Not sure--my sister's hubby used to work for continental--I think I recall a voucher system of some sort, but not sure on the details.
He has worked with Northwest for a while--they get to fly standby for super super cheap...they get a certain number of coupons per year. It actually is not a very generous program considering what they once had for the airlines. In speaking with a comair agent once--they seemed to have a preemo plan.
But if it is anything like Northwest--even though they pay a small out of pocket charge (I think it actually covers taxes and fees)--they fly a lot and take good advantage of it. They get airline discounts at hotels (they had half off at their hotel/condo in Hawaii for their wedding) and for their flying--the key is knowing the schedule and when you can just walk on a flight and when basically there is no chance in heck of getting on that flight.
My friend works for Delta and they do the standby thing as well and work the system in a similar fashion.
I'm sorry it is so vague and not to specific to continental--but at least you have an idea of how it possibly can work even if it isn't specific enough.
