Originally Posted by
GOFRTRS
#1. Get senior. #2 Stay senior. #3. Sacrificing seniority to be in a higher paying seat will make your life miserable as a commuter.
Technique.
Another technique is to get the highest paying seat you can stand, then use some of the delta in pay to buy discounted tix from corporate travel. Or buy that plane you always wanted...
I did the former frequently. Sometimes...I ate the cost of a 300 buck ticket. When I was using it to get to an MD-11 trip paying $10,000 or more I just wrote it off as cost of doing business. Never had to beg for a jumpseat in ATL or drag myself two hours to the closest FedEx ramp.
I also flew my own plane now and then to Memphis. Wasn't alone--bumped into several other FedEx guys at Wilson doing the same thing, and even shared a hangar at Dewitt Spain for a while. Not a cheap option, but always showed up to work with a huge grin....
Point is pick the flying you want, and figure out what makes coming to work fun. For me--MD-11 was so darn much fun most trips I enjoyed coming to work. ONE day O&B or PM standby would pay for a month of tix to and from my home, so I just figured it was worth it. Hated hub turns, and being "more senior" and doing flying I hated would have been a net loss for me. YMMV.