To Commute or Not?

AV8TOR

AV8TOR

New Member
I bought a house around the Dallas area, and now am seeking employment with the regionals.

I've got a few choices, but would like to get input from others. As of right now I'm still not sure if I want to commute or not, I have a family and 3 kids. I think it would be good at first, but not sure how it would be in the long run.

I was looking at American Eagle as my first choice, but I've still heard they are pretty long upgrades....but I've also heard this is about to change.

So here's my list.

American Eagle
Express Jet
Republic

Could anyone provide some insight as what to expect, the pros and cons with these guys.

I really don't want to move the family anymore, Could any commuters provide some input on commuting with family?

Thanks
 
How old are you? If I had a family I'd be looking for stability more than a quick upgrade, especially if you had a while before you really needed to get on with a mainline carrier.
 
I am in the same boat, sans the kids. Eagle, XJT, and Colgan are probably what I will shoot for. I can't see commuting to Houston being that much of a problem, but I would rather be based here.
 
I've seen first hand what commuting does to family life.

Your wife needs to understand that you will be GONE for 4+ days at a time. She can't call you up and you rush home when the dishwasher is plugged and overflowing. If she is a strong independent woman she will do fine.

My dad has a 2 leg, one offline commute to EWR. For a 7pm show to fly to Europe he catches a 515am flight to BOS, then spends the rest of his day in his crashpad. On Saturday nights he has to commute home through DTW (600 miles in the wrong direction) because of the reduced schedules.

Commuting is tough, but not impossible. With all the regionals hiring anyone with a multi/comm/inst I'd be choosy about where you went if moving is not an option.
 
My wife is pretty independant, she took care of the household when I was deployed, she has somewhat of an idea. But I love my kids, and want to see them on my off days, and not spend them commuting to or from work.

I received a job a offer from another regional, but turned them down.

Does Chautauqua fly out of Houston? I'm looking and don't see a base for them, I think Republic flies out of Dallas not sure if they have a base. And not sure of Shuttle America.

Express Jet wouldn't be too bad of a commute, you could get flights out pretty quick. And Eagle is right here, and I know they are pretty stable.

Tough choices......
 
I'd throw your name into XJET and Eagle. It can't hurt. Captain_Bob and capnjim have both done the DFW at XJET. RTF is at eagle in DFW. Ask around.

I believe Eagle is the only regional in the DFW area.

DFW is a big city with a lot of options and flights. Therefore much easier than BGR.
 
AV8TOR said:
My wife is pretty independant, she took care of the household when I was deployed, she has somewhat of an idea. But I love my kids, and want to see them on my off days, and not spend them commuting to or from work.

I received a job a offer from another regional, but turned them down.

Does Chautauqua fly out of Houston? I'm looking and don't see a base for them, I think Republic flies out of Dallas not sure if they have a base. And not sure of Shuttle America.

Express Jet wouldn't be too bad of a commute, you could get flights out pretty quick. And Eagle is right here, and I know they are pretty stable.

Tough choices......
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I know there are a few JC'rs in the DFW area. AE is hiring, Xjet, one being in Dallas and the other is a short commute I believe.

I would not worry about upgrade at this point. I'd worry about the commute. Being gone 4 days a week is rough enough, and if you add commuting onto that it could be longer. It can be done, but it all depends on what works best for you.

You should PM Ready2fly (R2F). He is an AE f/o based in DFW. I believe he lives there as well. He'd be glad to help you out.

Can we ask which job your urned down and why?
 
Chautauqua just started flying CRJs out of IAH, but there's no guarantee you'd get that right out of new hire training. If it were me, I'd put Eagle at the tops and XJT right behind them. Absolute worst case scenario, you can take one of the bazillion SWA flights from DAL-HOU, then take the shuttle from HOU-IAH. Eagle's upgrades are probably about to speed up, but who knows by how much. Could still be a 3-5 year upgrade.

I chose PCL over XJT specifically b/c I didn't want to commute, though.
 
JEP said:
I know there are a few JC'rs in the DFW area. AE is hiring, Xjet, one being in Dallas and the other is a short commute I believe.

I would not worry about upgrade at this point. I'd worry about the commute. Being gone 4 days a week is rough enough, and if you add commuting onto that it could be longer. It can be done, but it all depends on what works best for you.

