Originally Posted by
pjjhawaii
Aloha,
I am retiring from the Navy and start INDOC in a couple weeks at UAL. Hawaii is home however I have contemplated living on the mainland for at least a few years. Because I anticipate being a commuter for the long haul I have been looking at living in Denver where I at least have some family in the area and it is a large UAL base. I am guessing this will help with the commuting as I would commute from one UAL domicile to another. I have read all the gouge on how life is so much better when you live in domicile and especially while below the G line, however I cannot bring myself to pay 13% state tax to CA and my wife would never be happy on the East coast. That being said, I am hoping to get LAX or SFO based and commute from LIH and/or HNL. I know my 4 day trips will turn into 5-6 day trips and I know that life will not be as good as it could be if I live in the mainland. What I am hoping to hear in this thread is any real experience with guys that have commuted to CA from HI or can put me in touch with someone that has. I am on the fence on where I should set up shop for at least the year of probation. Thanks for any info anyone cares to share.
Congrats and welcome! Lots of good suggestions on various places but it can't be repeated enough that commuting makes this a full time job. But if you are going to try commuting, and i did for the first two years because of dash 3 finishing HS, find some friends or make some friends to crash pad with who are in the same situation so you can learn the game. United Reserve has a lot of gamesmanship and rules. You are almost never going to have a reserve period where you don't get at least a short call. So you are going to commute at least 3-4x a month. You can bid 6 day reserve blocks but others senior to you have the same opportunity. You have the first day nothing before 1000LBT rule, or you can pick up a later shortcall or you can aggressive pickup a later show. But if you do that you can get to base and sit in the Crashpad or get sent on a late returning 4 day. Not bad if you are in a 5 day reserve period and go back to long call, but not great if you are done or in a 6 day reserve period. A bit complex to start, but critical if you want to have any quality of life on days off not looking at the loads on employeeres. i commuted DFW-IAH for two years, and drove 90% of the time. It got old, but less stressful than the OJ running through airports commuting to reserve show. Be aware of very unpredicatable weather slow downs in SFO.
Bottom line move to a driveable to base location.
Again congrats and welcome.