Originally Posted by
PanchoBarnes
For what it’s worth I have the same drive without traffic. 55 Miles, 1.5 hours was standard with rush hour. So I would always bid for RAP 1 (begins at 4am). If I got a 2hr call it was right at 4am and I had no traffic.
I’d drive a little closer to the airport during rush hour, and get breakfast then go home.
If traffic was worse than usual then that’s the way life is. I figured I could explain that there was an accident or whatever that made the drive longer.
In LA you could littleraly be sitting in Marina Del Ray, 20 minutes away and not make 2hrs if there was rush hour and an accident.
I just tried to be reasonable. Ready to go if they called, car packed.
Don’t beat yourself up over it.
This. I was about 40 miles, or 45 minutes if there was no traffic (lol) to the parking lot in LAX. I was of the opinion that living within the 150 miles of your base (the distance to base the contract allows the company to pay for a move if you get involuntarily displaced from the base you're in) made a reasonable case for being okay to sit reserve at home. In LA, I wouldn't advocate for living in Indio and sitting reserve at home, but hopefully you get the idea. Obviously make sure that typically you can get to the parking lot in about an hour and a half (definitely under 2 hours) and you will be good. The majority of my time I got called on reserve, I was given far more than two hours notice. Twice I was asked (and scheduling admitted) if I could make a show time in less than two hours (1:55 and 1:50). I said "I'll do my best, but might be a couple minutes late." Ended up being 5 and 10 minutes early those times.
Pro tip: if you're running a little late, call Scheduling, and ask to get patched through to your captain (or FO). Tell them you have a question about your trip (or something like that, but don't tell the scheduler you're running late). Once your captain answers (or you get his/her voicemail) tell them you're running a couple minutes behind schedule. They'll try to get some of your work done for you so you still push on time. I've been on both sides of the coin (asking and giving help), and it's worked beautifully. As long as the flight pushes on time, no one needs to know or will care if you're a few minutes late to the gate.
