Originally Posted by
e6bpilot
Nicely done. Although your domicile is an outlier, you have made the most of a bad situation with manning. When manning is normal, there is an open time frenzy and you can pick up good(ish) flying. When we are overmanned like right now, Orlando captains are desperate hungry and will extra fly or bid open time on any and all reserve trips including sub rig chopped up bits and pieces so you bid reserve.
Yup.
Since January of 2018, damn near every month has been like February for us in MCO. For the last 8 years or so prior to that, I averaged 2-3 premium trips per month. Since then, I've gotten exactly 2 premium trips, the last one in early July 2018.
It was one of the reasons we finally decided to move.
The commute was still doable when I could play the premium game in the summer and make 130 tfp in 12 or 13 days. Between that and the fact that my drive was trending 15-30 minutes longer every year, it was beyond time.
I've always figured that not living a reasonable distance from domicile was costing me between $50k and $80K per year since I upgraded. This summer proved it.
Even doing what I call "Iron Man Premium" (ALL straight flying, with some reserve blocks mixed in and
one reroute that paid around 10 tfp extra), I was able to make significantly more than previously.
Don't get me wrong, it was a beotch, even living locally, and I was definitely feeling it by the time we closed on our old house in Nov, but would've been impossible had we not moved.
Another data point is that I only busted my a$$ from mid May to mid November. From Jan to April, I didn't even average 90tfp.
It will be
much easier to maintain these numbers when spread out over the entire year. Even easier if we ever go back to our traditional manning levels, but I am not gonna hold my breath for that.