Typhoon...............
I would beg to differ with you on that assertion. You state that "a very small number of carriers may offer free space available flight for their employees and families". and then you contradict yourself at the beginning of your very next paragraph, with the statement "While a larger number of carriers have started going to free travel what was the true cost of that ?"
The guy that started the thread, and asked the question about "pilot perk's" asked nothing about the "true cost" as you put it.
That said, almost ALL airlines offer space available to their employees and their families. Not JUST pilots, but MX, FA's CSD, etc. My wife and I have ALWAYS been able to find a free ride, not only on Comair (My son's employer) but on Delta flights as well, being they own Comair. In fact, it is a DELTA FLIGHT PASS card that I carry in my wallet that I swipe through the airport kiosk that spits out my paperwork to go through security to the gate.
A very good friend and neighbor of mine is a 757 captain at Northwest Airlines. I can't tell you the number of times he and his wife have gone to Hawaii on a space available basis, but it's a lot.
Now, forget about the family benefit. How about a benefit that is unique to airline pilots alone.............the jump seat. Pilots commute all the time in the cockpit jump seat, and often in back as a jumpseater. They not only can jump seat on their own companies aircraft, but on aircraft belonging to direct competitors. I have another neighbor who commutes to CVG from MSP, and he has on occasion, used Mesaba and NWA to get home when their was an earlier flight available from CVG to MSP than what his own employer's schedule offered. My son, a Comair Captain and Sim instructor, has also visited us in MSP, and on occasion has taken numerous aircraft home with a detour to ORD, when the flights were full to CVG, and a more senior pilot had priority for the jump seat.
Typhoon, I FLY FOR FREE, irrespective of what you complain about. It is a perk I get, and I gave up nothing to get that benefit. It was FREE for me. Maybe you feel it cost you something, but it cost ME absolutely ZERO, and it cost my son Nothing. His pay has gone continually UP, since he started working at a very strong regional airline.
As for Dieterly, Ignore that buffoon. I think he is just irked about a position I took about speeding tickets and getting an airline job. You can read that moronic post on another post by started by a 'non airline pilot called "Alaskaairlines" On second thought, I will copy and paste it right here to save the trouble of finding that moronic view.
From Dieterly:
"Don't worry about it, I got on a major with 6 speeding tickets, and that was even before the hiring boom". There are actually airlines out there that are more interested in how you are in the cockpit instead of in a car at 6am on a deserted road, and then of course we have Comair... "No sir, I don't know how to fly, but I sure can mix a killer margarita...."
Then this liar, makes the assertion from a anecdotal comment I made in that same thread on speeding tickets where I talked about my son walking to and from his part time job as a bartender in college, to avoid an even an appearance of drinking and driving, that my son was fired. Dieterly also tries to denigrate Comair by using the term "commuter" for the regional carrier, Comair. This of course, is the perjorative term used to denigrate that portion of the industry.
You see, I believe that Dieterly has misrepresented himself as well. Since he lied about something he has no way of knowing anything about, he also most likely lied about his credentials that he lists as his profile on this board.....flown: 152's to 747, and 10,000 hours. Yeah, right!!!! Dieterly has less maturity than a pimply faced 17 year old, and I suspect strongly that he suffers from small dick syndrome. Nothing else can explain this moron's attitude.
And Dieterly did have one thing right. I am not an airline pilot, and have never represented myself to be one. That does not preclude me from being knowledgeable on topic I take a position on. I am close to a lot of things in the industry since I have an interest in it, and I do read, and obeserve, and expeierince life to enable me to comment.
Typhoon, if you are that concerned that the public will get the "wrong idea" about pilots from me talking about factual stuff on this board, you need to re think that. Your greater concern should be with dick heads like Dieterly and the image they portray on these boards, of aholes that fly airplanes.
