This is definitely the biggest thing in my book. If you are on reserve for 16 days/month, or you are a junior line holder with four, 4-day non-commutable trips, the guy who lives in base works 16 days. The commuter works 24 days. That's a tad of a difference if you ask me, especially if you have a family.

Now, when you are senior and you can get your hours in 12-15 days of "commutable" late sign-in days, that makes it different. I have seen many people just get a small apartment in the NY, Houston, ATL area for the first few months/years of being junior as opposed to commuting and paying for a crashpad up to 24 days per month.

For me, I always had a primary plan and two backups to commute. My company allows us to book the jumseat on company metal, so that was my first backup. My second backup was just a later flight that at least existed and had open seats (can't book 2 jumpseats in the same day). My primary plan was to fly on another airline for the convenience of the departure/arrival times and the direct flight. Either way, it's not for the faint of heart. I had a family member to stay with and to help with transportation, but if I hadn't, I probably would have just moved to base for the first year or so.