Commuting To/From Hawaii

Aaron_Kearney

Aaron_Kearney

New Member
Would it be feasible to commute to and from Hawaii while flying for a major carrier? Just curious
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I doubt that happens. The flight is close to 5 hours from the West coast. I would think the pilots flying eastbound would have flown the westbound leg a day earlier. I dont think you would commute westbound to catch the eastbound flight. If you were based at HNL I would think you would want to live there.

my .01 worth
 
It happens.

I worked with a guy at Eagle who commuted from Hawaii. There was another guy who commuted from LONDON!
 
There are a lot of people that do that commute, it's not that far. Not any different than coast to coast. We have pilots that commute to Anchorage from Florida, and some that commute to Europe. Longest I ever heard of was Nairobi to Anchorage.
 
I sat next to a NW Cargo pilot one time on the way to Anchorage who was commuting from Florida.
 
I have a friend who works for Aloha and commutes from Seattle. They have intra-island night cargo lines where you can work 6 on, 8 off. He was able to do that even when he was pretty junior.
 
You can, in theory, commute from anywhere, to anywhere. It's just a matter of how much of a PITA that commute is! A long or difficult commute may mean giving up more days off in transit (having to go in the day/night before, not getting home til the day after a trip). Loads to/from HNL tend to be very heavy, so non-reving can be difficult, and that leaves you the jumpseat, which you can only physically occupy on your own airline. If you try for a jumpseat on another carrier, you're relying on a seat being open in the back. (For now, hopefully this will change soon!)

It's all about how much you want to live where you want to live. If living there is worth the hassle, then it's doable.
 
I had an aunt who was an FA for Air Canada who lived in HI and was based in Vancouver. She did it just fine...but she was senior and was able to control her schedule.
 
I think to be able to do something like that you would need some seniority to control your schedule or the commute will be tough.

As Seagull mentioned - some guys commmute far. There is a BA pilot who lived in Perth and commuted to London. That is about a 20 hour flight. If he could do all his trips in 2 weeks, and then have 2 weeks off, it would not be too bad, but if he had 3 on and 4 off, it would not work.
 
My dad did it. He took a bid on the 747-100/200 for UAL based in HNL while we were living in San Francisco. He was very senior at the time (he had only 2 years until retirement). He found commuting to be relatively easy as the jumpseat was easy to attain at the time, on any carrier. Despite that fact, we still decided to move to Honolulu for his last year with UAL.
 
You can commute from anywhere you want, depends on you senority and your schedule to make this work. I would imagine in the summer time it can be pretty difficult as the loads can be pretty high. If you are flying inter-island service with Aloha & Hawaii, you may not have a good schedule that is condusive for commuting.
 
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Who would want to commute to Hawaii when you could live there
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my $0.02

Ryan

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$$$$$, that is why
 
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You can, in theory, commute from anywhere, to anywhere. It's just a matter of how much of a PITA that commute is! A long or difficult commute may mean giving up more days off in transit (having to go in the day/night before, not getting home til the day after a trip). Loads to/from HNL tend to be very heavy, so non-reving can be difficult, and that leaves you the jumpseat, which you can only physically occupy on your own airline. If you try for a jumpseat on another carrier, you're relying on a seat being open in the back. (For now, hopefully this will change soon!)

It's all about how much you want to live where you want to live. If living there is worth the hassle, then it's doable.

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Yeah, non-reving to/from Hawaii is pretty bad right now. I just got back from a vacation in Hawaii and it was kinda hard. I was scared I wasn't going to make the flight. The flight going to Hawaii was completely full except by 2 seats and that was on the AA 757. Coming back was a little bit better, but still, you're taking chances on flights such as those.

Josh
 
When I went to Hawaii ages ago, some of the crew were commuting from TOKYO to Honolulu! Of course, that was pre-September 11, and I guess that Hawaii is a huge destination for Japanese tourists, so...

Most surreal sight in Hawaii for me? Watching Japanese tourists stream through the USS Arizona memorial.
 
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but still, you're taking chances on flights such as those.


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Definitely. The one time I non-reved to HNL there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth--had to sit in the airport for a day and a half and barely got on the flight we did.

Though pilots can jumpseat--which, I'm guessing, makes things much better. Though I still wouldn't want to make that commute for very long.
 
I'm going to HNL tomorrow morning. I'll let you know whether it would be a good commute.
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This will be the longest I've spent in one sitting on an airplane. I'm not sure if I will be able to handle it! Hence why I should be a SWA pilot... lol
 
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