United Airlines fires 35 employees for abusing travel benefits

[yortsed snacilbuper]

United Airlines fired more than 35 employees who were abusing their travel perks, like selling travel passes that are intended for friends and family.

"United employees at the gate noticed something fishy about a particular group of nine non-revenue pass riders," the company said in an article published on United's internal site and obtained by USA TODAY.

"The three families, who were traveling internationally, stated that they had 'paid for' first class tickets – but they were on nonrevenue reservations and were unable to provide the names of the employees who had provided the tickets."

The airline “uncovered a brokering scheme where employees were soliciting pass travel privileges from their colleagues to put up for sale.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/united-airlines-fires-35-employees-for-abusing-travel-benefits/ar-BBUyjIw?ocid=spartanntp

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. As well they should.

I was an airline employee many decades ago. At the time we didn't get friend passes, and family passes were for spouses, children, and parents only. And at that, not every airline gave parent passes.

It was impressed upon us that our travel benefits were a privilege, and abusing them would lead to instant termination.

I was in the job for a bit over 10 years, and made full use of the travel benefits. It was amazing. I lived, in terms of travel, like a rich person, and I appreciated it fully.

So yeah, fire the asses of the employees who pull crap like this.

[OliverQ]

2. Do you think it's worth it these days in light of how low

airline pay is? Airline jobs pay like $12 an hour. Even with free flights, seems pretty hard to travel. I got an offer with JetBlue but had to turn it down due to the low pay.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. No, it's not worth it to lose your job over something

you've been told is clearly not acceptable.

I honestly think that the friends passes were an exceptionally bad idea, and I've heard a lot of stories that the people travelling on those friend passes had no clue that their seats weren't guaranteed. Of course, it would have been up to the employee to explain how they worked, but I also know, thanks to ten years as an airline employee, that people simply don't listen.

Back when I worked (1969-79) many flights went out with empty seats, and non-revving (because we didn't bring in any money, we were non revenue passengers) was reasonably easy. Especially for those of us who worked at an airport and were VERY aware of the patterns of travel. In ten years of pass riding I can think of only three times I didn't get on the flight I wanted to get on.

And if the pay is so crappy you'd turn down the job, it's simply larceny to take the job thinking you'll benefit by selling the passes.

[jberryhill]

3. Obviously, they valued the cash more than the travel benefit

If they would prefer the cash instead of the travel benefit, then, fundamentally what’s wrong with them obtaining the thing they value more.

Yes, I get there is a policy that someone made up, but why not just let them choose whether they’d prefer the cash or the benefit.

[PoliticAverse]

8. I'd guess the answer is because it's a benefit offered under the financial assumption

that not everyone will take full advantage of it. If the employee can sell it to someone else this will
result in the benefit being used more costing the airline more money.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Donald Nyrop who was President of Northwest Airlines

up to 1976 and was universally despised by his employees, once proposed at a meeting of airline executives, that all travel benefits be eliminated and a $2,000 across the board raise be granted. Fortunately, the other execs understood how important the travel was to most employees. And at that time I was using a lot more than $2,000 worth of travel each year. I used to keep track.

This will tell you how much Nyrop was hated by NW employees. When he'd check in for a flight, they'd put the correct destination tag on his luggage. Often the ticket counter agent would call the bag chute and tell them that Nyrop's suitcase had just shown up. They'd simply put it on another plane. Once it got to that city, the baggage agent would see that a suitcase had arrived with the wrong destination tag, but then would look at the name tag on it, and put it on yet another flight going somewhere else. I understood that his luggage often wound up in very obscure destinations. At some point he had to resort to putting a fake name and address on his suitcase.

Another similar Nyrop story. He once complained to the then president of Delta Airlines that Delta boarded non-revs in first class, which Nyrop thought was wrong. "All of my employees are first class employees," the Delta president is reported to have said.

The entire pass thing was a bit complicated back when I worked. Some airlines charged a flat fee and by policy either boarded you first class or coach. Others had a fee difference between a first class and a coach pass. Most of the time we did get boarded up front, and where applicable, I always paid the first class fee. Northwest did not offer free (meaning a service charge only) pass. Nope. We could get an ID (Industry Discount) ticket. 50% of the fare was positive space, meaning you could make a reservation and were just like any other full fare passenger, or 75% discount and flew space available. I only ever flew on NW two or three times, when I had occasion to fly from DCA to PIT.

I had the phenomenal good fortune to be an airline employee in what was probably the very best decade to do so, at least in terms of the travel benefits. The pay was decent, but the travel, OMG!

One year I went to Hawaii ten times.

