I just found this by accident when checking on airlines who fly FLL-IAD (UAL flies once per day and JB flies a bunch).

Jet Blue has apparently placed their agreement on Apollo under

S*UPE/INTERLINE- B6B6

B6 is Jet Blue's IATA code

It expands to Parents, Domestic Parents, and Retirees.

In talking to the benefits service center ,they will only issue ONE TYPE of letter for retirees. I am not sure if this applies to ACTIVE employees or not, but the generic letter the Benefits Service Center will only talk about you and not your parents. The Benefits service center calls these interline letters and they may be, in fact, used sometimes for this purpose,but they can be used for anything like tours, discounts, and hotels, etc.

Any company, airline, or facility may take what should be called a letter of Introduction but United will only issue THEIR BRAND OF LETTER TO RETIREES. They will not issue letters to state that MY MOTHER IS MY MOTHER. Hence, she becomes a second class citizen for no good reason.

The letters that the Benefits Service Center will issue come in packs of 5 and only good for 90 days. There is no good reason for either except it is policy. You have few rights when retired so perhaps the active pass coordinator can do something about this.

Now apparently Jet Blue has reached an agreement with United,but JB still wants to use letters rather than tickets. Jet Blue insists that all letters be on UAL stationery and NOT BE the fill in type that are used in at least the SFOFO and LAXFO and possibly other offices. The truth is that people like Southwest and Spirit and anybody else who takes the letters just want the revenue (excellent idea).

Jet Blue insists (any carrier than has a non-reciprocal deal can set the rules for themselves and those with reciprocal deals agree and it is not always word for word similar but very close) that ONLY THE EMPLOYEE CAN GET THE TICKETS. This is in contrast with SWA where they allow (ed) the non-employee to pick up the tickets. Again, read the small print.

The Benefits Service Center was not aware of this and I can not get a letter issued with my MOTHER'S NAME on it should I wish to travel or go to a hotel.

You might wonder why this can be an problem assuming you travel space available or leave your home and want to fight with TSA. Well, widows of retired and DECEASED employees do not get interline travel. So many widows do lose a lot when the husband/retiree dies.

Anyway, the Benefits Service Center is checking it out and perhaps someone might be able to do something about this which is not right.

JIM MOREHEAD

http://rupea-tours.blogspot.com/

To All:

I was in Saigon in October 2006 for an ORBIS trip along with my wife.

We stayed at the Caravelle Hotel which was right downtown. www.caravellehotel. com It was very nice.

We also had a great dinner at a seafood restaurant at NGOCSUONG. www.ngocsuongvn. com

We took a side trip to the tunnels which was very interesting. The hotel arranged it for us.

All in all, we had a good time.

Carl Hakenen

                ----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard DuMosch" <helgadick@gmail.com>
To: "Dale T Harper" <dtharper@inreach.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 10:00 AM
Subject: free overseas calling

Hi Dale, I checked out the offer on http://www.futurephone.com/index.html .

I dialed the access number in Iowa and then called my relatives in the Netherlands and lo and behold it works perfectly. I never had to give my name, address or e-mail in the transactions.

Soooooo, I would recommend it to everyone.

                        *  *  *  *  *  *  *

SEP 20, 2006

New Items of Interest PS From Paul Polsky

Yesterday I called the Retiree Service Center for ID Letters to use for a Cruise or Interline Travel. The lady who handled my request mentioned SOUTHWEST now accepts letters up to ONE YEAR from the date on the letter ... this is good news as the previous limit was 90 days. Unfortunately, JET BLUE and SPIRIT remain at 90 days. The good news with all three is you can get tickets on the spot, at their ticket counters.

Hope this helps our folks on your list.

Paul

Nov 9, 2006

Every once in awhile, I run into a PA who demands that a “Departure Management Card” ( DMC ) must be surrendered prior to handing out a boarding pass.

Most PAs don’t act this way. I wait for my name to be called (just as it says on the DMC ), then I walk up to the podium and receive the boarding pass. It should be noted that nowhere on the DMC , nor in the “Travel Benefits Summary,” does it say that a DMC must be surrendered prior to receiving a boarding pass.

I tried to peruse the pass regs (10-1), but the website refuses access and says that I’m not entitled to review the 10-1 information.

When we first went to “paperless passes,” where we no longer have a paper pass to surrender for a boarding pass, we were told that we would need a DMC “to proceed through security.” Nothing was ever said about a need to surrender a DMC to get a boarding pass.

I can see at least one circumstance in which a DMC would not necessarily be obtained by a pass rider. Let’s say that I want to ride on Alaska Airlines (or some other outfit) from where I am to a United flight out of, say, ONT . I know that both airlines are in the same terminal in ONT , so I won’t need a DMC to get through ONT security. Naturally, I use my computer to list myself for the United flight, but I don’t bother to print an unneeded DMC . Then, when I get to the United gate in ONT , some overzealous PA insists that I need to surrender a DMC to get a boarding pass. What happens now?

When I’ve questioned some PAs about what seems to be a misinterpretation of the regs, some of them get quite snippy. The last one (just yesterday) said, “I work here - - you don’t. Either give me a departure management card, or you won’t get your boarding pass.”

Fortunately, I still had paper copies of the DMCs that I had printed on my computer to initially get through security. But, what if I no longer had them, or what if I never printed them in the first place? (As outlined in the above scenario.)

If the now-secretive 10-1 states that surrendering a DMC is necessary to get a boarding pass, we should be so informed. If it is required, then it should be stated that way on the DMC , itself. (Since we’re denied access to !0-1, how else are we to know?)

Can somebody in RUPA contact the powers-that-be and get a written answer to this? If surrendering a DMC is NOT necessary, it would be nice to have a letter from a head honcho that we could copy and take with us to show to possibly overzealous PAs who are misinterpreting the regs, or are merely instigating what they individually think is a “good idea.”

By the way, why are we denied access to 10-1? It can’t possibly be related to a continuing 9-11 paranoia - - or can it?

Carl B. Jordan UAL 089674