Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Common theme is folks live in a town they like and have the seniority to consistently hold standup schedules. They may work 16 or more days per month, but they have the day completely free and may even have a 9-5 job. Around 8-10pm they head to the airport and fly one leg, typically 1-3 hours. They go to a hotel for a few hours, maybe get 4-6 hours in bed, and then fly the early am flight back to the hub, arriving around 6-8 am. They go home and have breakfast with the family. So that's almost a normal life except you sleep in a hotel about half the time, and earn an extra $150K-ish. Small wonder those guys tend to stick around. But you need some luck and timing (or decades of seniority) to get schedules like that.
Is there anywhere I might be able to read up more about experiences/schedules like this? I’ve poked around here a bit and searched “reserve” and sifted through the results, but that’s a lot of hits that haven’t always been pertinent. I’d love to be able to focus my research a bit more.
Long story short, I’m looking for a way to potentially work two jobs; staying with the FD with its flexible schedule and somehow get seniority started at an airline to be able to shift over to if/when I decide to punch out of the FD. From what I’ve read on reserve, this seems pretty feasible; especially since I’m living in NYC. That puts 3 major airports in easy reach and, from what I gather, is pretty junior.
I’m open to all options and, at this point, this is all a few years down the road to even start while I build hours for (at least) my R-ATP. But, I figure it can’t hurt to research and get an idea of what I can be doing to better position myself as I work toward that point.
Thank you!