Crew Rate Hotel Cost

bc2209

bc2209

Well-Known Member
This comes out of a conversation with my old flight instructor who just got off of IOE at Skywest.

He explained that since he held a line right out of IOE that he doesn't need a crashpad.

To me this sounds great.

He went on to say that if your 3 day trip starts on Monday you commute the day before and stay in a hotel with a significantly reduced crew rate.

My question is how much is a typical hotel room with a airline crew discount?

Is this typical when you hold a line? He mentioned that if on reserve you will definitely need a crashpad.
 
Having to get a hotel at the begining of your line or at the end is typically up to the individual pilot to pay for. Some schedule are commutable based on your where live and you can commute in and home on the first/last day of your trip and not need a hotel or crash pad. Depending on the rates and your schedule a hotel or crashpad could be cheaper.

Each airline negotiates rates with hotels. Some hotels will extend those rates to the pilots when the pilots is paying and other will not. The rates are all over the place and usually kept hush hush. I have seen crew rates as logs $40 bucks night but I would say the average is between 50-80 in my experience.
 
$40 to 60 in DTW.

$120-plus (up to $300) in NYC

Obviously, your mileage will vary.
 
Like Bandit said, depending on the quality of schedules and your seniority in addition to what city you are commuting to/from (example, there probably is a late flight that leaves from a hub to another hub but maybe not a smaller city) you will be able to commute

-on both ends and never need a hotel
-commute in on the front but have to buy a hotel room on the last night and go on on the first flight in the morning
-commute in the night before and get a hotel for an early (non commutable) show but be able commute home on your last day
-need a hotel on the front and back end of the trip (expensive and causes days at home to rapidly shrink).

Other things to consider include the fact that hotel pricing isn't static and room availability may not always be there. Even crappy crew hotels fill up with "normal" guests during big conventions and other events in a city. Also, there is nothing more stressful then getting delayed on your last turn, flying barber pole to get back to the hub and then taxiing in as you watch your last chance for commuting home that night push off the gate as you go by.

Other things of note about commuting... some people will just crash out in the crew room instead of buying a hotel. This is generally frowned up except in IROP situations when pretty much the entire airline has shut down and people are stranded all over the place. Don't be that guy. Some people will commute in on a red eye for an early show the next day. I guess if you can sleep on the flight this is ok, I've never personally flown with a guy who was anywhere near 100% the day after doing this. I knew @Derg used to do that, but for trips that showed much later in the day, giving him time to catch up on rest before his report. Different sort of thing.
 
$32-37 in DFW (depended if I wanted a fridge and microwave in room or not). $53 in ORD but the hotel offered different deals every few months. 3 nights got you a free stay. Then later 3 nights would get you a $50 gift card that could be redeemed on your room. $55 in MIA when I was based there years ago.
 
$50 plus taxes in IAD.

I bid commutable (2 possible flights) on the back end and come in the night before a start as CommutAir covers 4 commuter rooms per month. That way at most, I'm covering 2 nights on my own.
 
@BobDDuck I can't tell you how many time I got burned on a commute home. The worst is when you bust your tail and make up a 2 hour delay throughout the day only to have to sit and wait for your ride home to push because you are parking on the same freaking gate as them and ops won't change you to one of the million empty gates.....
 
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