For the love of travel...?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eric Bohn
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Eric Bohn

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For those of you who got into flying to "see the world," or at least if that was part of the benefit of flying for you, is the travel as rewarding as you hoped? From what I understand international traveling may not be feasible until you acquire some seniority at a major, and you may be flying in and out of some less-than-desirable places for a while.

Also, at what point have/would you chosen quality of life over travel - for example, if you choose certain routes time and again due to the QOL it offers rather than to see things? Do you still enjoy these same trips, or has it just become part of the job?

If you could be home every day, still fly, but only fly within a 150 mile radius of your home, would you do it and travel on your own time as you could afford it?
 
Can't say I am fond of traveling to the likes of Dayton, Springfield MO and Harrisburg over and over again. Definitely a job after the 3 month kool aid period goes away. Went from wanting to fly to trying to build my schedule so I don't have to ever fly and still make enough money. Traveling outside of work....across town for a nice dinner if I am feeling adventurous.

This could just be the airline style where you go to the same cities over and over and over again, but you get burnt out pretty fast. At least I did. I think maybe a 135 on demand where you have no idea where you are going might spice things up a bit.
 
DPApilot is the only one I have seen succeed at this. Who else gets 24-72 overnights in KEYW/MHH/FPO/MIA.

Being on the road is cool for about 6 months, when you are young. After that, it sinks in that seeing airports and seeing hotels is not really seeing the world.

Not many pilots are in a position to bum around Europe for weeks at a time. When you are young, you can't afford the money or time. When you can, family will probably make that impractical.
 
I work 4 day trips, which usually means that I'm off for 3 days after each trip. In those three days, it usually takes about one day to recover from a trip, a second day to do whatever it is that I'm planning on doing on my days off, and by day three I'm already thinking about planning my commute back to work. Frankly, I don't have the time or the energy to travel on my days off.

Do I take advantage of the travel benefits? Sure, once or twice a year when I have vacation.
 
Eric Bohn said:
For those of you who got into flying to "see the world," or at least if that was part of the benefit of flying for you, is the travel as rewarding as you hoped? From what I understand international traveling may not be feasible until you acquire some seniority at a major, and you may be flying in and out of some less-than-desirable places for a while.

Also, at what point have/would you chosen quality of life over travel - for example, if you choose certain routes time and again due to the QOL it offers rather than to see things? Do you still enjoy these same trips, or has it just become part of the job?

If you could be home every day, still fly, but only fly within a 150 mile radius of your home, would you do it and travel on your own time as you could afford it?
Click to expand...

Part of the reason I like the long-haul ACMI racket is because of the variety in flying. I've gotten to do and see some cool stuff on work trips, particularly in Europe and Asia (4-5 days sitting around in Germany, Italy, or Japan, for instance). That said, the last thing I want to do after a long trip is go back out on the road, even with 12-24 days off in a stretch.

I've had a job where I was home every day, but that didn't really pay the bills. Really, the better money is in bigger, longer-range airplanes that don't let you be home every night.
 
drunkenbeagle said:
DPApilot is the only one I have seen succeed at this. Who else gets 24-72 overnights in KEYW/MHH/FPO/MIA.

Being on the road is cool for about 6 months, when you are young. After that, it sinks in that seeing airports and seeing hotels is not really seeing the world.

Not many pilots are in a position to bum around Europe for weeks at a time. When you are young, you can't afford the money or time. When you can, family will probably make that impractical.
Click to expand...

Truth. I lived on the road for almost two years with my job, living in hotels. It's cool for the first two or three months (if that), then gets old very very quickly. Not only that, but most of the places we travelled aren't places I'd ever want to stay long term.
 
My wife & I have traveled to six of the seven continents so far. We're fortunate that my regional has access to some pretty decent travel benefits with our major partners.

Travel is one of the biggest reasons I got into the 121 side of the business. I fly with some guys who never use the travel bennies and that down right perplexes me. Oh well, more first class seats for me :)

Seriously though, it does become just a job, but I've made the most of many of my big & small town overnights. I'll honestly miss the likes of Missoula, Lincoln, Houghton, Springfield, etc. I mean, when else would I have been able to visit the President Lincoln museum? That said, I will gladly trade those for Sydney, Tokyo, Paris, etc if that day comes and look forward to the next adventure.

