What is the lifestyle of a regional like?

PGH Maverick

PGH Maverick

Well-Known Member
I am just finishing up building my times, and expect to be hired by a regional in the coming months. My question to you folks is...

What is the daily schedule, or weekly schedule like for a new regional FO? What is it like if I live in my domicile, vs. if I commute to it? How many days or nights am I home, how much can I expect to live on the road? Also when on the road away from my home (commuting) who pays those costs etc... I am confused on a lot of these nuances and would love to hear more about what life is really like for somebody in the position I am looking to get.

Thanks for the help,
Mark
 
We moved to my base and I have been on reserve for 2 years. I only live 20 minutes from the airport which is nice for reserve. The best schedule you'll be assigned here is probably at best 15 off a month as a line holder, reserve is typically 5-6 on with 2-3 off. You are able to trade/swap/drop days but that is not a guarantee. As far as commuting goes you pay every flight you are on where I am employed.
 
I don't think I even fully understand commuting. Lets say I am based in Dallas, but live in Chicago... How does it work? Where do I sleep? I have never gotten a good breakdown of how commuting works.
 
The schedule varies quite a bit. Most or all of your flying will be turns out of a hub, or hub-outstation-hub. It also depends on if you're doing a day trip or a four day trip.

Living in domicile vs commuting isn't even a question. DO NOT COMMUTE. Life is cake (relatively speaking) in domicile. Commuting is the lowest layer of hell. I've had the option of commuting to a line vs. being on reserve at home. Guess which one I pick?

Time at home can vary. If you commute, and thus prefer longer (4 day) trips, you spend little time at home. I live in base and prefer 1 or 2 day trips. I had 3 or 4 overnights last month...

Expenses on the road. The company pays for the hotel and transportation. Things like wifi, refrigerators and microwaves are often included. Everything else is up to you.

I've also been on reserve for about 2 years. If I had to commute all that time, I'd have left this job long ago...
 
Mark Z said:
I don't think I even fully understand commuting. Lets say I am based in Dallas, but live in Chicago... How does it work? Where do I sleep? I have never gotten a good breakdown of how commuting works.
Click to expand...

From what I understand, if you live in Chicago and your base is Dallas, and your reserve is say 7am to 1pm, you have to jumpseat/nonrev the night before, stay in a crappy crashpad, and then sit around for a few hours. Then, you go home and do it all over again.
 
If you're based in Dallas as the scenario you presented says, you'd have to find a flight to take from Chicago to Dallas that got you there before your show time for a trip, or reserve period. Most companies say you need a certain number of flights with seats available or must make a "reasonable effort" or so on to make it to your domicile prior to when you are required to be there. At the end of your trip, or reserve sequence, you get to try and find a flight home.

It sounds simple, it is awful. It often (but not always) takes up your days off, i.e. you have to fly in the day/night prior to work to sleep in a crash pad or hotel both of which would be paid by you and/or leave the day after you get done, particularly at a regional due to the schedules. With flights being constantly oversold, weather caused cancellations and delays and other factors, commuting adds just that much more stress to the job. As a commuter due to my schedules and or reserve I often spent my first day off commuting home and my last day off (usually a stretch of 2 or 3 days off) commuting to work. That being said there are schedules at my company where you can commute to work the morning of a trip, fly your trip and end early enough on the last day to have multiple chances to commute home so you aren't eating into your days off but they tend to go senior. We also have a number of out station bases which makes commuting a 2 or 3 leg trek versus a hub base where it is generally 1 leg.

I will say that I met some great people while I commuted and very much enjoyed the camaraderie amongst flight crews that bent over backwards to get me to work and home again.

That being said, it can be done but for a regional it isn't worth it in my humble opinion. Being able to drive to work and drive home is MUCH, MUCH less stressful.
 
Mark Z said:
I don't think I even fully understand commuting. Lets say I am based in Dallas, but live in Chicago... How does it work? Where do I sleep? I have never gotten a good breakdown of how commuting works.
Click to expand...

Other than to help fellow crew members who commute, it isn't something you want to have to understand. In your example, if you're on reserve, you'll likely have to get to DFW the day before you're on duty. You will typically leave in the afternoon to ensure that you have other options in case you don't make it on your intended flight. Once you get to your base, you go to a crash pad, or find a cheap hotel room. That stuff has to be arranged beforehand of course. You stay there until crew scheduling calls you.

Once you get a trip, you hope and pray that crew scheduling can give you an overnight. Otherwise, back to the crash pad, or searching for a reasonably priced hotel room.

On your last day, you try as hard as possible to finish flying as soon as possible to make sure you can catch a flight home, and not have to sleep in Dallas. You spend all day monitoring the flight loads, and if you're delayed on your last leg, you can actually watch the grey hair grow, as you get increasingly worried about making it home for that important event you have to attend tomorrow morning.

All told, a round trip commute would cost me around 10 -12 hours. Do that at least once a week for a month, and that's 40+hours a month wasted.

Let me make a small suggestion:

DO NOT COMMUTE
 
I actually live near Pittsburgh, PA...
The only crews based here are for Republic. That is why I was asking about commuting.
 
In that case go to republic. You may make a few extra bucks elsewhere, but at the regional level, the pay difference isn't worth the commute.
 
