For the airline pilots...

Commuting in and of itself is neither good nor bad.

There are good and bad things about commuting, and there are good and bad things about moving to live at base.

You must decide if the good of commuting outweighs the bad. Also, if the bad of moving to base outweighs the good ;)

Commuting is something many, many people do sucessfully for their entire career. There are others who wouldn't commute if their career depends on it, and would leave flying before they'd commute. It's all individual.
 
Doug Taylor said:
Depends!

I think the litmus test is this:

(purely hypothetical)

Your airline says, "You must move to base immediately or be fired".

If you pick up and move without hesitation, you probably shouldn't commute.

If you start thumbing through the classifieds for other employment, you'll do just fine commuting! ;)
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:D:D
 
Personally, I think commuting stinks - especially if you have a family. I just recently left the 121 world for the corporate world and have said goodbye to commuting. My "commute" today was 20 minutes to the airport and no stress. Did a quick trip from FXE to NAS and home by 3:00 to be with the family.

Once all you young guys get past the SJS, this becomes work. Albeit a great job -but work none the less. At some point, sooner rather than later, you'll see commuting is just wasting days in your life.


Max
 
He didn't say anything about it not being fun. He just said it was a job. Big difference between the two.
 
Hey, I agree. I love what I do.....I have fun doing what I do. BUT, it's still a job and I'd rather be at home doing something else. LOL

It is job, a great one albeit....but it still is a job.....that's why I get paid.
 
zmiller4 said:
I got called by Eagle a couple of days after submitting. ExpressJet took three months and was really rude when they did ("You're going to Eagle? Ha ha ha! We'll talk to you when you reapply here in three months!). Skywest took 11 months, but that's because they stopped hiring right as I applied. If you'd really rather go somewhere other than Republic, I'd wait on it. As desperate as regionals are there's no reason not to go to your first choice now.

I would not plan on a long/2-leg commute as a long-term option. I'm trying to do TUS-BNA right now, and it sucks. I finished a 4-day trip at 10PM last night, took a redeye through ATL and got home a little before 9AM, but I'm not functioning real well right now. It can be pretty stressful, and there will be times when you just can't make it home, which is really depressing.
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SKYW, has a base at BNA now?
 
BobDDuck said:
Worst case there are about a billion WN flights to MDW from BNA.
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It's true. But there are apparently a *ton* of BNA-ORD commuters. I went through MDW once to get to TUS, and there were like 4 United guys on it. They said they did it because there were so many senior guys on the flights to ORD. Oh well, at least there's a couple SKW flights a day that I can probably bump pretty much anyone off of.
 
I think it was a few months at Skywest from application to interview call. About four years from first application to interview at Alaska (boy, was that an exercise in persistence and patience).

In my 8 years as an airline pilot I've commuted a total of four months (three of those while in training) and hated every commuting leg of it. Granted, we've moved four times in that same period, but that was all by personal choice. We've had a great time experiencing different parts of the country and have met some great people. Now, if we're ever in Portland, Salt Lake City, or Colorado Springs, we've got friends to break bread with.

Commuter policies are good, with the caveat that you have several options. If the flight loads look iffy, you must start early to be protected. So, if you've got two flights out of Podunk, Arkansas, one early morning and one late night, you'll have to try for the early morning one to get to your next-day report. You might end up a crew lounge lizard for more hours than you bargained for. For many in this industry it's worth the few extra hours "at work" to be in a place where they want to live. Each to his/her own.
 
I was thinking about this a little more. . .

. . . let's see a show of hands on how many commuters here that have missed a trip because they couldn't get on a flight. . . did you invoke the commuter clause?
 
I feel that moving to your base can be a dangerous option. Airlines(regional) open and close bases depending on what their needs are. Commuting more than 1 leg is tough. Just get ready to spend the night in the crew lounge or the cheap hotel.
 
"let's see a show of hands on how many commuters here that have missed a trip because they couldn't get on a flight"

I can't say as I have. I'd probably just call in sick and then make the time up later.
 
skidz said:
Holy cow... :panic:
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Are you Hindu? :) j/k!

Nah, it's a piece of cake. I back up trips together, fly in once, maybe twice per month, do my thing, fly home, forget everything I learned on the road.

I'm going to have to review callouts thursday before I hop on the redeye! :)
 
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