Originally Posted by
lolwut
Yes, its possible, but that requires seniority. Also, frequently most trips will have at least one wakeup like that. It'll be hard to completely avoid them and in exchange for ridding your schedule of them, you're going to have to give up a lot of bidding power you could've used towards other things that are important to you.
A string of 3ams isn't the worst. The worst is when the first day of your trip has you getting to the hotel past midnight and by the last day you're getting up at 3am for a 14 hour day.
I'm not trying to be a debbie downer, moreso just trying to convey how tough and exhausting the schedules frequently are so that you can make an informed decision and know what you're getting yourself into.
Nope, I actually really glad I asked, because it's one thing to talk about schedules conceptually ("bid for a 'good schedule'") and another thing to see them for real. I would guess that's it best to have a late show/early release at each end of the trip, respectively. (Even if you're not commuting)
Also, how important is it to live in base? I mean, hypothetically, if I take a job with XJT, for example, at the ATL base and my goal airline (or the airline that I have a guaranteed interview at - fingers crossed) is Delta, would it make sense to move to Atlanta, if I have no other restraints?