Originally Posted by
Roadking
Alright, excuse me for asking some possibly dumb questions, but I'm just now really getting serious about airline employment...
Everybody talks about the wonderful world of "only working 15 days a month". (Or approximately that.) It sounds pretty good.
But here's a hypothetical from an oustider: How often does a pilot-- especially a new hire-- end up with, say, five 3-day trips spread out through the month, thus resulting in 10 days of painful commute effort, thus finally ending up with only 5 real days off at home?!? I understand such a month would be worst case, but I'm trying to see what's behind the silver lining!
Tough question, but worst case scenario that is VERY possible. Commuting to EWR on the 737 is the worst in the company. The show times and release times are early and late respectively. That is why B737 FO is 50% for a 1 year employee. Now if you live locally that is a different story. Within 6 months you could bid reserve and never fly at all. So essentially you could easily have 20 days off a month within 6 months. Reserve locally means day off without beer.