Just worth pointing out that there are a lot of people here who do not understand how staff travel perks work. You travel on standby, getting the last seats left over after all the fare paying passengers. This means you often have to tiptoe very carefully through the minefield that is selecting a flight and destination you actually think you will be able to get to. In the peak seasons, flights are often full, meaning standby passengers are left behind. In my airline we offer jumpseats (the spare cabin crew seats by the doors) to staff passengers, but the captain retains authority over who gets these and there are a lot of different ways they can be dished out. Usually Clingons (family members travelling with an operating crew member,) then pilots, cabin crew, their immediate family, then everyone else in seniority order. You cannot put someone on a jumpseat who does not know how to behave, and who would not be willing to help in an evacuation, so for this reason children are usually not put on jumpseats.
Travelling with children adds a whole extra level of stress into it, as often you will be bumped off a peak times flight or asked if you are willing to sit separately from each other. My children have sat in other parts of the plane from me from a fairly young age, they do not know any different. Children not used to this concept could find it very hard to accept. We’ve even split between flights before, with DH going ahead, or being left behind, or me being left behind. We’ve had flights where DH and one DC went on one flight and me and the other DC travelled on a different flight, sometimes catching up on a later flight at the same airport, or travelling into 2 different airports close together (eg Milan Linate and Milan Malpensa.)
The plus side is we can afford to travel all over, frequently, if we are prepared to play the game, and often we travel in nice seats (business class all the way to Australia!) It is a benefit to me because I can take family with me when I am working away over school holidays, birthdays, etc.
It’s really not a good perk for family travelling on standby when they don’t understand all the possible restrictions and ways of getting through the airport quickly and easily. I put my mother on a long haul standby flight once which I was not travelling with her on, and she was put on a jumpseat (at my request) and she really struggled with the jumpseat itself and with the stress of not knowing which flight she was travelling on.
For the person suggesting you put one person on your staff travel and then book the tickets for them but then try and change the name on the ticket - that is Staff Travel abuse and a fast track to being fired!