Originally Posted by
Reactivity
The big question is whether you’re going to be scheduled for a minimum number of days per month and how those days might be broken up - all in a single block, two or more, etc. In other words, how many times a month will you have to make the commute? If you’re coming from passenger flying, you’re probably accustomed to three days here and four days there. If you’re ACMI, you might like doing 17 days in a row and enjoying the rest of the month off. Which one of these is FedEx more like?
A better way to answer your first question is that we're scheduled for a minimum number of days
off each month, not days of work. Reserve is always min days off, max work days. Lines can run the gamut from max pay and min days off to barely over guarantee with more time at home.
If you have enough seniority and the pick of the litter, you could do anything from one commute per month like an ACMI to 5-6 commutes like a pax schedule. When I was junior, I minimized commutes by bidding all my reserve days in one block. If you can't hold that or don't desire that, there are reserve options with more blocks of R-days. Now on the 777, I bid single 12-14 day trips some months and two roughly week long trips other months.
With enough seniority, folks flying typical domestic hub-turns can end up with a very routine week on, week off schedule which will minimize commutes. Junior folks may need to either accept a "shotgun" style schedule with more commutes, spend more time trying to massage what they have into something better via trip trades or (if there's enough coverage) drop trips exchanging pay for QOL.
In general, I can say that our system here lends itself very well to minimizing commutes. With realistic expectations and some flexibility early on, there is something for just about everyone to create a very acceptable QOL.