Originally Posted by Four Fans

Home basing means the company buys you a ticket from your home airport to wherever in the world they need you to meet up with the airplane. The 18 on/13 off does mean being gone for 18 days straight. If you managed to bid the last half of one month and the first half of the next, you could be gone 36. I will say this has never happened to me. After the 15th day on the road, they bump your hourly salary by $10/hour for FOs and FEs, $15 for Captains. This would count for either the 3 hours guaranteed (2 hour daily guarantee (60per month/30 days=2 hours/day) + 1 hour of over-guarantee for being on the road, flying or not), or whatever hard time you flew each day.

Some people don't like being on the road that long at a time, but others don't mind getting the work out of the way and have long stretches at home. It's not for everybody, but great for those who like it.