1st world problem??

JDean3204

JDean3204

Well-Known Member
In the last four years I’ve been spoiled in the world of home basing. Right now I live about 4 miles from the airport in San Diego and only go to work once a month. However, that is quickly becoming the only benefit of my job as all other areas are lagging behind the industry standard quickly, with no signs of improving. The job works well for my situation. I am decently happy but know there is much more opportunity out there, at 35 y/o I feel like I finally need to make a wise decision.

Being that LAX is a base for pretty much everyone and somewhat junior as well, I should be happy that I won’t have to commute by plane for long. Moving wouldn’t be an option for personal reasons anyway. The drive is 120 miles for me, wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t SoCal traffic. That drive can range from 2.5-4.0 hours depending on traffic. I will have to drive it at least once a week and am already dreading it. I’d move a lot closer, but my son will most likely be in San Diego for a while and being within a close radius of him is my priority.

This has been the main reason I’m still ACMI, and am even considering just switching to a different ACMI carrier vs moving back to the airlines. I just don’t know if that’s the right financial decision for my future.

Any thoughts on this? Does anyone make a 100 plus mile drive in a big metropolitan area to get to work? If so, is it as bad as I’m painting it to be in my head?
 
Get a Tesla or Hyundai/Kia with a Comma Ai unit and driving will be a breeze compared to commuting by air. It won't be as cushy as positive space, but it won't be that bad, either. It is really nice finishing a trip and knowing you only have a 1-2 hour drive and don't have to worry about things like weather and maintenance delays that will kill your commute home.
 
I used to do a four hour drive from Akron to Detroit every week when I was at Pinnacle. Granted, not in the LA traffic, but same amount time, basically. I didn't mind it at all. Now, the 1.5 hour flight from Atlanta to Detroit when I moved down here and started commuting by plane? That was pure hell, and it cemented in my mind that I'd never commute again.
 
CoffeeIcePapers said:
Get a Tesla or Hyundai/Kia with a Comma Ai unit and driving will be a breeze compared to commuting by air. It won't be as cushy as positive space, but it won't be that bad, either. It is really nice finishing a trip and knowing you only have a 1-2 hour drive and don't have to worry about things like weather and maintenance delays that will kill your commute home.
Click to expand...
We hadn’t bought a new car for a decade and it’s blown me away how miles melt away on the highway now. Between lane centering and adaptive cruise control my main job is managing Spotify.
 
SlumTodd_Millionaire said:
I used to do a four hour drive from Akron to Detroit every week when I was at Pinnacle. Granted, not in the LA traffic, but same amount time, basically. I didn't mind it at all. Now, the 1.5 hour flight from Atlanta to Detroit when I moved down here and started commuting by plane? That was pure hell, and it cemented in my mind that I'd never commute again.
Click to expand...


I told myself that I’d never commute again as well, not even for the highest wages. Commuting and crash pad life made me want to almost quit flying when I first got to the regionals. That was one of the main reasons why I went to the dark world of ACMI as well

Thanks for your input, sacrifices have to be made somewhere for a better financial future and I just need to accept that
 
When I was at Brown based in ONT we had a guy in the Escondido area that did reserve and it was an 80 mile trip. Something in the contract about delays caused by traffic couldn't be held against you. In any case, an 80 mile drive isn't bad. I used to do 183 each way, twice a month. It's the price of living where you want to live. I never lived in base, always commuted, so it was all I ever knew. I'm sure there is another side to the story.
 
There’s a thread on this already ongoing. Basically, if you have any doubt about your shop, it’s the appropriate time to investigate leaving. You have no decisions to make until you have a CJO in hand. Why not try?
 
pwttogfk said:
We hadn’t bought a new car for a decade and it’s blown me away how miles melt away on the highway now. Between lane centering and adaptive cruise control my main job is managing Spotify.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Comma is a modified cell phone that takes over the stock LKA and SCC on a lot of different vehicles and adds features like automatic stop and go, automatic red light/stop sign start and stop, etc. We have a Hyundai Palisade, and the stock features are great, but if I had a long commute, I would buy the Comma for sure, especially in stop and go traffic.
 
The drive up to LAX is gonna suck. Lived in south OC off of Ortega highway and it was 65 mi to the employee lot. It was such a bad drive and you've got double that ahead of you, with no way of avoiding the 5.

The good news: If you're LAX based with a few airlines (AS, UA, maybe others?) they have trips that start out of SNA. That'll save you a TON of time and was awesome before we moved up to the PNW.

As an outsider it seemed like ACMIs were super effected by market demand and didn't offer a lot of stability or consistency until the cargo uptick with Covid. Once (or IF) that demand cools down, how will they survive?
 
Skåning said:
The drive up to LAX is gonna suck. Lived in south OC off of Ortega highway and it was 65 mi to the employee lot. It was such a bad drive and you've got double that ahead of you, with no way of avoiding the 5.

The good news: If you're LAX based with a few airlines (AS, UA, maybe others?) they have trips that start out of SNA. That'll save you a TON of time and was awesome before we moved up to the PNW.