Travel & being away is part of the job, you can either embrace it or bitch about it. I say embrace it.
 
Eric Bohn said:
For those of you who got into flying to "see the world," or at least if that was part of the benefit of flying for you, is the travel as rewarding as you hoped? From what I understand international traveling may not be feasible until you acquire some seniority at a major, and you may be flying in and out of some less-than-desirable places for a while.

Also, at what point have/would you chosen quality of life over travel - for example, if you choose certain routes time and again due to the QOL it offers rather than to see things? Do you still enjoy these same trips, or has it just become part of the job?

If you could be home every day, still fly, but only fly within a 150 mile radius of your home, would you do it and travel on your own time as you could afford it?
Click to expand...

For work travel, it was a lot more fun at my previous company because there were almost always downtown hotels for longer layovers, and because of the length of trips, every trip had several long layovers. More time away to get the same 20 hour 4-day done, but it was cool to stay at the Fairmont in St. John's one day, then a couple blocks from the Sears tower the next day, and then dinner with a Mariachi band at the table in some off-the-beaten-path city in Mexico the next.

Since I fly for a 'regional' we don't see Europe or Asia or South America on our pairings, but the more I fly the type of flying I do now, the more I think I wouldn't even be all that interested in international flying unless I was very very senior in my seat, and could be the cream of the crop best trips. Otherwise, I quite enjoy productive domestic flying and always sleeping in and only setting my alarm clock a couple times per month, and then try to get a big stretch of days off and go hog-wild on my days off to wherever the loads are good!

I was really looking forward to non-revving a lot when I started 121 flying in 2007.

550,000 miles and 48 countries later, I'm checking loads to Rio de Janeiro for next week in the other tab on my browser as I type this.

It's been great enjoying pretty good quality sleep in business class for cheap, on the way to someplace new in the world.

- Riding bikes through endless terraced farms in Bali or China
- Oktoberfest in Germany a couple times
- Strolling through the streets of Pompeii with almost no other tourists on a rainy off-season day
- Getting bargain tailor made clothes in Vietnam, a kashmir suit for me and a fancy red dress for my friend, as they bring us tea and snacks while doing measurements and talking fast in Vietnamese I didn't understand
- Walking into the hostel room in Sydney to see 9 girls sitting on the floor painting their nails and doing their hair, and nodding hello as I walk to the empty 10th bunk bed
- Fireworks on the Danube River in Budapest
- Staring down a cheetah from the safari jeep in South Africa as the guide whispers how they only see one about one day out of every thirty
- Walking by the Rosetta Stone language software kiosk in the airport at work in the week, and seeing the actual Rosetta Stone in the British Museum in London that weekend
- On a day when all the passenger flights were sold out, waking up in the middle of the night over the Pacific on the upper deck of a cargo 747, grabbing a sandwich from the galley, chatting with the guys up front for a couple minutes, then back to my spot to lie down for another few hours of good sleep
- Watching the sun set on the infamous moai statues of Easter Island
- A $4 per night hostel in Cambodia, after slipping the customs guys a $10 bill to be let in with no usable passport pages remaining (thanks a lot, Narita!!)
- Cumulatively spending every hour of the 24 hour clock in Singapore and Bangkok airports
- Hong Kong laser show from Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront
- Stopping in Dubai on the way home to go to a friend's Halloween party, because a standby pass on a near-empty A-380 was less than a hundred bucks, and business class home to the states was wide open the next day
- Italy

Those are just a few memorable moments that come to mind as I wait for the water to boil for my tea here.

You ask at the end of your post about the travel on your own time and that is what I have written about. I think I have not even spent $10,000 yet, including everything from accommodations, food, flight fees and taxes, etc. It has been an incredible bargain. 25 trips to Europe and I can think of the times I had to sit in coach off the top of my head -- very few. A dozen trips to Asia...$40 to go from Bangkok to the USA for example, when it's time to head home.

If you are flexible in your plans and don't always need to go to a specific place on a certain block of time off, the travel benefits are still good.
 
Nick said:
For work travel, it was a lot more fun at my previous company because there were almost always downtown hotels for longer layovers, and because of the length of trips, every trip had several long layovers. More time away to get the same 20 hour 4-day done, but it was cool to stay at the Fairmont in St. John's one day, then a couple blocks from the Sears tower the next day, and then dinner with a Mariachi band at the table in some off-the-beaten-path city in Mexico the next.

