Originally Posted by
hindsight2020
You're overstating the case. A guy who sits reserve and lives on assigned domicile is not gone 20 nights a month. This whole "gypsies need only apply" is a vestige of a commuter-biased lifestyle. The only normalized hardship of the lifestyle from a in-domicile perspective is that of getting the family to tolerate the fact your hard days off will never fall on the weekends, when the rest of the world socializes with each other. That does make airline pilots relative pariahs.
From a cursory look at my coworkers at the squadron, the in-base guys enjoy a home life not dramatically different than the 9-5 guy, while earning a hell of a lot more than a 9-5 guy for a hell of a lot less work and politics endured. These guys are all mainline of course.
I'll also plug the 'better' simulator outfits as viable work alternatives. That's a pretty good salary for zero work. The shifts suck these days with the ramp-up, but you're home every night. Dozing for dollars. Something to look into.
And therein lies the difference. Regional vs. mainline is night and day.
It really does come down to living in base to minimize your time away, especially at a regional. To take that to the next step, if you really want to minimize it, live in the largest base, where the company has the most flexibility with the schedules. As you can see, the experience level is all over the place. But, avoiding the "non-hub" domiciles minimizes the risk of a base closure.
At the regionals, you
WILL start out with 15-20 days working each month, but living in domicile can easily get you several more nights at home.
You asked about which carriers will give you the best chance of that happening. Since you are at least a year, and maybe 18 months, from getting hired, that's too hard to say. The airline you don't want to work for today may be the best one to go to later, and vice versa. Generally speaking, the larger the carrier, the better the odds, but who knows? What if your airline of choice stops or slows hiring?
If you're willing to move, it's worth looking at a map of all of the major domiciles and start asking yourself where you'd like to live or where you'd like to
avoid living, then apply accordingly. If you plan to try to go to the majors, you can deal with that issue then, but at some point, I would imagine you will want to settle down.
The point about "being home means you're home" is one not to be missed. The only time you will be doing anything on your off days will be when you need to study for recurrent. Otherwise, when you are not working, you are free to do as you please.