Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
Pilots love to use the "commuting" card and overlook the true cost of commuting.
Depending on your commute a pilot can loose one to several days a month to commuting. Time that could be better spent with family or earning more at something else. Commuters commonly have added expenses of crash pads, airport cars, hotels, cab rides and the normal added expenses of being on the road. Often these added expenses can add up to a lot, if one were to take the time to look.
We fool ourselves into thinking that we can cheat the high costs of living in urban areas by fleeing to depressed regions to make our crummy pay checks make sense. Few take into account lost days and the other associated expenses. These false assumptions are another tool that management uses to cut the pay even more.
Overlooked Truths about aviation:
Per Diem isn't pay
A pilot earns only what his stated base pay is. Selling your days off and vacation time is sacrificing the days of your life for a miserable return. It does not count as being paid to be a pilot for the company and should not be counted as such.
Commuting costs a lot. It is another way we can sell even more of out time off.
Lets not forget that often the "cop" does not have 100K in student loans and looks forwads to a good retirement. And, they also have the ability to work overtime that pilots love to overlook.
Skyhigh
I understand what you're saying but it would cost me far more to move to my domicile than commute and commuting cost me less than $150 per month. PHX is a strong market for my wife's career and there're 29 daily flights to my domicile of DEN. Here soon I’ll be able to hold TUS which is only a 2 hour drive for me.
Also, I don't know anyone who has $100K in student loans, unless you're including college and even then they are only around $80K. Most all of my friends spent in between $30K-60K, I personal spent 42K on my FLT training and $23K on college. I worked for 5 years in sales and was very successful. I was able to pay for most of my training out of my own pocket and I invested wisely with the rest. Our future looks great regardless of my position and income.
Everyone's situation is different and that is what everyone needs to understand.