Staff travel platforms & tools explained
5 min read
From myIDTravel and ZED booking systems to load apps and employee fare sites — a tour of the tools non-rev travelers use, and where myIDBuddy fits.
Flying non-rev means juggling a few different tools — one to book, one to check loads, somewhere to find travel partners. Here's how the staff-travel tech landscape breaks down, and how the pieces fit together.
1. Booking & listing platforms
These are where you actually list for a flight and pay. The most common is myIDTravel, used by many airlines for interline (offline) travel on partner carriers. Your own airline also has an internal staff-travel portal for travel on its own flights. ZED bookings are typically handled through these same systems.
2. Load & availability tools
Before you commit, you need to know your odds — the loads. Some airlines show loads in their own portal; non-revs also use dedicated load-checking apps and community services to estimate how full a flight is and how many staff are already listed.
3. Employee fare & travel-deal sites
Beyond flights, there are booking sites that offer airline employees discounted hotels, car rentals, cruises, and reduced-rate (“interline”) revenue tickets. These are handy for the ground side of a trip but don't help with the standby experience itself.
4. Community & planning
Historically this has lived in Facebook groups, forums, and word of mouth: finding out who else is going somewhere, swapping load tips, and arranging to meet up. It's scattered, and you usually learn who was around after the trip.
Where myIDBuddy fits
myIDBuddy is the missing social and planning layer. It doesn't replace your booking platform — you'll still list and pay through your airline's tools or myIDTravel. Instead, myIDBuddy brings the people together:
- See who's flying where on a map, grouped by city and date;
- Join or host trips and chat with the group;
- View loads by cabin alongside who's already listed;
- Connect with verified travelers you'll actually want to fly with.
Think of it as the layer that turns a solo standby gamble into a planned trip with company. Join the waitlist.
Third-party platforms mentioned here are independent of and not affiliated with myIDBuddy.
Fly standby with a crew, not alone
myIDBuddy shows you who's flying where, the loads, and who to travel with. Join the waitlist to be first on the map.
Join the waitlist