Since I fly for a 'regional' we don't see Europe or Asia or South America on our pairings, but the more I fly the type of flying I do now, the more I think I wouldn't even be all that interested in international flying unless I was very very senior in my seat, and could be the cream of the crop best trips. Otherwise, I quite enjoy productive domestic flying and always sleeping in and only setting my alarm clock a couple times per month, and then try to get a big stretch of days off and go hog-wild on my days off to wherever the loads are good!

I was really looking forward to non-revving a lot when I started 121 flying in 2007.

550,000 miles and 48 countries later, I'm checking loads to Rio de Janeiro for next week in the other tab on my browser as I type this.

It's been great enjoying pretty good quality sleep in business class for cheap, on the way to someplace new in the world.

- Riding bikes through endless terraced farms in Bali or China
- Oktoberfest in Germany a couple times
- Strolling through the streets of Pompeii with almost no other tourists on a rainy off-season day
- Getting bargain tailor made clothes in Vietnam, a kashmir suit for me and a fancy red dress for my friend, as they bring us tea and snacks while doing measurements and talking fast in Vietnamese I didn't understand
- Walking into the hostel room in Sydney to see 9 girls sitting on the floor painting their nails and doing their hair, and nodding hello as I walk to the empty 10th bunk bed
- Fireworks on the Danube River in Budapest
- Staring down a cheetah from the safari jeep in South Africa as the guide whispers how they only see one about one day out of every thirty
- Walking by the Rosetta Stone language software kiosk in the airport at work in the week, and seeing the actual Rosetta Stone in the British Museum in London that weekend
- On a day when all the passenger flights were sold out, waking up in the middle of the night over the Pacific on the upper deck of a cargo 747, grabbing a sandwich from the galley, chatting with the guys up front for a couple minutes, then back to my spot to lie down for another few hours of good sleep
- Watching the sun set on the infamous moai statues of Easter Island
- A $4 per night hostel in Cambodia, after slipping the customs guys a $10 bill to be let in with no usable passport pages remaining (thanks a lot, Narita!!)
- Cumulatively spending every hour of the 24 hour clock in Singapore and Bangkok airports
- Hong Kong laser show from Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront
- Stopping in Dubai on the way home to go to a friend's Halloween party, because a standby pass on a near-empty A-380 was less than a hundred bucks, and business class home to the states was wide open the next day
- Italy

Those are just a few memorable moments that come to mind as I wait for the water to boil for my tea here.

You ask at the end of your post about the travel on your own time and that is what I have written about. I think I have not even spent $10,000 yet, including everything from accommodations, food, flight fees and taxes, etc. It has been an incredible bargain. 25 trips to Europe and I can think of the times I had to sit in coach off the top of my head -- very few. A dozen trips to Asia...$40 to go from Bangkok to the USA for example, when it's time to head home.

If you are flexible in your plans and don't always need to go to a specific place on a certain block of time off, the travel benefits are still good.
Click to expand...
Who do you fly for?
 
Nick said:
For work travel, it was a lot more fun at my previous company because there were almost always downtown hotels for longer layovers, and because of the length of trips, every trip had several long layovers. More time away to get the same 20 hour 4-day done, but it was cool to stay at the Fairmont in St. John's one day, then a couple blocks from the Sears tower the next day, and then dinner with a Mariachi band at the table in some off-the-beaten-path city in Mexico the next.

Since I fly for a 'regional' we don't see Europe or Asia or South America on our pairings, but the more I fly the type of flying I do now, the more I think I wouldn't even be all that interested in international flying unless I was very very senior in my seat, and could be the cream of the crop best trips. Otherwise, I quite enjoy productive domestic flying and always sleeping in and only setting my alarm clock a couple times per month, and then try to get a big stretch of days off and go hog-wild on my days off to wherever the loads are good!

I was really looking forward to non-revving a lot when I started 121 flying in 2007.

550,000 miles and 48 countries later, I'm checking loads to Rio de Janeiro for next week in the other tab on my browser as I type this.

It's been great enjoying pretty good quality sleep in business class for cheap, on the way to someplace new in the world.

