't Nonrev
This is what money is for.  If you have to be somewhere (wedding, cruise, etc) please buy a ticket.  Heck go on a cruise and listen to people talk who did buy tickets, its not always guaranteed then.  I have heard stories of weather, and maintenance issues from people who almost didn't make their cruise.  My caveat is, if you want to go two days before then go ahead and try to nonrev...you have time.

5) Pack Lightly
I can't say this enough...for the love of god, DON'T check a bag if you are going somewhere.  As a nonrev if they lose your bag you may never see it again. Also, think about this, if you decide to fly into Milwaukee instead of Chicago your bag is still going to go to Chicago or vise versa.  If you need to check a bag you need to buy a ticket.  My one caveat(again) to this is when we went to Japan with just carry on's, we returned with two checked bags.  One of our carry on's broke and we bought a ton of souvenirs.  IF you are going to check a bag, check it on the way home.

6) Be Prepared to Sleep in Airports
Not much to explain here, every year we add a new one to the list.  We've slept in quite a few most notable are: Midway, Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, Kona (in Kona we bought a ticket!).  As I have gotten older I am more willing to pay for a hotel for 4 hours than sleep in an airport, esp if I want to be presentable the next day to nonrev.

7) Be Flexible
IMO this is a must.  You really can't expect to fly out to Las Vegas on Friday and fly back on Sunday.  There are wayyyy too many paying passengers, you won't make it.  Not to say you can't do it, I have done it twice, BUT I also understood and planned for not returning on Sunday.  One of my first nonreving experiences was doing this exact trip, but at the time I didn't know better and let dh (boyfriend) at the time plan it.  Big mistake esp since I had to be at work on Monday.  I ended up calling in sick and also learned a valuable lesson.

8) What (Not) to Wear?
So I'm not going to say much about this, at this point everyone has heard about United and their buddy pass dress code I'm sure.  I'm only going to say, if you look at the dress code and think something you're wearing *might* be questionable your best bet is to change so they actually let you on the plane.

9) Expect the Unexpected
Storms happen, mechanicals happen, aircraft swaps happen.  All of these and more may screw up your nonrev plans please refer to #7.

10) Be Grateful
Always be nice, pleasant, and grateful.  Always remember no matter how bad it is, you could always be the person on the outside looking in wishing you had nonrev benefits.

Tag Team

So what's it really like when both you and your spouse are in the airline industry?  This is a great example of our tag team day(s).  We are extremely lucky that my mom watches our dogs/cats and even horses, but we don't want to burn her out, so when we can we do "tag teaming."

My day started at 0200 (2am).  Surprisingly I woke up feeling decent, super early shows are always hit or miss depending on how well I sleep the night before, we'd gone to bed at 9 and it seemed to have paid off.  I leave dh sleeping as he is on reserve and starts at 0800 (8am).  I go out to feed the horses (yes they hate me) sometimes breakfast is at 2 sometimes its at 9. Since I need to leave the house about 3ish I won't be turning the horses out before I leave, I'll let dh learn that fun chore is for him later.  So I go slogging (because all it has done is rain the last few days) through my mud soaked horse field throwing flakes of hay out for them to eat once dh turns them out.  I take about 6 steps carrying half a bale of hay when I realize my boot got stuck in the mud somewhere behind me and I'm bootless.  Perfect way to start the day as I stagger back to get it I fall over sideways because my one remaining boot has falling victim to what I am coining "quick mud."  At any rate I manage to get the hay out and get back to the house.  Getting ready to go,  let the dogs out, throw my stuff in the car, at this point dh is kind of awake so I tell him he has to let the horses out before he leaves, hope he has fun!

Driving to work I decide to skip DD (dunkin donuts) this is clearly the downward tuning point of my day.  Stupid me at 3:30 in the morning thinking, I can wait to get some coffee on the plane.  At any rate I still feel pretty awake by the time I check in.  As I sit there updating some app on my ipad I've never used but someone thinks I need, I begin to think skipping the coffee was a bad idea.  I feel like this update is taking forever, my email says it should take 10 min, last time it said that it took 30.  While I am desperately waiting for the update, I decide to stop at McDonalds to grab coffee because I'd clearly done something bad in my last life and my flight leaves out of the gate as far away as possible.  I try to turn this into a positive because now I have to walk by a McDonalds so I could still salvage this with coffee.  Stand in line for 10 min and still get to the gate early.  From here on things run ok, boarding, take off, etc.  I get to the back and go to grab my coffee, only to find that its fallen over in the cubby and the cup is floating in the coffee that it once contained. For the second time before dawn I regret my decision not to stop and DD.

My first flight of the morning reminded me of being in a washing machine, for 2+ hours, this did not bode well for the rest of the day, since the next two flights were basically along the same path we were on now. Perfect.  We land late, I check my texts see that dh is headed to the airport for an 1100 flight, which will work out great.  He texts me he let the dogs out about 0830 so they will be fine until I get home about 1430 (2:30pm).