[912gdm]

12. Next time my aunt is in town ill ask if she has any Nyrop shop stories...

She was a FA for panam from the early 70's till they went under and went to delta till she retired at 70..

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. She may not have any Nyrop stories,

because I don't think she would have come in contact with him.

The reason I have my stories is that in 1969 I went to work for Mohawk Airlines (and if the name is even remotely familiar to you, you're OLD!) at DCA, Washington National Airport. The Mohawk ticket counter was sandwiched between TWA and Northwest, so I learned a lot from being there.

The NW counter was almost entirely men. The Mohawk counter was entirely women. The TWA counter was a balanced gender mix. I got a front line insight into the virtues and drawbacks of an all male vs an all female counter. We Mohawk girls were capable of a certain degree of female bitchiness. But we didn't get into fistfights with the passengers, as happened at Northwest. TWA showed us the genuine benefits of a balanced ticket counter/work environment. The men protected the women. The women lent a civilized air.

Keep in mind that fifty years ago, and yes, this was fifty years ago, the lines drawn between men and women in the workplace tended to be much harder. Most jobs advertized in the newspaper were either in the Help Wanted Female or in the Help Wanted Male columns. There was almost no overlap.

Back when your aunt went to work for Pan Am, the vast majority of flight attendants (still mostly called stewardesses back then) were female. There were only a handful of men in the job, although that changed a lot over the years.

Where was she based?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. Nyrop was terrible.

I worked at NWA long after he was gone and people were still talking about how awful he was.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. Yeah, my dad worked for AA.

Growing up we were always on our BEST behavior at the airport. Always a jacket and tie. Family only. We always traveled at off times.

Later on they liberalized the program to allow friends. I got a few passes for friends and they were told to be on their BEST behavior with the understanding that non rev travel was a crap shoot and to plan well ahead.

There were lots of stories of people throwing shit fits when they couldn’t get on a desired flight.

It was a sweet deal. First class every chance I got. Now I fly like a peasant.

[BannonsLiver]

6. That's interesting.

I have heard similar “best behavior” stories from others who had parents who worked for airlines. I fly like a peasant too so I feel you there.

[Chin music]

9. Never knew this was a perk. That's pretty sweet.

I'm pretty sure your Dad wasn't disappointed, bc you sound like you still remember the lesson. Getting to travel like that sounds pretty dreamy.
Edit...In looking at the responses, it seems there's a few who made a living in travel. I bet that was a nice way to go. If you have to go to work, why not sleep in Brussels tonight? There's a lot of the world out there most of us only hear about.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

13. I think a lot of the airlines are hiring.

A guy on a Facebook group I’m in was talking about it recently. They pay ain’t great but better than some McJob. This guy handles baggage so it can be shitty here in the Chicago weather. But he
loves the travel. Someone young starting out might be a good fit.

We were pretty spoiled. I would come home from school a lot on the weekends. My dad would hitch a ride in a company van and pick me up at the gate downstairs and drop me off at the gate. This was before heightened security.

The drawback was you didn’t fly at busy times because paying passengers had priority. You weren’t coming home at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon with all the other vacationers. Last time I flew back from San Francisco I flew out at like 6am after being out all night drinking. Brutal.

The worst trouble we had was getting stuck in Hawaii when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers in 1980. All the other airlines cancelled their flights so paying passengers booked with AA. We spent all day in the Honolulu airport trying to get out. Finally got to LAX at 11pm only to get bumped off the flight on the stop over - hustled off the plane like hobos. We spent the night in the airport and started listing for flights like 6 am and finally got out at like 2 pm back to Chicago.

I once got bitched out by a member of the Sha’s royal family. We were in the upstairs lounge on a 747 coming back from DC. The week we were there the student protesters were out protesting the Sha’s visit. They were all in hoods in front of The Capital (iirc). Anyway, I jiggled the handle on the lavatory and the guy came out and yelled at me while giving me a lesson on the occupied/unoccupied sign. My older sister was discussing world affairs with him- that’s how I knew who he was. I was just a kid.

[Chin music]

14. Very interesting.

Great memories.

[912gdm]

5. yeah that was a big NONO when I worked at American.

selling passes was definitely fireable but they impressed on us that we needed to really be careful what friends we gave passes to. If they caused a commotion our flight bene's would be suspended.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. They called them "buddy passes" at the airline I used to work at,

and some could be used by friends but their use was closely monitored. I don't remember hearing about anything like the situation described in the OP, but I suppose it could have happened once in awhile. The problem with non-rev travel is that you can't always go where you want to go when you want to go there, and sometimes your route isn't exactly direct. And don't even bother during holiday travel periods. If people are selling buddy passes it makes it that much worse for employees who are trying to use their travel benefits.