Originally Posted by
Treehorn
When scheduling does book you to and from work, if it's to and from your base, you get hit with imputed income tax right? How do you avoid that?
As with all things Atlas, it depends. My first base, I got hit with every hotel stay (before/after my trip) and every airline ticket. In my current base, I have yet to pay a cent. I've heard from guys in the same base that one gets hit, while the other does not. Some guys appeal every taxable charge. You won't have a choice of bases initially, of course, but you can ask around when you get on line.
As WTFover said, you could opt to live in base, or bid one within driving distance (the company will pay mileage up to the cost of an airline ticket). You could also elect to jumpseat and not utilize Gateway travel - the risk being that if you don't make your trip, you could be subject to disciplinary action. To minimize the tax hit, you could talk to Travel 4-5 days prior to your trip to get a cheaper ticket. US Air is pretty much $250 anywhere in the US if they have seats.
For all its limitations, Gateway travel is still pretty awesome. After almost a decade of commuting, it's fantastic to not have to pay any attention to anything except my departure time. Even if you're paying the tax, it's likely a lot less than having a crashpad, paying for taxis and whatnot. I would prefer that we move to a home-basing system with no tax exposure, but that's a fight for the next contract.