On my next flight I realize that I didn't eat my yogurt that I threw in a ziplock with ice.  Which is great, I'm glad I have it! Until I open it, when realize its 8 hours after I put in the ziplock which now has warm water in it, blah!  Oh well I can stand to skip a meal, into the trash my breakfast goes apparently it wanted to join my coffee.  Other than that the flights are uneventful (besides being bumpy) and we land early!  I even manage to run and get catch the bus to my car right before it leaves.  Then I get to my car, and I can't find my keys, of course.  So I proceed to pull everything out of my huge tote to dig for the keys, which I finally find after I dump everything out...on the wet grass.  At least I found them right?

On the way home I stop and grab some food for lunch, since I've now been up for 12 hours and haven't had anything to eat. As I turn on the street my house is on I realize its Saturday, and I start swearing, a lot.  Saturday is dumpster day, and unless a miracle occurred I was betting dh hadn't realized  that either.  I pull in the garage and look out back to make sure dh actually did let the horses out, change, and inhale my lunch.  I check dh's schedule to see where he is and what he's doing.  Turns out he has a two day and gets back at midnight (actually  0100) the next day.  I immediately start digging through his contract because that trip then runs into his day off, I'm trying to see what the options are or if its legal (at my airline its not).  But apparently someone was smoking crack when they wrote the last contract because there's some weird caveat that actually 0200 is considered the next day not midnight, say what??

Anyway I figure since dh is gone it's time to finish putting the Christmas decorations away, if I wait for him to do it, it will never get done, and if we do it together I might kill him. I happily put decorations away (not really I hate it) but since I'm trying to decide if I want to pick up a turn in the morning no booze for me.  This fact is making me more sad as I drag Christmas boxes to the basement, you see we have baby gates that I can't get the stupid big boxes through so I have to drag them out the front door, through the garage, back into the house and down to the basement, starting to think a glass of bubbly would be great right now!  After this fun I go let the horses in and face my fate of a full dumpster.  Then a miracle occurred, I opened the dumpster and it was empty!  My awesome garbageman had rolled my dumpster out, emptied it and rolled it back, I was so happy I could cry.

By the time I get back inside dh has called me, and he's now 2-3? hrs late and stuck in an airport I'm very familiar with.  So I excitedly tell him where to eat because a new restaurant had opened that day which was the highlight of everyone I know that is based there.  And this, this is our excitement. He finally leaves on his last leg while I clean the house.  Its a lot of give and take and planning sometimes to make our schedules work but totally worth it!

Why I won't fly Allegiant

I normally love to watch "Air Disaster" and any show like that.  However as I turned it on this morning to watch while I ate breakfast I was greeted with the Alaska Airlines Flight 261episode.  I lost my appetite.  You see the reason I did is because dh used to work for an airline, that had more than 4 issues with jack screws on elevators (which was the cause of the Alaska Crash).  Many of these shows I find interesting, this one I found scary because of the similarities of his previous employer.  Unlike Alaska who I am pretty sure given their safety record since then seems to have learned their lesson, pretty sure dhs previous employer has not as evidenced by this article .

Sure I have heard people say its fine and that the press over blows everything .  I'm sorry, dh worked there for three years and was in the safety department for some of that time, I would never set foot on one of their planes, not at least until their CEO is fired or leaves.  You see company safety culture comes from the top down.  Everyone wants to believe that the airlines would never put you in danger but that's not quite the truth.  There is a matrix of risk vs profit.  Most airlines are smart and make this a small percentage.  However some airlines want to make a larger percent on the profit side, which means cutting corners and sweeping things under the rugs.  This is the reason dh is no longer at his previous employer, because no matter how loudly he and others he worked with demanded change in maintenance and safety no one higher up would allow changes to be made.

You may wonder if things are so bad why hasn't the FAA done anything about it.  Well to be honest the FAA is more reactionary than anything else.  Take for instance Value Jet  this airline (scary enough the CEO at Allegiant was at Value Jet) had many big problems before its final crash. Only after the crash did the FAA pull their ticket.

I'm not saying don't fly them, I can't tell you what to do, or what not to do, god knows as long as people save $10 they will fly on a winged elephant.  I'm simply telling you as a pilots wife, why I will not fly them.

Trading Places

So as the wife of a pilot I often hear (and even have said) some of the things I have learned in my last few months of what I call trading places.  While dh had been out with a knee replacement I started traveling a lot.  Let me say it’s a totally different perspective when you’re the one doing the traveling. 