I guess the big question then...
How do I secure the domicile I want? Is it possible to know the domiciles available prior to a training class? Can I request a different class if it is unavailable? I am obviously new to this... And domicile is incredibly important due to family obligations, and my other business/income source.

I appreciate all of the info thus far! You folks are awesome!
 
In that case, if you pick an airline with a lot of base options, it's hard to tell where you'll go and how long you'll be there. People always say "oh it'll only be a month or 2" but they're not predicting the future. They are deducting the future will be the same as the past, which is bad deduction. Republic will not be able to guarantee you anything. Your best hope there would be to get a class on the Republic certificate and pray for an east coast base. There's a chance, but that's about it.
 
Living in or near base is very awesome. I live close enough to LAX that I don't consider (and by the company's internal definition am not considered) a commuter, but far enough away that I dislike short call reserve. (I fly the Brasilia. It's a regional airliner. Life on the jet is different apparently. But they're weird over there, too.)

I used to commute to DFW for Eagle...commuting to reserve is bad. Commuting to a line can be better if you have commutable trips. But you'll probably wind up burning a few hotel rooms even with commutable trips, because stuff happens, and as far as the company is concerned, getting you to the domicile is "good enough." Commuting to reserve without some form of aggressive pickup or reserve proffering is an unattractive proposition. Live in base.

I bid around 70% in base most of the time. This makes me either one of the bottom lineholders or one of the more senior reserve guys. I opt to be a composite lineholder. Composite lineholders have both preassigned trips and reserve days in their schedules, a sort of hybrid of what trips you were awarded and whatever else you're needed for.

This week is strange. I was on 0900-2100 short call yesterday. Today was "only" three legs (LAX-SGU-SLC-TWF). And I just deadhead back to Los Angeles tomorrow. Then I start an afternoon three day trip the next day. As originally constituted, the 3-day was:
LAX-BFL-LAX-SAN-LAX-SAN-LAX-IYK
-spend the night-
IYK-LAX-SAN-LAX-SAN-LAX-SAN-LAX-SBA-LAX-SBA
-spend the night-
SBA-LAX-SBA-LAX-CLD-LAX-SAN-LAX

I dropped the first turn of the 3-day so that helped, I actually get to be at home Sunday and spend time more than just sleeping on my rest. A lot of the stuff in LA is like that: lots of legs and repetitive turns. We occasionally get sent up through San Francisco or Salt Lake City, though, so there's some variety in where we wind up. It just occurred to me that I won't get above FL 180 for the rest of the week and will be only briefly above 10,000', too. Hmm.

Commuting in itself doesn't necessarily suck, but if you don't have work rules or good pairings (and let's face it, an 0545 sign in is rarely commutable, and we have lots of those), it will suck.
 
Mark Z said:
I guess the big question then...
How do I secure the domicile I want? Is it possible to know the domiciles available prior to a training class? Can I request a different class if it is unavailable? I am obviously new to this... And domicile is incredibly important due to family obligations, and my other business/income source.

I appreciate all of the info thus far! You folks are awesome!
Click to expand...

At Republic, PIT is the most junior base in the system on the 170 (ACY and IFP might be a tie but will be closing soon) and on the Q400. So if you end up on the Republic cert, your chances of getting it as a base are very high. They offer you a choice of certificates and airframes depending on the need of the company but you can say no and wait for the class you want. You can only pass on a class 2 or 3 times if I remember before they rescind your offer for employment.

Right now, they are so desperate to staff the Q that they are allowing current FO's regardless of cert to bid over (normally, you are seat locked till upgrade). They are also opening a EWR base which will likely go senior (because of commutability) and make PIT even more junior on the Q.
 
flyinggreasemnky said:
At Republic, PIT is the most junior base in the system on the 170 (ACY and IFP might be a tie but will be closing soon) and on the Q400. So if you end up on the Republic cert, your chances of getting it as a base are very high. They offer you a choice of certificates and airframes depending on the need of the company but you can say no and wait for the class you want. You can only pass on a class 2 or 3 times if I remember before they rescind your offer for employment.

Right now, they are so desperate to staff the Q that they are allowing current FO's regardless of cert to bid over (normally, you are seat locked till upgrade). They are also opening a EWR base which will likely go senior (because of commutability) and make PIT even more junior on the Q.
Click to expand...
I am excited to hear that PIT is considered a junior base for Republic. That means good things for me. As far as growth within that, if I elected to remain within PIT, how would my prospects for upgrades to captain be affected? Would it possibly be faster by remaining in PIT if only junior guys seem to be getting sent here as FO?
 
I know nothing of the regional life. All I can tell you about is the alternative, corporate. I've flown only a handful of times in the last month. My last trip was a 10am departure. KLUK-KLGB-KDVT-KLUK, home at 7pm. Trip before was KLUK-KSFZ sit in the Marriott for three days and then back to KLUK. I rent a car if I feel like it, eat anything I want, more of a family atmosphere. The company I fly for actually cares about me. For example, I can always count on them to make a sizable corporate donation to my sons school (autism) during fundraising dinners and such. I can usually get any day off for doctors appointments and such.

I know I was lucky to find such a good gig but they are out there. I was once in your shoes and was so eager to get into the game, I would have taken the first job I found. My first job just happened to be in corporate by the grace of God.

Good luck!
 
A corporate gig would be awesome... But here in Pittsburgh I will take what I can get. Not many choices for flying around here.
 
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