This weeks question comes from Joe…it’s a long one, but a good one:

As I sit here, wondering why accounting hasn’t gotten me my travel reimbursement, I find myself filled with questions about how you all handle your layover stays. I assume you don’t have to book anything, that the airline takes care of it, right? But then, how does it actually work when you get there–do you just show an ID & the room just gets billed to the airline? Or do you have to float it on your credit card & get reimbursed? (Since we use the latter system, I hope you get to do the former, although I know if it’s direct billed, sometimes that means you don’t get stay credit/points from the hotel, and I hope you get those no matter what…I can’t imagine traveling as many nights as you do without earning any status for it!) Are the big airlines linked in with certain hotel chains, so that you only stay at Hilton or Hyatt or whatever no matter what city you’re in, or is it city-by-city, e.g., at DFW it’s the Hyatt but at MSP it’s the Hilton? I’m also guessing that they usually make you guys wait for and take the little hotel van rather than cabbing it. And I can only guess that, with as many nights as you stay a year, that you must have plenty of stories of the hotels botching your reservation, claiming to already be full, etc.

FP: You are right, airline crews don’t do any of the booking. The airline takes care of it all. I think the only exception to that is corporate airline crews, but I’m not sure exactly how their bookings are handled. The airline has contracts with certain hotels, and no, they’re not all the same chain. Each time a contract comes up, different hotels bid for the airline’s business. So, the hotels expect our arrival and have a certain group of rooms blocked out. We check in by writing our names next to a room number and that’s about it. Some hotels require that we leave a credit card “imprint” if we want to use any of the hotel services, like rent movies etc. but most do not. You’re are also right in assuming that because it is direct billed, we do not get the “points,” a sore spot with most of us!

Yes, we use the hotel van service. The hotel usually makes special trips for airline crew although some airport hotels have us ride with everyone. At my airline we have a clause in our contract that states, if we are waiting for more than 20 minutes for a van, we can cab it. If the hotel doesn’t have a van service then the airline will contract with a limo/livery service in that city. At my airline, any layover over 20hours means we stay in the city rather than by the airport.

I do have a few “stories,” but one that sticks in my mind is when I was working as a load FA (meaning I was by myself) and I arrived in Newark, and because of major weather in the area all the hotels were booked up. I had to call scheduling when I arrived, after waiting on hold for 20 minutes, the scheduler directed me where to pick up my van. I was driven about an hour away from the airport, by myself, by a stranger, to a disgusting, hotel room wreaking of cigarette smoke….and it was the only room they had. Needless to say it was a loooong night! Luckily, we usually stay in pretty nice places and that time was not the norm!

and to answer a question you didn’t ask, but it is a common one: “No, we don’t have to share hotel rooms, we each get our own: )”

(post photo courtesy of Capnmikesphotostream)