I never understood why dh didn’t always want to hop in a plane and go somewhere on his days off.  Of all the things this is the one that flabbergasted me the most.  I mean free flights, why not go?  I however totally get it now (as does dh from my perspective).  We wanted to go somewhere when I had a few weeks off and he kept asking me where.  As he had been stuck at home for two months doing not a lot (other than pt) but I was so tired I just didn’t care, I didn’t want to be near and airport or a plane or any of that hassle. I finally told him if we were going somewhere he better plan it because I was incapable.  That was a total eye opener; I would still rather drive to Michigan than fly to Denver. I’m trying hard to put my finger on why I don’t like it, I think it’s because I only have a few days off and I don’t want to spend them hanging around an airport trying to get somewhere. So the next time your dh drags his feet about going somewhere I promise it’s a real thing and has nothing to do with you!

Going out with the crew.  This tends to be a big issue for a lot of couples.  Dh and I have never had a problem with this, but I see a lot of pilots wives post about it.  In all honesty (unless you have a party animal for a husband) it’s pretty low key, either dinner in the hotel restaurant or somewhere close by.  It’s also the same conversations a lot of the time, where do you live? Where are you based? Do you have kids? All the normal type questions.  Then it usually turns to union and work.  Also in no way shape or form should this “free time” be construed as replacing time with family, kids, etc.  Sure occasionally you do get a crew that goes and does something fun, but you have to remember their still at work, it’s never as fun as if their family would be there instead of the crew.  Honestly I’m grateful for anyone who goes out, it helps the time pass and does form a comradery with the crew.

Another big complaint I see is, they get to sleep in and in a hotel room, with no distractions (which I used to think was amazing!).   Now I , truly hate hotels (I’m betting most crews do).  See here’s what (most) hotels do, they have certain rooms that are “crew rooms” they use every night for crews.  This means they don’t really clean them, and I’m talking nice hotels too…Sheraton…Marriott…etc.  If the sheets are pretty maybe the change them maybe they don’t’.  Also that “quiet” you think your dh is getting, isn’t real.  As I sit here and type no less than 3 times has someone knocked on my door, even though the “do not disturb” sign is out.  Because if your dh checks out after normal check out hours, their screwed, and if you leave your room always take an id. If you leave after the normal check out time 9 times out of 10 the key won’t work.

So overall that “fun” you think your dh is having isn’t always fun.

DOJ vs Airlines

                  Look its a price gouging airliner, quick get the pitch forks!



So this bugs me a lot.  That the DOJ is calling out the airliners This bugs me for a few reasons.

First of all they (DOJ)  deregulated the airlines in the 70's, which means they can't tell them what to do now, unless of course they want to re-regulate (is that a word?).

Second I don't think ticket prices are that high.  When I can buy a ticket on SWA for under $100 for a trip that would take me 16 hours to drive I'm pretty sure I am getting the better deal.

I will be interested to see how this plays out after all the DOJ is the one that approved the big 3 mergers.

Vacation and Meldowns

 We went to the Lawn Club on our cruise and we (my dad and I) got to cook with the chef's!  It was great fun!

So the intention today was to catch up with a post about our awesome vacation, which has been overshadowed by the need to touch on the giant meltdown at dh's airline.  So it seems dh's airlines crappy management has caught up with itself ie: chronic under staffing of everyone, FA's, dispatch, schedulers pilots (to some extent) and of course outsourcing the gate agents.  Turns out you can only beat people so much before they rebel or in this case quit (dispatch).

Their convoluted hiring of FA's has screwed them as well (also the fact that the FA's have gone 8 years without a contract).  Take for instance my good friend named "Pam."  Pam went to an open house to be a FA, she would have been great; she's a great person, who is upbeat and nurse!  So she sent her resume in and got a call!  She was planning on going to the job fair in Dallas (which they were hiring for that base) so imagine her surprise and displeasure when the email said that she needed to go to LAS job fair and interview!  This was approx a week before the LAS job fair and she couldn't get the time off, much less pay for a last minute r/t ticket there, not as if they would get her out there for the interview.  So they lost an excellent potential FA because of stupid paperwork snaffu's like this, take this an multiple it, now you have a problem.

The airline is trying to grow, I understand that, but you have to have support staff to do that, you can't grow pinching pennies it's not as if the airline couldn't afford it.  So now in the heart of the meltdown, our esteemed (sarcasm) MEC has told the company that in order to "get the airline back on track"  the pilots will happily ignore the contract, fly more that it allows, and for no extra pay.  You can imagine that hasn't gone over well, especially in this house!  I am completely astounded the MEC would decide this, management needs to be held accountable for their penny pinching, short sightedness.  Telling them we will happily break the contract for them is only enabling them.  The MEC also used the veiled threat of "if we don't help the airline it  will be in real trouble"  ie: you might need a new job.  Fine so be it, let the airline fold (I doubt it will) when issues like this happen and the MEC folds it just lowers the bar across the board for all airlines.

