Originally Posted by Eck4Life

Having been a commuter for most of my years on property, I feel comfortable giving you, and others who may be reading, some seasoned advice.

I think you may be getting confused about the backup flight. It is not required to have a backup JS. Just a backup flight on approved metal that crew scheds may positive space you on, if necessary. As long as that backup flight is scheduled to get in before check in, you are good per the policy. No where that I've seen is a minimum time frame given between arrival time of backup flight and check in time. For me, that means one minute's difference. Also, very big deal here, do NOT book more than one JS for yourself to get to base. Bad mojo. It is not necessary if you abide by the policy and you would be screwing fellow pilots by doing so. Let crew scheds positive space you if needed. You WILL be on the receiving end of that if everyone booked a backup JS vs flight.


Simplified example that I abide by:

Check in time is 10AM at base.

My first choice flight that I have JS booked: arrival time is 0700.

Next available flight that gets me there before check in (as long as it's DL or one of our regional affiliates) arrives at 0959. I'm good. No JS required. Nor should I book the JS on it as I'm screwing other pilots.

I hope I'm making sense. PM me if you have questions. There are some PHD level tactics that I'm leaving out, but this covers most of it.

In my experience, crew scheduling is very understanding in these situations as they are short staffed and need to get you to base. I've never had ANY blowback about getting positive spaced to my report station. I should know as I've called them at least 3 or 4 times in the last year to do just that since my commute is tough. The key is to keep them informed along the way. Don't be scared to call them. Let them know what is going on and you'll be fine.