I have a two leg commute each way. That makes four flights--$80--for the privilege of flying United's passengers home to their little outstations and into the hubs for whatever their reasons are. It's a good thing I did not move to my first base like I had originally planned because ...it closed four months later. As was previously mentioned, with my pay rate it's basically a break even game in the recession proof, famously low cost of living city in which I reside in Oklahoma. I can't imagine trying to live in EWR. I can't even afford a crash pad and that's just fine. I don't b*tch too much because I'm here to build time and gain experience. The commute leaves me with next to no life and it takes a minimum of eight hours each way but I love where I live and have received a strong first impression of this industry leading me to stay put. I will, however, start to b*tch when UAL accounting majors I went to college with decide I am a member of the perfect target market of travelers who can help offset the $7million gap claimed by that document (which I have held in my own hands at work). "Whoops... these few seats on the RJ are unsold. How can we 'close that gap?' How about we charge those commuting crew members $20 per segment since they'll end up in those seats anyway? It's perfect!" In the meantime, loads become incredibly skewed due to "ghostrevs" just showing up to utilize CASS instead of the travel network set up for just such commuters (and traditional nonrevers, of course). If I pay the segment fee via payroll deduction on a typical commute for a typical four day trip, I will take a 14% hit to my GROSS pay for that trip. If I commute out for the crappy stand ups I'm assigned because my company/management/scheduling/lines/who knows sucks, I will incur a 38% loss in GROSS pay for that string of stand ups (without respect to monthly guarantee). It's infuriating and a slap in the face to those quiet crew members who fly in well in advance of report time by necessity, fly their airplanes, and wait around for hours to start the eight hour process of going home (hopefully for more than 24 hours). "Live in base!" "Go work somewhere else!" "Talk to ALPA and mangement!" Yeah, yeah, yeah. All valid ideas but it's just not that easy. Fun times ahead.