Why Allegiant Matters

So if you may think the Allegiant (potential) strike doesn't effect you, and you'd be wrong.  In this industry (as someone said) nothing happens in a vacuum.  Whatever happens to Allegiant will indirectly effect you at your company.  For instance dh's' airline is starting (soon) contract negations no doubt that since Allegiants pay and benefits are substandard they will use them as a comparison of a competitors airline's pay and benefits.  This is not helpful to dh's contract negotiations, or any other airline, as the lowest common denominator always drags down the average.  This is why everyone should be behind a pilot group when they strike.

What is Allegiant striking for?  Well the recent one that is going to court on Friday is what is called a "Status Quo" strike. Right now Allegiant pilots are just trying to get the company to honor the work rules they have, "to maintain status quo"   The judge ruled last year that the company had to maintain status quo and put things back they way they were (scheduling, and disability were the big issues) but so far the company hasn't, hence the strike for "Status Quo."   Yes Allegiant does have to follow the RLA (Railroad Labor Act) and no, no airline has ever struck for status quo, but railroad workers have, so it's not an illegal strike.  It would however be a first for the airline industry.  Why has no airline ever struck for status quo?  Because no airline management has every been greedy or ignorant enough to not follow the work rules they agreed to, to the extent that Allegiant has.  So if you see an Allegiant pilot give them your support!

Disney for DINKS: Childfree and Disney Lovers!

                     Yes it is Christmas, but no kids hiding anywhere!

So there is no surprise to those of you that know us, we LOVE Disney.  

We often get questions about it.  Why go to Disney without kids?  Is it really that much fun if you don't have kids? Yes, Yes, and Yes to any other question you can think to ask.  When dh was based in Florida we had annual passes and used them often, this year sadly we let them expire, though I am guessing we will get them again in the future. I thought since we love Disney and have been so much I would do a series of blogs about them from our point of view, without kids.  A lot of the information isn't necessarily "dink" (Double Income No Kids) or "child free," after all you are at Disney, but I do add in tips geared toward adults.  This is the first blog in the series and will cover hotels, not too exciting but it's info you need to know.


So if you stay "on property" at a Disney Resort and are flying in you get to use the free Magical Express Bus that runs from MCO (Orlando International) to the various Disney Resorts.  Also you get extra magic hours that are only for guests staying on property.  Disney has, more or less, three levels of resorts.  They call them Value, Moderate, and Deluxe. The also have a Campground and "Super Deluxe Villas."

Let's start with the Value hotels.  The name says it all, nothing fancy, the rooms have a small fridge in them, but other than that they are a basic generic hotel room.  All the different levels of resorts have pools, however, the pools at the Value level have a lot left to be desired.  They are of course nice and clean, after all it is Disney, but they remind me of a sea of concrete, they have some umbrella's and chairs but nothing to really write home about. The Value resorts all have a food court in them, much like the food court at your mall, your options run from pizza, to sandwich's,burgers, salads, and chicken.  Nothing really exciting but it's a step above McDonald's, plus they do have cans of beer and small bottles of wine.  The Value Resort buses are usually pretty busy too, it seems like they always have a long line at the end of the night.

Now to the Moderate Resorts, this is my favorite level of resort.  It is (of course) a little more expensive but well worth it in my book.  The rooms are slightly nicer and the grounds are a lot nicer, more tree's and more of an ambiance. This ambiance carries through to (most) of the pools, my favorite pool of any of the resorts we have stayed at is the Port Orleans Riverside pool.  It's wonderful, lots of trees and shade if you want it, a nice bar almost on the water, they even have a slide which my husband loves, as well as hot tubs! The Moderate Resorts all have a food court similar to Value Resorts but they also have a nicer sit down restaurant and bar as well.  Buses still seem busy at the end of the night, the big drawback to a larger Moderate Resorts is that they have a lot of bus stops within the resort, so it seems to take forever to get out of the resort itself.

Lastly on to the Deluxe Resorts, now we have only been lucky enough to stay at a Deluxe Resort once (Boardwalk) for two nights before they cancelled hubby's crew discount.  Deluxe Resorts are way to expensive for us, but that doesn't stop us from walking around them and going to the bars!  The room at Boardwalk was amazing.  Amazing.  It had a balcony, and a kitchen, it was the best room we have ever stayed at in the park.  On the flip side we were there so little I wouldn't spend that kind of money for a room like that again, unless of course you aren't going to the parks for a few days and want to enjoy the resort, which is also totally fine.  The pool was great, it also had a slide and a bar, though I still liked Port Orleans pool better, but none the less still very nice. Also the restaurants around there (Boardwalk) are great, they have The Big River Grille and Brewing Works.  This is of my favorite restaurants anywhere on Disney property, the price is good as is the food, and of course the beer!  While we haven't stayed at the Polynesian we love the Kona Cafe for breakfast, it seems like all the Deluxe Resorts we have visited have some great restaurants.  The one big plus of the Deluxe Resorts is proximity.  Most of them are very conveniently located to one park or another and actually within walking distance to some parks, so it does save a lot of time waiting around for the bus.


