Originally Posted by
squirtinvert
I do the MDW commute from a midwest USA city serviced by SWA. I will say that it is harder than I imagined. Flights frequently fill up and I have missed 1 report in 1.5 years here. That also being said I did tally up the numbers for this year so far and I have spent an additional 31 days away from home because of commutting. Not only do I miss out on significant monetary value but also time at home. Also being a summer 2017 hire it took me 4 months to get to MDW but some are able to pick it up as new hires. YRMV. Good luck
31 days x 6.5 TFP (ADG) x $103.27 per TFP (2nd year FO rate)
Ball-park figure of unpaid time away from family: $20,809 for a 2nd year FO.
Just for kicks and grins, if you were a topped out captain:
31 days x 6.5 TFP (ADG) x $231.54 per TFP (12th year CA)
Your ball-park figure of lost income due to unpaid time away from family: $46,655
Mind you, none of those figures include your NEC contribution, profit sharing, or per diem.
Add that over the duration of your career, throw some compounding on there, and the numbers get pretty scary. Hope you like where you live and are OK being gone away from home as long as you are because when it's all said and done, over the course of your career, you'll be leaving 7 figures on the table.