Some Guy, I too am a commuter. I HATE night hub turns and sitting reserve in a crashpad in MEM, and am willing to fly almost anything else to avoid either one. What I've found is that I am not willing to chase the money and bid real junior into a seat, and end up with a crappy quality of life.
When trying to determine how to bid, I have always tried to look at the existing bidpacks and try to determine what guys at my appox. seniority are able to hold, and to see whether or not those lines are commutable (granted, things change with the lines all the time).
I then look at the quality of flying of those lines to determine if I would want to fly them. By the way, I would be very wary of bidding for an aircraft that isn't even on the line yet (although the odds of getting bumped for training would be much higher).
When I look at the existing bidpacks, the junior domestic Bus lines look like the 72 lines with a lot night hub turns and MEM out and backs. SIBA is great, but goes senior. The 10 is going away. The junior ANC MD lines are seeing more DH's but the optimizer is making the lines tougher. And commuting to ANC will mean an extra day away from home for every trip on your line (remember, there's no jumpseating into trips available). The LAX junior lines aren't very commuter friendly unless you live in SoCal, and the vast majority of any available Intl flying is RFO stuff (great for commuting, but not being able to drive when Intl ALL the time gets old).
What does it leave you with? MEM maddog. A large variety of commuter-friendly lines, both domestic and Intl. A lot of week-on, week-off domestic stuff. Some night hub turn and out-and-back lines, but also a large number lines with DH's to work with.
Just my bored-on-a-layover, long-winded, 2 cents worth.
Last edited by hyperone; 04-16-2007 at 06:40 PM.