Now there are two hotels I haven't mentioned, The Swan and The Dolphin.  They are Disney Hotels but don't fall under their normal "Resort Categories."  Price wise they fall between Moderate and Deluxe. I haven't ever stayed at them as they book up early, so I can't comment too much on them, only that I would love to stay at them as they are super convenient to EPCOT which is one of my favorite parks.  So if you have a chance I would certainly stay at either one.

*Disney Resorts do not have that annoying resort fee that so many others are adding these days.

Now for the off property options, you can stay off property but close at the Downtown Disney hotels or you can stay far off property.

Downtown Disney hotels are mostly convenient and it's not even necessary to have a car as you can take a shuttle from the airport to the hotel for $25 pp each way.  They also offer more dining options as it's a quick walk to Downtown Disney with all the restaurants they have to offer.  For the really ambitious you can even walk about 2/3 mile down the street to the shopping plaza where there is a grocery store, McDonald's, BW3, Pizza Hut, and various other chain restaurants which do help the budget.  The Downtown Disney hotels have a wide range of pricing; there is a Best Western, but also a Hilton, all within walking distance to Downtown Disney.  However as a side note if you rent a car most of these hotels charge you to park, and also have resort fee's.

Now for the real off property hotels

These run from scary cheap hotels to super nice Sheraton's and condos.  We have stayed at all of the above, my feeling is if you're committed to staying off property you should just go as cheap as you can stomach since you are already paying for a car.  Also beware the resort charge, I hate them but they are becoming more and more common, so that room you think is $50 is really $70 after the "resort fee."

Now for a few "adult" suggestions .  I would say unless you really love kids shy away from the Disney Value Resorts. Nothing against them, I've stayed there many times as they are cheap, but they kind of have that Chucky Cheese feel to them, loose children everywhere and the only place to eat is the food court, no bar to escape too! Overall I would recommend a Disney Moderate Resort or a Downtown Disney Hotel.  These seem to be the best compromise of price and quality, along with more adult entertainment.  For instance Port Orleans French Quarter has a jazz bar, and downtown Disney has some pretty good bars my favorite being Raglan Road which is an Irish bar. Downtown Disney also stays open later and is pretty nice at night after most of the kids go to bed.  If you have the extra money I would of course recommend the Deluxe Resorts and their Super Deluxe Villas.  These are always almost close to a least one park, have some of the best restaurants, pools and even bars.  I heard a rumor that the renovation at the Polynesian will include a Trader Sams type bar like the one in California, which was amazing and probably deserves it's own blog!

Next time I will cover the "Holy Grail" aka The Magic Kingdom, until then, Whistle while you work!

Nonreving Fun

                                 Our successful nonrev trip to Japan!



So the airlines try to sell nonreving as a "'perk" of working for them, in fact the regional dh worked at told them it was worth $10,000 a year. I would have rather had them pay him the extra $10,000 to be honest, it would have been more useful.  For non-aviation folks nonreving means non-revenue passenger, it is flying standby if there is a seat available.  Airlines have different agreements with other airlines regarding this, at dh's airline I can fly on them and also pay taxes (plus some) to fly on other airlines.  Weather I fly on dh's airline or a different one it is still standby, seat available.

So lets start out with this, nonreving is not for the faint of heart.   When you nonrev you are last to get on, heck I have had some gate agents send me down to the plane when they aren't even sure there is even a seat left, only to have to walk back up when everyone shows up.  You also stand the chance of being treated like crap by the gate agents.  Now as a paying passenger you're probably sitting there saying they treat everyone like that, which might be true.  The difference is that you (as a paying passenger) can complain or at least be mad about being treated like crap, where as I (when a gate agents screams at me, yes it's happened) has to stand there and smile and say "I'm sorry."  Even though I'm not sure what I did and I'm sure not sorry, because if the gate agent reports to the company that I was a rude/angry/pita, in anyway we would lose our pass travel privileges and dh could lose his job.  So that's the downside, dealing with unpleasant gate agents, and not knowing if you are going to make your flight, hard to plan a vacation that way.

So the perks when they work are fantastic.  We just got back from an awesome whirlwind trip to Japan, courtesy of nonreving.  The flip side is that we didn't know we were going for sure until we got on the plane, which makes it hard to plan but thankfully our friends who we were visiting understood.  It also meant that we had to adjust our travel day once (or twice) but it all worked out. The key with nonreving is Flexibility..  If we hadn't made the flight we had a backup, and we had a backup to location.  If we couldn't go to Japan we would have gone to Europe or Hawaii, or really where ever there were empty seats.  Flexible.

    Our less than successful trip to Frankfort for Christmas Markets...but a lot of FUN!

