Fact vs Fiction Staff Travel Edition
My last Instagram reel was based on the misconceptions of staff travel. I realised there is a lot of information that it can get confusing, and it is also company dependent with what benefits you will actually receive. However let this be your general guide to what staff travel is and how it works, along with some of the benefits I received working at Virgin Atlantic.
If you haven't gone over to my Instagram already, let this be a sign to check it out to see short form content on my time as cabin crew and now as a student pilot!
Ok so... lets start at the beginning. What is staff travel? This is a benefit that you will receive when you work for an airline. It allows you to travel at a discounted rate with the airline you work for as well as with alliance airlines. As an example at Virgin I was able to travel with Delta Airlines as they own 49% of the company. On top of this we got discounts with Virgin Voyages and all the other Virgin companies. Staff Travel is a big reason people will work for an airline as you don't have to fly for the company to get the benefits. You can work in the office or as ground staff to still have access to these discounts, the only difference will be seniority.
How does staff travel work? This will be dependent on your airline, however as an overview you will get access to a booking system through your airline. Through this system you will be able to select destinations and book tickets. Its very similar to how you would normally book a flight, the main difference is you won't be selecting a seat as this gets allocated on the day of travel. When you make a booking you will be able to see how busy the flight is based on how many seats are booked. This is helpful because it gives an indication as to whether you will get a seat on that flight. My best advice if this is your first time using staff travel is to book a destination with multiple flights servicing this destination, for example; Virgin have 2 flights per day from LHR to LAX, this means that if you book yourself onto the first flight and its fully booked you will be rolled onto the second flight and so your chances of getting to LAX the same day are better than if there was only one flight per day, I hope that makes sense!
To break down the pricing slightly; a misconception I mentioned in my Instagram reel was that staff travel is 'free'. It isn't free, it is heavily discounted so as an example, when I booked a ticket from LHR to LAX the total price was roughly £500 return for one person. As a comparison on the Virgin website a return for one person to LAX is about £850. As you can see the ticket is not necessarily cheap. The only way this is made 'cheaper' is if you are upgraded to premium or upper class. In this case £500 is really not a lot.
It becomes more complicated when you want to use your benefits with a partner airline, similar to what I did booking a flight with Delta Airlines. I had to use a seperate website which was like a third party app to book tickets. I only used this once and to be honest I wasn't sure I did it correctly so I really thought I would get to the gate and be denied boarding. Thankfully this wasn't the case and it turned out to be a really nice flight. When booking through staff travel all the staff on the flight and on the ground will be aware you are a staff passenger due to your name having *staff* under it. When I travelled with Delta this definietly added to my experience because I was moved into a more legroom seat and had a couple of freebies thrown in like a glass of prosecco.It truly is the little things that make the most difference.
I would say the thing most people assume with staff travel is getting a first class seat or a really nice seat on the plane due to being staff. Seating is based on seniority and position in the company. As an example if you are an on board manager and you have worked in the company 20 years, you will be quite senior on the staff travel list. However if you are a captain you will outrank this manager due to job title. If you want to see two adults arguing just book a staff travel ticket because honestly the seating can create so many issues, especially if there are only 2 seats left on the plane and 5 people are standing by for that flight. In my personal experience with staff travel the worst it has been for me was sitting on a jumpseat, which is a seat the crew sit on for takeoff and landing by the door. Sitting on a jumpseat for hours by a flipping cold door is not for the weak, its uncomfortable and noisy, oh and you technically don't have food allocated for you as a jumpseat is not part of the passenger numbers, so you also have to hope some passengers don't want to eat, so you can eat their food! Before you start going on about 'oh the ticket was cheap' yes, it wasn't expensive compared to a full fare seat, however that is never a fun time. Until you have done it you can't understand the misery of a jumpseat x
On the flip side of this is getting a business class or first class seat. Staff travel can be the worst or best thing, it really depends. I have seen both sides of it, and let me not sit here and pretend I haven't flown around the world in business class with the opportunity to see the world because of this benefit. It is without a doubt the only way I have done so much travelling, as much as I dislike economy I hate a jumpseat, so I will take an economy seat any day over this.
On that note let me give you an overview of the benefits of Virgin Atlantic staff travel. If there are seats in upper class available the crew will move the staff passengers into these seats based on seniority. If you're not sure as to whether this is a 'benefit' or not, at British Airways they tend to not do this on a flight:/. When I used my staff travel I never had a problem getting on the flight, even if it was economy I still got on the flight. Virgin also allowed us as staff to use the clubhouse at Heathrow which is their upper class lounge area, this is a really lovely perk because some airlines will say point blank 'no' but with Virgin if the lounge isn't too busy you are able to use it, even if your seat is in economy.
Regardless of my seat on the plane or how much I despise economy I will always be grateful for a seat on an aircraft. I would never have been to half the places if it wasn't for staff travel






