CA1900

The vast majority of SWA's trips are split between "AM" and "PM" trips, which either report and release very early, or report in the afternoon and finish very late. Because of this, with very few exceptions, you're either going to be starting before any commuter flights come in, or finishing after any available flights home.

You should be able to go home the same day as you finish an AM, but you'd have to come the night before. Or, come the same day as a PM, but spend the night before coming home. I did that for several months, coming up the morning of a PM trip (or PM reserve, meaning landing by 9am), and after getting done at ~1am, crashed in the pilot lounge for a few hours then took the 5am flight home.

It was doable, but it wasted a lot of time I could have spent at home, and I ended up moving to a domicile within my first year. Some guys commute their whole career, but my wife and quickly realized that the move would be worth the QOL improvement, so we bit the bullet and are much happier.

Assuming hiring continues, being based in MCO would not take more than six months. While there are some junior pilots there, it's a super senior base otherwise, and if you ever plan to upgrade, expect to be on reserve for quite a while. (Being on reserve greatly limits your schedule flexibility compared to being a lineholder.)

Honestly? Yes. I hate to discourage you from trying to get the job, as it really is a terrific one, but the commuting situation you describe sounds absolutely hellish and I don't believe you'd have much of a home life at all.

Even doing a single-leg commute on SWA, as I did, is a big time-suck compared to driving to work. But you're talking about an off-line (other airline) commute to another airport, which takes it to a whole new level of hassle. You're not commuting on SWA, so that'll require you to try two flights to be protected by our commuter policy, versus needing only one flight on SWA. That means you can't take the last one of the day the night before -- you'll have to take the next-earlier one when you go to work. With only 3 flights a day, you may be leaving your house before lunch when you're not even working that day!

You're going to be an absolute zombie. I doubt there will be two flights that'd get you to work in time for most PM trips, so I assume you'll have to come the day before to do AM trips. On your last day of a trip, you'll be reporting at maybe 5am Central, working until 2pm, getting to ORD maybe at 4pm, then taking the next flight home. On a good day you'll probably be up for 18 hours before even getting to your car.

If you're absolutely dead-set on not moving, an airline that has a base in ORD might be a better fit for you.

At Southwest? Never. Our trips are almost universally uncommutable on one side or the other because of our AM/PM structure. That may change if we start doing red-eyes, but there's no indication of that coming any time soon. Otherwise, I'd expect to be in a hotel or crashpad 5-6 days a month if you commute; possibly more depending on how the flights between ORD and your home are scheduled.

Unfortunately trips that do that (a PM trip rolling into an AM trip), and have enough of a rest period between trips to make them legal, are extremely uncommon. The PMs in my base usually end between 9pm and midnight, and the AMs start between 4:30am and 8am. Those wouldn't be legal to put together.

Your best bet would probably be trying to do two 3-day trips (both AM or PM) in a row. You're still burning a hotel or crashpad between trips, but at least minimizing the time spent actually commuting. Alternately, you could look for a line with 4-day trips. There are fewer of them than 3-day trips, but they're out there.

Don't mean to be negative, but want you fully aware of what you'd be getting yourself into. Good luck!