ZED to Germany for XJ employees
Where are you leaving from?
You can take NW nonstop from Detroit-- leaves about dinner time and gets in about 7:30 AM or so. Return leaves FRA about 10:30 and gets in early afternoon. E-pass-- so just make the reservation through 800-NWA-NREV just like any other flight. If you jumpseat instead of non-rev, they will often put you in Business Class and it will be free.
If you are alone, I suggest jumpseating. UAL out of Chicago or Dulles, CAL from Newark, DAL from Cinci or Atlanta, USAirways from... from... Philly, I think. All are free from the US except Delta-- they charge $2.50 to leave the US. Out of Frankfurt go to the airlines' purchase ticket counter and pay the departure taxes-- with the weak dollar the taxes have more than doubled to almost $60 on most airlines. Continental has NEVER charged me, though. Thanks CAL!!!
ZED tickets:
Where are you leaving from?
You can take NW nonstop from Detroit-- leaves about dinner time and gets in about 7:30 AM or so. Return leaves FRA about 10:30 and gets in early afternoon. E-pass-- so just make the reservation through 800-NWA-NREV just like any other flight. If you jumpseat instead of non-rev, they will often put you in Business Class and it will be free.
If you are alone, I suggest jumpseating. UAL out of Chicago or Dulles, CAL from Newark, DAL from Cinci or Atlanta, USAirways from... from... Philly, I think. All are free from the US except Delta-- they charge $2.50 to leave the US. Out of Frankfurt go to the airlines' purchase ticket counter and pay the departure taxes-- with the weak dollar the taxes have more than doubled to almost $60 on most airlines. Continental has NEVER charged me, though. Thanks CAL!!!
ZED tickets:
- Call 1-800-NWA-NREV
- Press the menu option for Other Airlines, then NOT in the US or Canada. You will be connected to a reservation agent. Tell her/him that you want to order a ZED ticket on XYZ airlines from ABC to FRA. They will ask for your employee number, etc. It will take awhile, but you will get a PNR. Expect about $100 to Germany and $150 back to the US (higher departure taxes). We get ZED-Medium on most airlines. We get ZED-Low on a couple (Air France, Alitalia, some others). We can only buy Y fare ZEDs, not C or F. That sucks with foreign carriers who will only upgrade us if we buy the upgraded ZED ticket. Most US carriers participate in ZED, but not United for some reason.
- Go to ANY NWA ticket counter with your PNR and credit card. They will print the ticket and charge your card. Our outstations probably haven't done it before, but tell them that it is just like buying any other ticket... except make sure they have the price right. They will print out a white cover page, a green ticket for each leg, and a green receipt ticket; staple them all together, draw the diaganal lines, and you're done.
- Call the airline in question and make a non-rev reservation. The ZED program allows you to buy 1st, Bussiness or Coach ZED passes, but NWA only sells the Coach tickets so expect to sit in the back on any foreign carrier.
- Delta will ALWAYS try to get you up front... unless you have little kids with you.
- Continental usually tries to get you up front.
- USAirways unknown.
- AA has the reputation of never upgrading anybody, but I have never tried.
- United does NOT participate in the ZED program, so don't try to buy a ZED on United.
- You can't use ZED on NWA since you are already in the NWA system (just E-pass)
- Foreign carriers will almost always put you in coach.
- Lufthansa goes out of their way to give you an empty seat next to you if you are a non-rev... but they will only upgrade you if you buy an upgraded ZED pass... which we can't do at NWA.
- Show up at the airline, check in at the front counter, give them the ZED ticket.
- If, for example, your ZED ticket is for FRA-ATL on Delta and the flight is full, you can take the same ticket to Lufthansa and use it.
- ZED tickets are good for Zones. If you have a 5-zone ZED ticket, in theory you can fly any carrier to any destination that is 5 zones away. I did this once out of Frankfurt-- Air Canada to Toronto was oversold, so I took USAirways to Philly and they accepted the same ZED ticket without question... even though it was a different airline AND a different destination.
