Understanding the commute (ITH to LGA/EWR/JFK)

[SPAWNmaster]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm a part-time MIL guy with a family (two young kids). I'm actually pretty happy with my civilian job/life but am tempted by the long-term upside of the airlines. I have done my fair share of reading, searching old threads, picking brains offline from bros who fly busses in their civilian time...but I'm hoping to get some thoughts from the wisdom of this forum.

I'm located at ITH and would be commuting to NYC area, I'm open to any of the bases there. Everything I read makes it sound like commuting while bidding reserve would be an absolute nightmare. I'm equidistant from SYR and ROC (an hour drive from each). So an hour drive to either of those, then an hour flight in to JFK/LGA/EWR and then sit reserve for 12 hours before reverse commute home. What am I missing? Is there a way to sit reserve from home or SYR/ROC and catch a jump seat in on short notice? I'm hoping folks here can paint the picture for me of just what sort of lifestyle I'm looking at. I appreciate your help in filling in the gaps for me here.

 

[Jordan93]

Depends on the airline and reserve call out. I flew with an FO who lives in the Syracuse area and he mostly drives. If you’re on reserve you most likely won’t be able to make the reserve call out as short call tends to be 1.5-3 hours. You may be able to catch a flight doing long call.

 

[mikecweb]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm a part-time MIL guy with a family (two young kids). I'm actually pretty happy with my civilian job/life but am tempted by the long-term upside of the airlines. I have done my fair share of reading, searching old threads, picking brains offline from bros who fly busses in their civilian time...but I'm hoping to get some thoughts from the wisdom of this forum.

I'm located at ITH and would be commuting to NYC area, I'm open to any of the bases there. Everything I read makes it sound like commuting while bidding reserve would be an absolute nightmare. I'm equidistant from SYR and ROC (an hour drive from each). So an hour drive to either of those, then an hour flight in to JFK/LGA/EWR and then sit reserve for 12 hours before reverse commute home. What am I missing? Is there a way to sit reserve from home or SYR/ROC and catch a jump seat in on short notice? I'm hoping folks here can paint the picture for me of just what sort of lifestyle I'm looking at. I appreciate your help in filling in the gaps for me here.

Welcome.
You would sit reserve for a block of days so you wouldn't go home every 12 hours. You'd jump in and out of your reserve block 4-5 days. Some airlines have long call reserve which may or may not be available as a new hire and may or may not work with your commute options.

 

[SPAWNmaster]

Awesome, thank you guys for the replies. I imagine getting on a long call schedule consistently has to do with your contract and/or seniority. It sounds like in my case commuting to NYC, it'd be better to hold a line as soon as possible.

 

[bimmerphile]

Awesome, thank you guys for the replies. I imagine getting on a long call schedule consistently has to do with your contract and/or seniority. It sounds like in my case commuting to NYC, it'd be better to hold a line as soon as possible.

line holding is much better of course. united moved ITH flying down to IAD from EWR, so that's no longer an option. In the winter commuting out of there might be tricky, since it's all 50 seaters. SYR or ROC would probably be better, more mainline and 76 seater service. UA was running airbii to ROC out of EWR over the winter

 

[Soku39]

The commute will be fine, you have three airports to choose from.

 

[Jordan93]

Seems to me you'd only save an hour (at best) commuting by airplane, so why not just drive to NYC?

The OP could most definitely do that as a line holder. I don’t think he’d be able to make a reserve call out by car

 

[bimmerphile]

That's over 4 hour drive to EWR, add the bridges and tunnels it's probably 5-5.5hr to LGA/JFK
Commuting from ROC is probably the most feasible. Mainline service on airbus (typically) to EWR with 2 jumpseats, plus various RJs