You should PM Ready2fly (R2F). He is an AE f/o based in DFW. I believe he lives there as well. He'd be glad to help you out.

Can we ask which job your urned down and why?
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Thanks for the insight, I will email R2F to see how the QOL is.....

....Mesa....I think that should say it all....They have a class date next week, but told them no thanks

I'm still trying to find people that work for them (AE & XJet) and see what else they have to say about their respective airline....Also I haven't really heard anything bad from Republic, but no telling if Corpus Christi would be a Jr base
 
AV8TOR said:
Thanks for the insight, I will email R2F to see how the QOL is.....

....Mesa....I think that should say it all....They have a class date next week, but told them no thanks

I'm still trying to find people that work for them (AE & XJet) and see what else they have to say about their respective airline....Also I haven't really heard anything bad from Republic, but no telling if Corpus Christi would be a Jr base
Click to expand...

xjet - captbob (f/o)lives in dallas I believe, flychicaga (CA), many others here.

AE - R2F and a few others here as well. cant recall the names.
 
jtrain609 said:
It's a little bit different here, bro.
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How is it different?

The thing I see from the CAs I fly with that commute is total and complete stress. Are we gonna be late due to mx or wx? Cause if so, they're gonna miss the commute home and have to spring for a hotel for the night. Had a CA have to use the "call in honest" policy on the last trip b/c his flight from CRP-IAH got cancelled. Then his backup flight got cancelled as well. That hosed the whole commute since he has a two leg commute. Then there's the weight and balance factor. If you're commuting on a CRJ, you need to hope for a lot of cargo. There's a good chance you'll get bumped if the station doesn't have ballast b/c the beast is already nose heavy. I've heard horror stories of weight restricted ERJs, too. If you're commuting on mainline, you might have to get there super early to beat any other JSers that are trying to get on an oversold flight. This is all drama I don't need in my life. If I EVER commute, it's not going to be for a regional job. I'd commute from MCO to FLL or ATL, and MAYBE MEM-MDW if it was for SWA. Other than that, I'd live in base.
 
I know that basing can, and does change, but if you got based somewhere where that might NOT happend (MEM-DTW-CLE-ATL) and since upgrades is a 2-3 year at most places, wouldn't it just be better to commute for a short period of time and move the family (if you have one)? Take the time to look around the area and find a place and then move. That way QOL would go up, and remember that moves are tax deductable (I think you have to do the 1040 long form to do it).
 
I didn't see this mentioned yet, but AE will give you a guaranteed DFW base if you get hired. You may have to wait a little while for a slot to open up, but it sounds like they need people everywhere. Also, they're about as "stable" as you can get for a regional from what I understand.
 
I don't want to step on any toes, but planning on commuting on a city pair with primarily CRJ's is crazy.

I've only had about a 70% success rate between PHX and SLC when the flight is a CRJ because of weight issues.

PHX-DFW my CRJ success rate was significantly lower because if there was one cloud in the metroplex, they're dropping passengers and adding gas.

My suggesetion. Best case scenario would be a city pair with multiple carriers with liberal jumpseat policies, preferably with big jets so they're not very weight/fuel critical.
 
If you can avoid it, do so.

However, that being said, I commute, to a relatively small base. I have on average about two flights a day to work with to get to work (regional CRJ flights).

I won't say I love commuting but it's not horrible. I commuted Christmas and New Years with no problems.

You just have to be smart. Try to get a base where you can hold a line and at the same time be as close to where you live as possible. If you can get those two things life isn't so bad.

If you're commuting to reserve .. well, stick a needle in your eye now. It'll be less painful.
 
ComplexHiAv8r said:
I know that basing can, and does change, but if you got based somewhere where that might NOT happend (MEM-DTW-CLE-ATL) and since upgrades is a 2-3 year at most places, wouldn't it just be better to commute for a short period of time and move the family (if you have one)? Take the time to look around the area and find a place and then move. That way QOL would go up, and remember that moves are tax deductable (I think you have to do the 1040 long form to do it).
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Depends on your definition of "short." 5 years a regional to me isn't a short period of time. That would be 6 months to a year. The commute from MEM-MDW if I got on with SWA would only be until I could hold MCO, then we'd be moving. I don't think my sanity could take commuting more than 2 years. I think wheelsup was gonna try the commute thing at Air Whisky and wound up moving to his base.
 
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