Do UPS or Fedex have travel benefits?

[GSXR600]

Hi!

There's no "perfect" flying job for me, and this is one of the reasons.

Do any of those airlines fly into my town?

SWA, ATA, Frontier, AirTran and JetBlue-No.

Even UPS and FEX-No.
What about UPS or FEX feeder airlines? Nope. Nada. Nothing.

Too bad for me.

cliff
ILN

where in the hell do u live then?? that no airline flies there!!!!!

 

[GSXR600]

Who cares?

Dude, if you're lucky enough to get on with UPS or FedEx, you can afford to buy airline tickets with the extra millions you will earn over your lifetime.

You are 100% correct on this one. I just can’t believe that someone working for these companies can spare $200 bucks to buy a positive space ticket to travel their love ones.
Wow unreal!!!!!!

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

AA, UAL, NWA, DAL, Midwest and Allegient fly to where I live.

If UPS/FedEx are both great jobs otherwise, but one has much better travel benefits, then that one is a better job, because my family travels a lot.

cliff
YIP

 

[AV80R]

...If UPS/FedEx are both great jobs otherwise, but one has much better travel benefits, then that one is a better job, because my family travels a lot...

Cliff, my family and I travel a lot as well but I just buy them tickets. I'm not sure where you work but lets just do some simple math here...

- if you make an extra $1,000 a month at brand X versus brand Y you can spend that money on tickets for your loved ones if you want. I just bought two tickets on CAL from HOU to LGW (London - Gatwick) and back and it cost me ~$690 a person. Since I have so many 'miles' on my CAL frequent miles program (because of dead heading the company sends me on) we'll probably be upgraded to business class, at least we were in the past.

- So, if I make that extra thousand bucks a month my fiancé and I can "afford' at least one trip like that every two months.

My point is the "travel benefits" seem to be like the new form of Food Stamps where some people won't take a better paying job because they are afraid they'll lose their food stamps benefits.

C'mon, it's really nice NOT to be a stand-by passenger.:beer:

 

[Beetle007]

... some people won't take a better paying job because they are afraid they'll lose their food stamps benefits.

C'mon, it's really nice NOT to be a stand-by passenger.

I thought the same thing when I left my previous job (With great travel benefits), for a job with less travel benefits. I regret losing the great travel benefits.

If you only like traveling domestically, then travel benefits don't mean much. It is better to buy a ticket. But my wife and I used to take 3 or 4 international trips a year (Luckily we always got business class when traveling internationally). Basically we would take 3 or 4 day weekends and go somewhere like Tokyo, London, Germany, Amsterdam etc… for a couple hundred bucks. It kept my wife happy because she always looked forward to where she could visit next for the price of one or two nights in a hotel.

 

[GSXR600]

Cliff, my family and I travel a lot as well but I just buy them tickets. I'm not sure where you work but lets just do some simple math here...

- if you make an extra $1,000 a month at brand X versus brand Y you can spend that money on tickets for your loved ones if you want. I just bought two tickets on CAL from HOU to LGW (London - Gatwick) and back and it cost me ~$690 a person. Since I have so many 'miles' on my CAL frequent miles program (because of dead heading the company sends me on) we'll probably be upgraded to business class, at least we were in the past.

- So, if I make that extra thousand bucks a month my fiancé and I can "afford' at least one trip like that every two months.

My point is the "travel benefits" seem to be like the new form of Food Stamps where some people won't take a better paying job because they are afraid they'll lose their food stamps benefits.

C'mon, it's really nice NOT to be a stand-by passenger.:beer:

AMEN BROTHAAAA!!!!!

THE SMARTEST THING A EVER SAID

 

[capt. megadeth]

Travel benefits are great!

I think everyone should stop applying at FedEx and UPS because we don't really have travel benefits.

Please please pretty please? So my honey can have no competition? Puhhhhhhleeeeease? With sugar on top.

I love travel benefits! :nuts:

 

[AV80R]

...I thought the same thing when I left my previous job (With great travel benefits), for a job with less travel benefits. I regret losing the great travel benefits...

I think you truly missed my point - I believe no one should ever "stay content" at their current job because "at least we have travel benefits”.

