Originally Posted by
LumberJack
That's good info! Would you mind posting typical show and release times for a PM trip?
Another thought is Delta typically has 4 day trips for narrowbody fleets. I've never seen a trip uncommutable on both ends, and a lot are commutable on both ends, but you'll usually be gone for 4 days at a time, 4 times per month. Whereas Southwest I believe generally flies 3 day trips and 4 of them per month? So even though Delta is generally more commutable, you might still be home more flying for Southwest, especially if you can get home same day.
We do have 4 day trips. I fly them sometimes and the majority, though definitely not all of them, are commutable. They just aren't terribly productive and day four is always...well...day four. The majority of our trips are 3 day trips though with a scattering of 4, 2, and 1 day trips.
AM trips are generally a deal breaker. Most of them report at or before 6am and so you have to commute the previous afternoon if you want to be rested.
PM shows start at around 11am and I have seen them as late as 9pm. They generally end sometime between 9pm and 1am but we have a few that get back around 6pm after a short overnight. I try and trade into trips that get back before 10pm since there is always a late flight back from HOU, usually around 10:20-10:50. That flight also runs late quite a bit since it is the last flight of the night and so I have made the commute plenty of times when I thought I wouldn't.
Of course, with airline commuting, all of this could change in an instant if they took that late night flight away.