As an outsider it seemed like ACMIs were super effected by market demand and didn't offer a lot of stability or consistency until the cargo uptick with Covid. Once (or IF) that demand cools down, how will they survive?
Click to expand...

That’s a great question, and one that I don’t want to be on the wrong side when time will answer it. I see the trend now and it is leaning towards not survivable. Plus most of our flying is Amazon, they’re showing that they studied the DHL model very well and are implementing all the same tactics. That means no contract carrier will have stability moving forward in that relationship. Time to finally have my paycheck name match the name painted on the plane I’m afraid.

I love living in San Diego, but absolutely hate the SoCal traffic. A few times I’ve done the car rental option to position to LAX and it was a solid three hour drive. I laughed and said to myself “glad I don’t do this very much!” :D

I’m getting my ducks in a row and shooting for AS or AA. I was at QX for a bit and so I’m familiar with AAG and can see a solid future financially relative to my current outlook. The DC alone first year at AS will triple what I currently have towards my future lol
 
Last edited:
roundout said:
There’s a thread on this already ongoing. Basically, if you have any doubt about your shop, it’s the appropriate time to investigate leaving. You have no decisions to make until you have a CJO in hand. Why not try?
Click to expand...


Thank you for the input, I did see the thread you’re talking about and it is similar yes. I’m more so querying the drive, looking for others that do a similar drive for an airline schedule. You’re 100 percent correct that no decisions need to be made until CJO’s, which I don’t have yet so one could say I’m a cart ahead of the horse right now.
 
Just checking in from the “corpie” world over here…I know I’m not worthy to be in the presence of airline W-2s but I’ve never had to commute longer than 15 minutes for work (and it was worth the drive to live in the “nice” part of Independence, KS).

One of my friends owns a small car dealer and if I can find the right weird little short range EV (i3 and e-Golf are up there) is willing to help me get the paperwork done for the $4k used EV rebate. I might be able to get my commuting costs down to 0. Just plug in at the hangar where they’ve already got high voltage wiring for GPUs.
 
I would think UAL would be the best bet between seniority progression and wide bodies flying out of LAX. AS will only ever have narrow bodies and much slower seniority progression, but I think it’s worth applying to all of the majors that have a base there.
 
alaskadrifter said:
I would think UAL would be the best bet between seniority progression and wide bodies flying out of LAX. AS will only ever have narrow bodies and much slower seniority progression, but I think it’s worth applying to all of the majors that have a base there.
Click to expand...
Yeah I agree. What ever can get you those co-domicile SNA trips quicker.

I think that’s AS and they’re desperate now too. If you came I’d suggest keeping your UA app open.
 
pwttogfk said:
Just checking in from the “corpie” world over here…I know I’m not worthy to be in the presence of airline W-2s but I’ve never had to commute longer than 15 minutes for work (and it was worth the drive to live in the “nice” part of Independence, KS).

One of my friends owns a small car dealer and if I can find the right weird little short range EV (i3 and e-Golf are up there) is willing to help me get the paperwork done for the $4k used EV rebate. I might be able to get my commuting costs down to 0. Just plug in at the hangar where they’ve already got high voltage wiring for GPUs.
Click to expand...
I don't know your employer so I may be way off base, but do you think they'll let you charge your EV on their dime? Looking from the employer's perspective, I would be worried about every other employee in the company asking when they are going to get a fuel allowance for their personal vehicles.
 
I drive 140 miles from Madison to O’Hare but my travel time is pretty consistent at 2 hours.

I miss living in Chicago and taking the train to work but the drive isn’t bad at all. I also don’t do it once a week - usually only twice or thrice a month.
 
SteveC said:
I don't know your employer so I may be way off base, but do you think they'll let you charge your EV on their dime? Looking from the employer's perspective, I would be worried about every other employee in the company asking when they are going to get a fuel allowance for their personal vehicles.
Click to expand...

AirTran installed several EV chargers in the employee lot for free use. And that was way back in the 00s.

If you ever get a chance and you’re in the Bay Area, swing by the Apple HQ. It’s impressive. Row after row after row of free EV charges for employees. It’s not as rare as you might think.
 
bLizZuE said:
I drive 140 miles from Madison to O’Hare but my travel time is pretty consistent at 2 hours.

I miss living in Chicago and taking the train to work but the drive isn’t bad at all. I also don’t do it once a week - usually only twice or thrice a month.
Click to expand...
I think there is an important point here. If you go to a shop that flies widebodies from LAX, you can bid the long Asia trips, (which I'm guessing you're doing now) and only have to make the LAX drive 1-3x per month. Additionally, at Widget, there are dozens of 757 trips that start and end at SNA in the February bid pack. That category also flies 767-300ER so you can do long haul, too.
 
Drove 180 miles ~ 3 hours to work for 6 years, still preferable to commuting by airplane.

LAX is small and stagnant for AA, LAX covers SNA, SAN and ONT as well, but there seems to be enough people living around socal that you can fly out of whichever airport you want to, maybe when the gate construction finishes LAX will start to expand again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top