commuting internationally

S

STS-41B

Well-Known Member
I know lots of airline guys commute, some incredibly long distances.
A buddy of mine with a Chicago base told me about a Captain he was with who commutes from Honolulu. (all for a regional, no less!)
Seems crazy… but anyway, does anyone commute from another country, maybe not necessarily for a regional but for a major?
Canada of course would be a shorter commute than some domestic commutes.
Are there special considerations to take? Obviously things like clearing customs and allowing time for that, etc..
do you pay taxes on your income in both your country of residence and the USA?
 
Wow, heard about a Thailand guy commuting on Omni. I'd imagine Hawaiian is probably easier for that one, but Paris to HNL? that's just silly.

Can you do 10 off in a row as a senior line-holder on the -330? I figure that's the minimum days to actually enjoy being home on a commute like that.
 
HVYMETALDRVR said:
Wow, heard about a Thailand guy commuting on Omni. I'd imagine Hawaiian is probably easier for that one, but Paris to HNL? that's just silly.

Can you do 10 off in a row as a senior line-holder on the -330? I figure that's the minimum days to actually enjoy being home on a commute like that.
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If you are senior enough you can back to back three or four PEK or JFK trips and get 75 hours in two weeks or less. Also, on reserve on either airplane it's pretty easy to get all 12 days off in a row, even when pretty junior.
 
We do 15/15 at my place and we have 2 international commuters. One lives in Bangkok and the other in Cebu, both commuting to AK.

BobDDuck said:
If you are senior enough you can back to back three or four PEK or JFK trips and get 75 hours in two weeks or less. Also, on reserve on either airplane it's pretty easy to get all 12 days off in a row, even when pretty junior.
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Even with the required 1 in 7 off?
 
z987k said:
Even with the required 1 in 7 off?
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Yep. The FAR117 30 hours off requirement isn't built into the PBS logic as far as reserve logic goes so you can be awarded 18 days of reserve in a row and then scheduling will just release you every 6 days (or sometimes less if it fits into their coverage better) for your 30 hours off. Some guys who live in base and sit reserve do it that way just to get a few extra days off each month.
 
In the expat community, it is very common. I commute from Florida to Moscow. I also have a full month off when home, so it makes it worth it to me. My family is used to it, since I've been doing it now for almost 7 years. It wears on you, but is much better than moving the family to Moscow, or China, or where ever. I'm still looking for something that is a little less than a 5000 mile commute every month, but those golden handcuffs are a bitch. YMMV.
 
Stone Cold said:
In the expat community, it is very common. I commute from Florida to Moscow. I also have a full month off when home, so it makes it worth it to me. My family is used to it, since I've been doing it now for almost 7 years. It wears on you, but is much better than moving the family to Moscow, or China, or where ever. I'm still looking for something that is a little less than a 5000 mile commute every month, but those golden handcuffs are a bitch. YMMV.
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Been reading your posts for awhile, are you on the 121 side or corporate?
 
BobDDuck said:
Yep. The FAR117 30 hours off requirement isn't built into the PBS logic as far as reserve logic goes so you can be awarded 18 days of reserve in a row and then scheduling will just release you every 6 days (or sometimes less if it fits into their coverage better) for your 30 hours off. Some guys who live in base and sit reserve do it that way just to get a few extra days off each month.
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That's pure genius, really.
 
BobDDuck said:
Yep. The FAR117 30 hours off requirement isn't built into the PBS logic as far as reserve logic goes so you can be awarded 18 days of reserve in a row and then scheduling will just release you every 6 days (or sometimes less if it fits into their coverage better) for your 30 hours off. Some guys who live in base and sit reserve do it that way just to get a few extra days off each month.
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Ah, FLiCA would not allow a schedule like that to be built, or at least under the rules it was following.
 
z987k said:
Ah, FLiCA would not allow a schedule like that to be built, or at least under the rules it was following.
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FLICA doesn't build schedules. It wouldn't allow for a try into something like that after the fact, but it has nothing to do with schedule building.
 
It's not built into our schedules either, and it would be easy for scheduling to give someone 30 hours off in 7 days with the way our reserve system is set up. Simply give the AM one day and PM the next day, and the problem is solved. However, I don't think management trusts our schedulers any more than they do us, so we can only do 5 in a row when we used to be able to do 6 in a row on reserve. I think they're terrified that scheduling may goof and they'd lose one guy that was just sitting around doing nothing anyway......
 
Much depends on where you are based, flights to your "home", time zones crossed, seniority and schedule.
I knew guys who commuted (or commute), from France, Germany, Chile and Great Britain to KATL. Those ones seemed okay. I also have known some who commuted from Alaska to KDTW or KATL. That commute seemed worse than the international commutes.
 
I know some guys who commute from Europe, but unless you have the ability to "back to back" trips like you can with "augmented" flying, I couldn't imagine trying to pull that off.
 
It's funny (sort of) how some commutes that should be easy turn out to be hard. Like flights in and out of SEA and SLC.
 
HVYMETALDRVR said:
It's funny (sort of) how some commutes that should be easy turn out to be hard. Like flights in and out of SEA and SLC.
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MCO to ATL looks easy on paper. There's a flight about every hour or so on Delta with 757s and 767s. They're always full with Delta mainline commuters ready to shank anyone that tries to snag "their" jumpseat. AirTran used to be a little bit better, but I don't know how it is since it's transitioned to the SWA side of things. MEM to DTW was a nightmare from what I heard because of all the displaced guys and gals plus DHs built into schedules.
 
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