In my analogy, if I made an extra $1,000 a month at brand X versus brand Y I could afford 2 "positive space" tickets to London 6 times a year. That's if I make an extra $1,000. I make much more than an extra $1,000.

My whole point was - do not use "travel benefits" to compare airlines when one pays much more than the other but has fewer travel benefits. It's akin to someone choosing a less paying job because otherwise he/she would lose the food stamps. Or someone including per diem into the yearly income...If two airlines pay about the same (looks like in your case) but one has the travel benefits and one does not - it's a different story...

So to summarize, no one says travel benefits are not cool, but at least compare apples to apples....It's an awesome feeling to have "real" tickets and not having to hope for some empty seats so you can make the flight...Every time I used standby tickets with my family I felt like I was "begging" the gate agents for a ride...It's nice not to have to do that anymore...Oh, and we can fly as frequently as we want because we can afford it now, oh and did I mention the A and the B fund, the health insurance, etc? Like I said - don't stare blindly at the standby passes or you might miss the real benefits...


Ooops, I screwed up again - Mega is right, I miss my travel benefits...:laugh:

 

[Beetle007]

AV80R -

I understand what you are saying. For most people travel benefits don't matter that much and it is usually best to by positive space tickets.

But - it is never more economical to purchase international business class tickets, if you like to travel more than once or twice a year. Thats what my wife got used to at my previous airline. We always looked for flights with open business class, and she never once sat in coach. I probably saved between 40 to 70K a year at my previous airline due to my travel benefits. For example, we took at trip to Tokyo for two days because we had a 4 day weekend. Two roundtrip business class tickets to Tokyo would have cost me 16 thousand. With income taxes, I would have to earn an extra 20+ thousand a year just to pay for that one weekend.

What I am saying, is that travel benefits matter to some more than others.

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

Beetle007:

Exactly.

cliff
YIP

 

[Archie Bunker]

What I am saying, is that travel benefits matter to some more than others.

I would say that you're the exception rather than the rule.

I can't think of a single pilot I know that would risk non-reving to Tokyo with his wife on a 4 day weekend. In fact, that sounds downright crazy. What happens if you can't get a seat on the way back....or God forbid, your wife has to sit in a skanky coach seat, while you sit on the jumpseat or get left behind? What are you going to do, call in sick from Tokyo, or scramble for a ticket/offline jumpseat? Doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me.

I'm with AV8or.....I'll take the money and a revenue ticket, you can have the crappy non-rev benefits, and try to shuttle your family around space A on oversold airplanes. It's not much of a benefit in my book.

 

[Beetle007]

The reason I originally asked about travel benefits was because most airline employees can ship packages on Fed Ex for a huge discount (not sure about UPS). I just thought that maybe airlines offered Fed Ex employees travel benefits in exchange.

I wasn't trying to imply that airlines with travel benefits are better than those without. I personally love travel benefits. But I know most could care less with today's cheap prices. You are talking to a guy who spent 40 dollars on his wedding (+ Tip). And yes, we non-revd to and from our wedding (Vegas) =)

 

[AV80R]

The reason I originally asked about travel benefits was because most airline employees can ship packages on Fed Ex for a huge discount (not sure about UPS). I just thought that maybe airlines offered Fed Ex employees travel benefits in exchange.

Unfortunately, there’s no shipping discount at Big Brown (even for the employees). We have jumpseat benefits with all airlines that offer us jumpseat benefits (pretty much all of them) but unfortunately no shipping discount. I guess that's yet another reason to why we just celebrated our 100 year anniversary, huh?

I wasn't trying to imply that airlines with travel benefits are better than those without. I personally love travel benefits. But I know most could care less with today's cheap prices.

I see what you're saying and I agree some travel benefits are nice; however most of those benefits have so many restrictions that it's pretty pointless to even use them. If I had to choose between two airlines where the pay was about the same I too would go for the airline with travel benefits. If however one of the airlines offered better pay, retirement, upgrade, etc. – I’d choose that over travel benefits in a heart beat!

 

[capt. megadeth]

You are talking to a guy who spent 40 dollars on his wedding (+ Tip). And yes, we non-revd to and from our wedding (Vegas) =)

Now that's what I'm talkin' about Willis!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love that! Weddings are a waste of money.