The key with nonreving (besides Flexible) is fun! Honestly that's the best way to look at it.  One of the most fun nonrev trips I have done was to Disney World for Mickey's Christmas Party with our friends.  Originally we were all going to meet in Frankfort, but because of the Lufthansa strike dh and I couldn't get there.  So we all changed courses and headed to Orlando for some Disney Fun!  Even getting to Florida was a bit of a challenge for dh and I, when we walked into Midway it was chaos due to weather.  So instead of going to Orlando we went to Tampa and drove over, I booked the car when we were walking down the jet bridge! Again Flexible.

The honest truth is if you can't be flexible and have to be someone where, or if you don't want to deal with crappy gate agents and middle seats, buy a ticket.  I have bought tickets in the past and actually have some for later this year, if its a strict timeline and super important then buy a ticket.  Nonreving is not for events where you have to be there.  For instance I will buy a ticket to get on the cruise and nonrev home, I for sure don't want to miss the cruise but don't mind if I sit for a day (or two) in the airport on the way home. 

So happy travels no matter where you end up!!

"You must always be able to predict what's next and then have the flexibility to evolve."
Marc Benioff

A Tale of Two Perspectives

,                                                Perspective






Perspective is something I think is important to have in the aviation industry. Everyone has a different path in this industry, some come from military background, some go to college specifically to be an airline pilot, there are many paths to being an airline pilot.  With each path each pilot has taken comes perspective.
There is no "wrong" path be becoming a pilot, where people run into a problem is that they believe that their perspective is the only one. 

In this industry luck truly is 90% of when/where you get hired, the other 10% (I would say) is networking.  Since luck does play such a huge part in your career trajectory, people who have been lucky lack perspective on what happens to the less fortunate.  This doesn't make them bad people, but they also aren't necessarily people want to talk/work with. 

A Tale of Two Perspectives

For example dh flew with a CA (we will call him Bob)a few months ago that he has become friends with, he is younger than dh (that gets more and more common these days) but he was a great guy, I even got to meet him once when I was non-reving!  Bob is great and very down to earth, easy to get along with, and understands that nothing in this industry is a given.  Bob was furloughed from his regional and was lucky to get hired on where is now currently and upgrade relatively early in his career.

Now onto CA Jack (again not real name), Jack is also younger (younger than Bob even) Jack got hired here when he was 22.  Jack isn't a bad guy (hey he bought everyone coffee!) but lacks the perspective of a hard airline career.  Jack tends to think every one can do what he did in their career and doesn't understand how someone can be 40, have a masters, and still only be an FO.  Jack can't understand this because Jack's never had anything bad happen in his career, he lacks perspective, and to be honest acts entitled.  This comes across when talking to him in his attitude.

Honestly though age has not much to do with perspective, it seems life experiences are much more of an indication on this.  I have met some really great down to earth guys in the industry that are in their mid to late twenties, these are almost always the guys who have been either A) furloughed or B) worked at an airline that went bankrupt.  These guys pass no judgement on anyone, after all they understand the instability of the industry and the way it works.  I have also met 40+ year olds who act/sound immature because they have been lucky in their career and don't understand why everyone doesn't just do what they did.  Then there are the guys who have been lucky and they know it, these guys are great, no condescending remarks and comments about how "easy" they have had it.

I *might* be biased but dh has a pretty good attitude about his career.  He's been through a furlough, a fake flow through, his regional being sold, and he still loves his career and won't even consider doing something else besides flying, trust me I've tried.  But recently he's gotten really down on himself and his career, this has something to do with his very sad W-2, but also he's flown with a few guys recently who have been the lucky ones and lack perspective, and think that everyone should have done what they did.  These aren't the people anyone wants to fly with, so even if you don' have perspective have some understanding that perhaps not everyone is as lucky as you.

Rich Pilot, Poor Pilot

                                          At least it is a nice view


Thanks to 9/11 and all the ensuing bankruptcies there are very few "rich" pilots save for some southwest guys who got good stock options back in the day.  Contrary to popular belief airline pilots are not swimming in money and lighting hundred dollar bills in the cockpit while your stuck in the back.

I know every single one of you who isn't in the aviation industry will google this as soon as you read this so let me help you Now the next thing your going to do is say the average is $98,000, that seems pretty good, and it is pretty good.  I for one would be ecstatic if dh made that a year.  However after 14 years as an airline pilot that's not what he's making, not even close.  Remember that $98,000 is the average which means that half make more and half make less.

