Hmmm, it was a long time ago (1992-93), but in a former life I was married to a BNE QF staffer (so this information is only relevant to QF and what I can remember :roll: ).
thadocta was also a QF staffer, so perhaps he can also shed some light.
There was a thread some time ago that I explained the flying side, but I've got no idea how to find it, so best I start again here.
Benefits - cheap flights. Two types of tickets - space positive or standby, all "bought" through Staff Travel. Space positive you paid more (I think it was ID75, or 75% discount to normal full fare), whereas standby was ID90. Still have my tickets showing BNE/SYD/BNE for $24 and a couple of others.
Airlines: From recollection, if you were travelling internationally, you would never just buy a QF ticket - you'd get "fall-backs" for other airlines flying the same route after the QF flight. So I remember holding tickets for BA, Thai and SQ when trying to get somewhere. But you were still on standby.
Eligibility: QEA and QEB fares (QEA was staff and spouse - as was my case. QEB fares were if you were single and you nominated a person (parent, sibling etc) to be your nominated person). Can't recall how far that extended, but these days I know of friends of staff being the nominated person, as well as parents or siblings.
Length of tenure: You had to be full-time staff (in 1992/3), but you received the benefits as soon as you joined, AFAIR.
Unofficial: I didn't come across any, other than the benefits also extending to accomodation and car hire. Our honeymoon on a resort in Fiji for a week cost $100 (by this stage she was working for Qantas Travel). Only pity was that Air Pacific didn't upgrade us to Business on the flight over.
Now for the jocular (unserious) answer:
Benefits - well you're working for an airline, so I thought that was a bennie in itself
. Seriously, shift work and dealing with a mix of unhappy/arrogant pax (some of whom do speak English), that was a huge benefit in learning how to master client service. Getting woken up anytime between 2am and 5am (depending on when her shift started, between 3am and 6am) didn't phase me - I rolled over and went straight back to sleep :wink: . But it ruins your love life and any hope of having a normal relationship unless you are two amazing individuals who can survive on a couple of hours early in the evening before bedtime beckons. Alternatively remain single or bat for the other side. With our weekends never overlapping, it was great for my golf handicap, but s*** for anything else. Even when you used the flight benefits, you are standing around with other staff at the Gate waiting to see who would get on - and seniority ruled. With my wife only an 8 year veteran, we were at the back of the queue. Was great being bumped from flights...but that was hte price (or lack thereof) that you paid. Great, just got bumped, better run to the next airline's flight and get in the standby queue...
Stuff that....I happily pay fo my tickets now.
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