Airline Company Benefits
Do you get any travel related benefits working at an airline company? How good are these benefits generally and what do they cover?
Unlimited free standby domestically with a small surcharge if you get first class (like <$50). International flights only cost departure fees and taxes (plus a surcharge if you get business class). Zed benefits, discounted tickets if you purchase them, and some hotel/rental car discounts too!
Don't forget the airport discounts 😁
Do you get hit on your income taxes for these tickets? I heard somewhere the flight benefits are treated as income and taxed accordingly.
What are the airport discounts
Show your badge, get 10% discount on food and more at airports.
Unlimited standby priority for you, your spouse (or companion or domestic partner) kids, parents and 8 RT buddy passes (which aren't so useful). ZED fare tickets all over the world. (explained above) Delta does allow FC/Delta One for standby. It is all based on seniority. Taxes for international flights, imputed income for domestic. Fantastic profit sharing - ~14% last year. I've been to approx 8 countries a year, most of the time over the pond in business class, I'm 6'6 so that is fantastic. +50 domestic flights a year for me is typical.
Little off topic... any large airliner offer flexible work schedule for an aerospace engineer, not software (i.e. 4x10, flexwork, telework, etc). Also, do any of them offer salary of upwards 150k as an engineer?
As everyone stated above at American but we have unlimited access to premium cabins for free and only have imputed income for non-dependents or non-spouses (registered companions, parents and buddy passes). Taxes are only accessed when leaving international destinations back to the US, based on the country.
Unlimited free standby flights(no seniority ranking of standby at SWA) for myself, a spouse(if you don't have one, a companion pass holder), your kids, and your parents. And buddy passes too! And heavily discounted standby ZED flights(90% off full fare or so) on virtually any airline in the world(we have the largest number of ZED agreements). I've managed to travel the world and every major NA city in the short time I've been here with relative ease with family too. Just travel during off season for the most part and you're golden. Cons of SWA flight perks: we only have economy seating so we rarely get upgraded on other airlines. UA, DAL, and AA will have business class and 1st class based on seniority/availability. But most of them have to pay taxes on flights since they consider it a benefit(taxable) rather than a privilege like at SWA(no taxes, fully free). our work culture, job security, 401k, and profit-sharing more than make up for this difference.