 I'm sure at this point if you're not in aviation you're thinking to yourself so get another job that pays better, after all dh has been flying for 14 years he should be able to "move up the ladder" so to speak.  I certainly wish this was true.  In fact dh has had 3 different airline jobs, but you see at the airlines unlike most other jobs your past experience doesn't count for jack shit, it only helps you to get an interview.  Since dh has flown the 757 you would think that maybe he could go to United/Delta/FedEx who all fly 757 and say "I have X number of hours flying this plane and I was an instructor on it. I also have my masters in Aviation Safety, I am worth X number of dollars so that's what you will pay me."  However it doesn't work like that, the experience gets you the interview and maybe the job but that's where your useful experience ends. If you are hired you are placed in seniority order from date of hire, below everyone already hired, no matter if you have experience or not. Along with this every airline you start with places you on first year pay regardless of experience. So the philosophy of "moving up the ladder" doesn't work so well in the airline world.


Now you might be ok with your pilot making almost $100,000 a year which is fine but then think about getting on a flight where the pilot makes $15,000 for the year, still feel as comfortable?  True all pilots have the same standard FAA training BUT  I bet you that guy making $15,000 is more stressed.  At some point in everyone's life (well most everyone) you've had a crappy McDonald's type job that paid this, but it was probably when you were in high school, and maybe college.  Not when you are 40 and trying to figure out how to pay a mortgage and feed your family.  So you do what almost all pilots do (besides load up on credit card debt), you go cheap whenever you can ie: load up on free breakfast from the hotel.  Being the poor pilot you are you will stash away some of your breakfast and eat it for the rest of the day, you can't afford to buy anything else if you are only taking home $15,000 a year.  I know that dh has many times only eaten yogurt and a can of cold ravioli all day (or ramen) in order to cut costs.

Only a small percentage of your plane ticket actually goes to paying for the pilot. While this chart is about 7 years old the numbers have not changed much.  So on average you are paying $3.72 per hour of your flight toward pilot pay.  Say you are on a two hour flight only $7.44 of your ticket goes to pay your pilot.  Doesn't seem like a lot now does it?  The rest goes toward; fuel, maintenance, insurance, and of course greedy airline CEO's.

Real poor pilot examples; dh and two other new hires at his airline compare W-2's.  One made $35,400, one made $25,300 and dh made almost exactly $26,000.  That is total, not take home.  Dh took home almost exactly $10,000 for the year. For flying an airbus full of people, with his 14 years of experience and his masters degree.  This number isn't sad, its pathetic. This is why I get so upset when people say pilots are rich, yes some are well off, but  some are barely scarping by.  Think about that next time you get on a plane.

Mythical Pilot Shortage

                                    Somewhere out there....is a pilot shortage.

                                       


You know that old saying "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."  This can be true of applying at airlines to, it never fails to amaze me the number of people who will only apply at certain airlines.  If you are that desperate to get out of your current job, why would you not apply everywhere (that would be a step up) and hope for the best.

Honestly the whole "pilot shortage" is not every really going to happen at the major level, its just not.  As the majors retire the boomers they will shrink the airline, farming more out to regionals and code sharing with other carriers.  Yes they will have to hire some but it's not going to be in the huge numbers that people are expecting. So why would you limit yourself to just one airline?

Lets play the numbers game shall we?  So I just added up the number of pilots of 4 large regionals this is about 14,000 pilots (numbers from apc).  Going by the numbers that people have posted for hiring I would guess that maybe (if no unforeseen circumstances) the airlines (non-regional)will hire about 4000 people next year.  So you have about a 29% chance of being hired, remember your millage may vary as I only have numbers for 4 regionals and did not include hiring numbers from cargo companies.

The pilot shortage doesn't look so good when you and more than 14,000 of your closest friends are competing for 4,000 jobs. Its unfortunate but for right now it's the reality.  This means that unless you are happy staying at your regional and never moving on you need to apply everywhere.  Yes, everyone wants to go to Delta, the reality is they are only hiring around 1400 people this year out of more than 14,000.  And before everyone freaks out, I'm not saying it's not possible I'm saying it's not probable.  So unless you are happy staying at your regional (or wherever you are) apply everywhere.  Other wise please don't come crying to me about how much you hate your regional but have only applied to one airline.

* regionals used were XJT, SkyWest AE and Republic
*majors hiring numbers were from DAL UAL, AA, NKS F9, SWA, JB

The Truth About Training

Since dh just finished his annual pc (proficiency check) I thought this might be a good time to talk about training and how much it sucks for everyone.  I have been fortunate enough (haha) to have gone through 4 major training events with dh as well as all the yearly proficiency checks.  They all have sucked some more than others. See the truth about training and why its awful is this; in every training event their job is on the line. Period.  It's super stressful and they are not allowed to make ANY mistakes. ANY.  This makes for some super happy fun times but understandable so.

Now I'm sure your thinking well someone must fail training and they don't get fired so it's not as bad as you make it sound.  True some people do fail check rides and make mistakes, after all we are human.  And true these people (probably) won't lose thier jobs.  But what does happen is it goes into the pilots "Permanent record" at the FAA, which if he ever goes to apply at another airline for a job they can see that he has failed a check ride, so this failure will follow him and haunt him for the rest of his career. True people do get hired at airlines with failures BUT not often, and who wants to take that chance when there are a lot of people competing for a few jobs it's a detriment if you have a failure in your record.

