Originally Posted by
cruiseclimb
I had a friend or two at United that were pretty high up.. They offered to hand carry a resume into the CP, but then followed up by saying they hated their job?? So I want to do a turn at home, not commute, and see what happens with a corporate gig or two that may come up. The right corporate deal is great..
The point was, NOT until one has a CJO from an employer are they an "option".
Until that point comes, you're simply an option to THEM, one of thousands. And keep in mind, there's a metric crap-ton of dudes that know people, high up people, STILL waiting on a call/email.
Commuting, I'm on a decade and a half of it. Once one gets past the initial reserve stint, community at a major/legacy ISN'T like commuting at a regional.
Even reserve at a major/legacy isn't "that bad" if they've got a decent long call provision and staffing. Equating to an additional 2-3-4 days a month at home, depending. I knew some JFK 75 FO's that flew on a average 5-6 days a month. Spent the rest of if at home on long call. Rarely, if ever converted to SC. Is that the norm? Nope, buts possible depending on base/seat/category.
A regional can often entail 5 commutes in a single bid period, with 19-20 working days. Sometimes with only 2 days off between trips. OR 3, but sometimes not one (or TWO) end commutable.
It's not an "absolute", but usually even a junior line at a major/legacy can have 14-15 days off. And if one can hold the higher credit trips/IDs/pairings/patterns/sequences, it can mean only 3 commutes in a bid period.
As mentioned, once one embraces the suck of commuting, 3 (sometimes 4 depending) commutes in a bid period is manageable.