- Riding bikes through endless terraced farms in Bali or China
- Oktoberfest in Germany a couple times
- Strolling through the streets of Pompeii with almost no other tourists on a rainy off-season day
- Getting bargain tailor made clothes in Vietnam, a kashmir suit for me and a fancy red dress for my friend, as they bring us tea and snacks while doing measurements and talking fast in Vietnamese I didn't understand
- Walking into the hostel room in Sydney to see 9 girls sitting on the floor painting their nails and doing their hair, and nodding hello as I walk to the empty 10th bunk bed
- Fireworks on the Danube River in Budapest
- Staring down a cheetah from the safari jeep in South Africa as the guide whispers how they only see one about one day out of every thirty
- Walking by the Rosetta Stone language software kiosk in the airport at work in the week, and seeing the actual Rosetta Stone in the British Museum in London that weekend
- On a day when all the passenger flights were sold out, waking up in the middle of the night over the Pacific on the upper deck of a cargo 747, grabbing a sandwich from the galley, chatting with the guys up front for a couple minutes, then back to my spot to lie down for another few hours of good sleep
- Watching the sun set on the infamous moai statues of Easter Island
- A $4 per night hostel in Cambodia, after slipping the customs guys a $10 bill to be let in with no usable passport pages remaining (thanks a lot, Narita!!)
- Cumulatively spending every hour of the 24 hour clock in Singapore and Bangkok airports
- Hong Kong laser show from Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront
- Stopping in Dubai on the way home to go to a friend's Halloween party, because a standby pass on a near-empty A-380 was less than a hundred bucks, and business class home to the states was wide open the next day
- Italy

Those are just a few memorable moments that come to mind as I wait for the water to boil for my tea here.

You ask at the end of your post about the travel on your own time and that is what I have written about. I think I have not even spent $10,000 yet, including everything from accommodations, food, flight fees and taxes, etc. It has been an incredible bargain. 25 trips to Europe and I can think of the times I had to sit in coach off the top of my head -- very few. A dozen trips to Asia...$40 to go from Bangkok to the USA for example, when it's time to head home.

If you are flexible in your plans and don't always need to go to a specific place on a certain block of time off, the travel benefits are still good.
Click to expand...
It really is great to hear the positive side of pt121 flying because you tend to hear only the negative thanks for the great post.
 
SeanD said:
Yah gotta admit, a long BNA or TYS overnight on a Friday or Saturday is an adventure. ;)
Click to expand...

Oh absolutely. I got my just-elapsed old paper copy of my medical signed in highlighter by Elvis a few years ago in Nashville. Not an Elvis imitator, but the real, actual, Elvis.

More than anything else, it depends on the crew too. Boring crew in a cool place can be way better to just go out solo. Good crew even in a boring city can still be a good time. I enjoy the fact that I know almost everyone in my base; there are only 100 pilots and 100 FAs.
 
Andy5466 said:
so do you usually make these trips alone or with friends? (I personally don't mind traveling alone at all)
Click to expand...

I've done about 2/3 of them with one or more other people, and about 1/3 solo.

Some of the best trips have been just me at the outset. Of course you meet people along the way. Obviously the traveling solo part really adds a lot of flexibility.

Two people seems perfect to me, maybe three as long as everyone is the same 'type' of traveler. I can't imagine doing a long trip with more than three people.
 
Nick said:
One of the DCI carriers.

Again, that stuff is examples of things done in one's off-time, not at work.
Click to expand...
That's one of the reasons I want to work for a regional, if the flight benefits allow it. I would take the better nonrev benefits over a quick upgrade time. My girlfriend makes a decent living to help out and has amazing flexibility with her job. We're both okay with living a more modest lifestyle if it means we get to travel more.
 
at1024 said:
That's one of the reasons I want to work for a regional, if the flight benefits allow it. I would take the better nonrev benefits over a quick upgrade time. My girlfriend makes a decent living to help out and has amazing flexibility with her job. We're both okay with living a more modest lifestyle if it means we get to travel more.
Click to expand...

Non rev benefits at most carriers (even the regionals) are about the same. The BIG thing is to make sure you have good zed fare deals. That said, there is no way I would trade good quality of life and an upgrade slot for better non rev agreements.
 
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