Express To Pay For Non-rev?

We at Mesa still haven't been given any information on this new policy. All I know is that it Must be changed. There is no way I can afford to pay $180-$200 a month to commute from CLT to PHL. Myself and the rest of the affiliate pilots are going to be forced to do things that we don't want to do to others to make sure adequate pressure us applied on "Dave" to make sure this gets changed. In the mean time this will just get really ugly and I will apologize for this. It is disgusting that "Dave" feels he needs to try and make a few bucks off people who are trying to help bring feed to his hubs. I can't even imagine what this will do to all the contract carriers flight attendants who have no ability to JS. If this ends up to be true, what a joke. -Cape :down: :down:
 
Yeah Cape, start a jumpseat war, another great idea from a mesa pilot. The only way to change this is to put pressure on your OWN companies to work out the issues with the USAirways Travel Department. Do you think that Dave just said one day "yeah, lets get MESA and all the other contractors!". I bet your buddy JO gave a big thumbs up to the idea. Think about it, this will probably force a lot of people to move to their base. Starting a jumpseat war will only make it more hard on yourself, not the mainliners or WO's.
 
That being the case, does the affiliates have the option to charge mainline US employees the same charge to fly on them? (PSA,Piedmont, etc;)
 
----what about furloghees and employees on leave status? all that is mentioned is active and retirees----Letter to Employees

November 24, 2003

Re: Employee Pleasure Travel
Dear Fellow US Airways Employee/Retiree:

After carefully evaluating our employee travel program, we have decided to continue to waive basic travel charges for active employees (and travel eligible family members) of US Airways and US Airways’ wholly-owned Express carriers, and for retirees (and their spouses or domestic partners) with twenty-five or more years of service.

We have made a few changes in the program for 2004. For those retirees with less than twenty-five years of service, we are changing from an optional term pass/service charge system to a service charge system. We have also simplified the domestic upgrade charge program, requiring a $20 fee regardless of the length of travel.

As of November 1 of this year, we have already begun an exciting new arrangement with Lufthansa Airlines, reflecting the benefits of our participation in the Star Alliance. Active and retired employees and their eligible family members can purchase ID95 reduced-rate tickets on Lufthansa. Eligible family members include spouses, children and dependents who meet eligibility requirements and are on the employee’s travel privilege. Domestic partners are also included in the new agreement, however they are eligible for ID90, and parents are eligible for ID75.

The changes that you'll be seeing, effective January 1, 2004, which continue to provide a highly competitive employee travel program, are as follows:

For retirees with less than 25 years of service, and for the dependents of other retirees, we will offer a Service Charge program only, thereby eliminating the Term Pass charge. Basically, this change means that you will only pay for travel when you travel. This change will provide better coverage of US Airways' costs for the employee travel program.
The Service Charge program will require a payment of $20 for one-way coach domestic travel and $40 for one-way coach international travel, plus applicable taxes. Retirees with less than 25 years of service, and the dependents of other retirees, will be responsible for these charges.
As they are today, all pass travelers will to be required to pay upgrade charges for travel in first or business class.
The domestic first class upgrade charge will be $20 per segment to all domestic destinations regardless of the number of miles, including Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, the Caribbean and Central America.
The upgrade charge to and from Europe will remain at $100 one-way.
The Registered Companion Program will be offered again to active single employees, but to avoid confusion with the Companion Pass program, its name will be changed to the Registered Guest program.
We will continue to offer the Companion Pass Program to both active and retired employees. Active employees will receive an allotment of eight companion passes and retirees will receive four.

We hope that you and your eligible family members will continue to enjoy travel on US Airways. Should you have any questions pertaining to the changes, please feel free to contact the Employee Travel Office at 1-800-872-4780, prompt 4 or dial-net 872-7421.


Sincerely,


John M. Hedblom
 
When employees reach thier one year furlough date thier travel shows as imputed income for tax purposes as domestic patners do- doesnt really add up to anything. This was announced last month in a letter to inactive employees..
 
DorkDriver said:
Yeah Cape, start a jumpseat war, another great idea from a mesa pilot. The only way to change this is to put pressure on your OWN companies to work out the issues with the USAirways Travel Department. Do you think that Dave just said one day "yeah, lets get MESA and all the other contractors!". I bet your buddy JO gave a big thumbs up to the idea. Think about it, this will probably force a lot of people to move to their base. Starting a jumpseat war will only make it more hard on yourself, not the mainliners or WO's.
Why not start a JS war. From the way this policy has been explained, the contract carriers can't JS on mainline without paying the $20 (unless that plane is full and that is a fat chance CLT-PHL-CLT). I'm sure all the contract carriers will put pressure on there managements to get this changed and a CHQ pilot has already said the there CEO has threatened to make WO and U employees pay the same $20 if they travel on CHQ. A JS war would not be meant to hurt the U employees but to make them also but pressure on "Dave" to change this policy. The fact is this policy is about as low as I have see an airline go. All you "Group" employees better hope this doesn't go well or you know "Dave" will come after you to. That is right up his alley actually. I'm not even going to go into what this does to all the J4J at Mesa who have been furloughed over a yr (almost all of them). Talk about screwing our own. What a joke this company is! -Cape
 
Cape, there are other airlines that charge a fee also! You have been lucky to have shared in one of the best employee travel bennies in the industry! And now it looks to be changing a bit. Live with it, its not the end of the world! If you want to start a jumpseat war thats fine. Remember almost every regional airline hates you guys! Your the bottom feeders (in terms of Work Rules and Pay). How about we start a jumpseat war against you guys for lowering the bar in our industry!
 
night-ice said:
That being the case, does the affiliates have the option to charge mainline US employees the same charge to fly on them? (PSA,Piedmont, etc;)
That's a good question. But with US Airways already paying the affiliates to fly the flights on a per departure basis, are they not the authority which decides who rides for how much? I'm not sure how this will pan out.

It appears that since Mesa and others will fly for poverty wages and substandard benefits anyway, someone may have found a way to get even more from them!

It's amazing! If the affiliates drag the industry down low enough, they may not even be able to live with it, themselves!

Enjoy! :angry: