Everything you need to know about ZED travel (2024)

Non-rev travel is the best job perk in the world. How can you not love the ability to jump on a flight whenever your airline has an open seat available? Surely it would take years to visit every destination that your airline flies to, but you might eventually feel limited by your own network.

Fear not, fellow nonrev! Today, we dive into the world of ZED travel where your standby privileges extend to other airlines besides your own (some that you have never even heard of before).

What is ZED travel?

ZED, short for Zonal Employee Discount, is a set of agreements between hundreds of partner airlines that allow their employees to book discounted plane tickets on each other’s aircraft.

Put simply, an airline employee (and sometimes their guests) can buy discounted tickets on another airline as long as the two airlines have a ZED agreement in place.

ZED ticket fares are broken into three fare buckets (Low, Medium, and High) to determine how large the discount will be. Depending on the agreements your airline has in place, these ZED tickets can be either standby or positive-space seating. For most U.S.-based airline employees, you can expect your ZED tickets to be NRSA only.

Why should you look for ZED fares?

So now that you know what ZED fares are, it is important to understand why you may need to utilize this type of ticket when traveling.

There are two main reasons why a non-rev might elect to book a ZED ticket on another airline:

• The airport they are heading to/from is not served by their own airline so they need to fly on a different airline to reach their destination
• The airport they are heading to/from does not have any open seats on their own airline so they need to fly on a different airline to secure a seat

My very first ZED flight was a fifth-freedom flight from SCL to EZE on Air Canada while I was hopping around South America on a wine-tasting trip. I have also had the pleasure of flying legs on Iberia & Alaska to visit airports that I couldn’t get to on my own airline. US-based non-revs can take solace in the fact that many international airlines don’t oversell their flights, so open seats can be easier to come by.

No matter how large your airline’s route map is, ZED travel opens up a world of new possibilities for non-rev travelers.

Which airlines have ZED agreements?

As of January 2021, ZED MIBA reported a total of 222 member companies (with an additional 37 partial partners) in their network. Virtually every large- & mid-size airline around the world is connected by some sort of ZED agreement.

It is important to remember that being a member airline is just the first step. As an employee (or non-rev passrider), you will also need to confirm whether or not your airline has a bilateral agreement in place with any other airline you are considering flying with.

For example: Frontier Airlines has a very unique set of established agreements when compared with airlines like Southwest or American. A Frontier employee will have very different ZED options in their portal when compared with the airlines available to a Southwest employee.

Your airline should have a section in the employee site that clearly spells out which airlines are bookable in your ZED portal.

Where can I book ZED tickets?

Every airline has a different process for employees who want to book ZED fares. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here.

MyIDTravel is one of the most popular tools that airlines use for their ZED agreements. Many airlines still use this portal to allow their employees to buy ZED tickets. This is the service that my airline uses to support leisure travel on other airlines.

ID90Travel, a service that provides interline discounts to airline employees, recently added a ZED flight listing tool to their own app. A smaller number of airlines currently have agreements in place with this app, but it has a nicer interface (and more accurate flight load data) than myIDTravel.

Check your airline’s ZED travel policies to understand which website(s) are available to you.

How do I know if there will be an available seat on my ZED flight?

Both MyIDTravel & ID90Travel display recent load factor information. This helps users determine the likelihood of getting a space-available seat assignment.

Each of these portals displays the information in different ways. Here is a quick breakdown to help you better understand the information shared:

MyIDTravel

MyIDTravel, the most prevalent booking portal for ZED ticketing, uses a smiley face system to rate how open or full a flight is:

• Happy Green Face: flight loads are wide open
• Serious Yellow Face: there are some seats available
• Sad Red Face: there are little to no seats available

However, MyIDTravel’s smiley system is notoriously clunky. The good news is the site also allows you to see how many seats are available in each fare bucket.