So this is how we end up with super stressed pilots during training, and why I do everything I can to be nice and support dh during training, because short of his parents or sister dying I wouldn't tell him anything.  Dh who is normally a nice even keeled guy can be short, snippy and do things that baffle me during training.  I just take it in stride and put it down to stress. I also don't call dh during training at all, unless its me calling him to make sure he's awake. I let him call me when its convient for him to take a break, these are usually short converstaions.  I wouldn't want to disturb him while he is studying or if he is asleep, I want in no way shape or form want to be at fault and add stress to his training.

The 4 big Training Events:

Upgrade-  I had just met dh right before his upgrade at XJT.  Honestly this was the best training event I have been through with dh maybe because we were dating and not living together so I didn't get the full awfulness of it.

MD-80 new hire training - This was awesome it was over his birthday and Easter and our Anniversary.  How many holidays can you hit in one training event?  I did get him a card and sent it with him, for his birthday.  Didn't see him for Easter or our Anniversary, he called me on our anniversary but that's as much as a I got.  Also his favorite dog died during training and I didn't tell him until he got home.

757  training - As far as training goes this was great in dh's book, they used the United sims in Denver and it was very thorough dh was very happy with how well the training program worked.  However I ended up having kidney surgery while he was in training.  Then had complications and ended up in the hospital for 4 days while dh went back to training and I spent some quality time by myself in the hospital until my mom came to stay with me.  Once I was released from the hospital I flew home by myself (surgery was out of state) drove home from the airport 5 days after surgery picked up our dogs from the kennel and went back to taking care of our horses, all while dh was in training.

A320 training  - Hands down the worst more stressful training EVER. There were no big catastrophe like me having surgery or a dog dying, but due to Spirits super condensed training dh was a basket case.  The days were really long and then they had  minimum number of  days in the sim before the type ride. It was awful, it was beyond awful, I would have rather sat in the hospital by myself again.  They also kept changing things while they were in training so one day it would be one way, the next day it would be a different way.  I am extremely thankful to dhs sim partner they were both panicked so it worked well and they worked well together. It honestly got to the point where I didn't want to talk to him because he was making me panic!  Thankfully he and his sim partner passed but every year the pc is awful, just something we have become accustomed too.

You never know the true hell of training until you live through it, your hubby (or boyfriend) might be the nicest person in the world but put them in a training environment and they turn into a person who is unrecognizable to you, trust me this is normal.

One Year Ago Today!

One year ago I started on my bucket list run.  I had run 3 half marathons before signing up for the Dopey Challenge at Disney world.  It took place Thursday-Sunday, and was a 5K,10K, half, and full marathon, each day you ran a longer distance.  I had never run a marathon and to be honest had never really thought of running a marathon, that's a looonnngggg way, and with all my health problems I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it!  So this is mainly a blog in pictures. Enjoy!



 
 The most influential person in my running career Jeff Galloway.  I love him and his run/walk method it's what got me through the Challenge.  He was also very surprised to hear that in less than a year I went from running my first half marathon to doing the Dopey Challenge.



                     5K

 

                Pre-5K breakfast!

The volunteers were awesome!

Post 5K getting my wristband for Dopey

In Epcot after the 5K

                                                                       10K

                     On to the 10K!  This is probably the best picture I have out of any of the races.

                         The only picture I have of me crossing the finish line of any of the races.

                                                       2 down 2 to go!

                       Half Marathon


My warm-up before the half.

                                      Running the half, at least I still look happy!

                                              Stopped to take a picture with the VW

                                            Closest thing I could find to a pilot :)

 Finished the half, this was my least favorite race, I hated the course and it was hot and humid.

                                                            
                                                            Marathon Day!!

 Pre-marathon the big event, the breakfast of champions, donuts and diet coke

The castle

 

The traffic looked Awful!

The lurking buses waiting to sweep people.

The final three medals; Marathon, Goofy and Dopey.

A picture with all 6 medals!

                                                              Post Race Fun!

                                                  Post Race at Downtown Disney

Most everyone was wearing the Dopey medal, not me, my favorite was the Marathon Medal, still can't believe that I ran one!

                                 Great group of folks I met online that all did the Dopey.

                                                    Mickey Striking a pose with me!

                                                                 Thumbs up!

 
The Awesome medal hanger my Aunt made me.  It has all my Disney Medals on it, plus one of hubbys.


All in all it was a great experience and I loved it.  I think 2016 will be Dopey Part II for me, as this year it was impossible due to my kidney and hip surgery. I really thought I would only run one marathon so I could cross it off my bucket list, but Dopey has enticed me to try again, bring on 201^!