Originally Posted by SeeDub

If you are willing to spend time "massaging" your schedule, the bottom 20% ain't too bad at all as a commuter. In my < 10 years, I have yet to break 20% and in fact have spent most of my time <10% from the bottom as a commuter.

My experience has been that all one needs is a little space from the bottom ( ~5%) and that's enough wiggle room to get creative and at least turn a terrible commuter schedule into something you can live with.

I'm convinced that our flexibility in manipulating our schedules is one of the best parts of our contract and the cargo flying operation. A lot of what we do at FedEx with our schedules as junior a pilot simply isn't possible working for a passenger carrier operation. My favorite is a short week on followed by a long week off with no dead time during the work week. I'm typically commuting to work twice a month, sometimes 3 and rarely 4.

Of course, it's always good to be senior but even the junior pilot can have a relatively decent schedule at FedEx. You just have to be flexible and consistently put in a little effort massaging your schedule.