In general, airline fare classes fall under the following categories that you can see in the MyIDTravel screenshot below:

• Economy: Y, B, H, K, M, L, V, S, N, Q, O
• Business: J, C, D, I, Z
• First: F, R, A

In practice, most ZED travelers are really only worried about the bolded “Y” fare. Y is the industry standard for economy/coach class tickets. Since most ZED agreements default to space-available bookings in economy, the number of seats available in Y should give you an idea of if there are open seats.

Using this Iberia flight as an example, I can see that this LHR-MAD flight has at least 9 seats available in economy. MyIDTravel never plugs a double-digit number in this field, so we can interpret “Y9” to mean “there are 9+ seats available in economy class”.

MyIDTravel does not show users the standby list for each flight, but I would feel confident that I would get a seat assignment on this Iberia flight based on this screenshot.

ID90Travel

ID90Travel uses a different approach with their app-based interface. Instead of giving you a peek into the number of seats available by fare class, their app provides an estimated range of available seats in economy.

The below example shows a United ORD-IAH flight that has “5% or fewer [seats] available” in economy class. ID90Travel also provides a link to show you the Stand-by List (although I have never found this feature to populate data).

How much do ZED tickets cost?

The ZED agreement negotiated between your airline & the airline you want to fly determines the price you will pay for your ticket. ZED pricing is split into three fare tiers: low, medium, and high. ZED Low fare is your cheapest option and is often reserved for alliance/strategic airline partners.

Additionally, ZED tickets are priced by segment. A nonstop JFK-MAD ticket is cheaper than a JFK-MAD routing with a DUB layover (assuming both tickets are priced within the same ZED fare bucket).

After taking the ZED fare bucket, the airline’s base fare & any taxes/fees (like those imposed by governments or airports) determine your ticket price. For reference, a one-way ZED Medium ticket from the west coast of the US to Europe currently costs no more than $200.

Seasoned non-rev travelers may know that there is open proposal to update the ZED ticketing buckets with 2 new “super” fare classes:

• Super Low Fare: 25% less than ZED Low fare
• Super High Fare: 125%-250% cost of MT fare (increases on a scale of flight segment length)

These ZED fares were proposed in early 2021, so keep an eye out on these in the future.

How do I travel once I have purchased a ZED ticket?

Because every airline has unique ticketing & listing policies, it is important to look up the latest info on http://www.flyzed.info/ each time you want to travel. In addition to the FlyZED site (which is updated by individual airlines), your own employee portal may have airline-specific guidelines as well.

In my experience, getting ticketed is just the first step. Making your actual flight listing may require an online (or in-person) check-in process. Here are a few examples from my ZED travel adventures:

• Iberia (MAD-GRX): I booked my ZED ticket through MyIDTravel and presented my e-ticket number to the IB ticket counter in Madrid where I was immediately assigned a confirmed boarding pass.
• Alaska Airlines (SJC-DAL): I booked my ZED ticket through MyIDTravel and checked in at the ticket counter to receive my standby boarding pass.
• Air Canada (SCL-EZE): I booked my ZED ticket through MyIDTravel and presented my e-ticket number to the AC ticket counter in Santiago where I was handed a standby boarding pass.

Make sure to read your ticketing airline’s directions carefully so you don’t miss a step!

Final Thoughts on ZED Travel

ZED travel is an amazing way to expand your non-rev possibilities. Whether you want to travel to an international destination that isn’t in your airline’s network or just need an alternative route because your own flight filled up, ZED travel gives non-revs a ton of flexibility.

Learning your own airline’s rules & policies can take some time, so it’s no wonder that ZED travel is intimidating. Don’t let that discourage you from trying! If you need additional help, the airline’s ticket counter staff are a wonderful resource. Just make sure to announce that you are an airline employee who wants to list on a ZED fare so they know exactly what you need!

Have you flown on a ZED fare before? Let us know what tips & tricks you have for fellow airline employees who want to take their first ZED flight!