Originally Posted by
2GoodEngines
All great info guys (although, that's disappointing about DFW). Looks like Vegas would be the best bet for my situation based on what I'm hearing. I'm a night owl so I don't "think" red-eyes would be an issue for me. Looks like you could do three 4-day rotations, get 60-70 hours, and only have three hotel nights (either on front end or back end of the trip). That still gives you 15 days off and a (relatively) stress-free commute. The others would be a bit tougher, but I guess the goal would be, if you can't get a commutable trip, get a trip that is as densely packed with credit as possible, so maybe you only have to do three rotations per bid period to get reasonable credit and just "bake in" commuting days as part of the equation.
Couple of other questions - I know it changes daily, but does anyone have a current idea how the bases are ranking right now from Jr. to Sr.? And maybe how long it takes to hold a line in each? (Again, I know it's a moving target, just looking for today's projections). And are new hires getting ACY? I posted a list of earliest 2 flight arrivals and latest departures for the different bases to my home airport below. You'll notice that ACY is basically impossible for me. I'd always have to go in the day before and always come home the day after, regardless of the start/end times. With the exception of Vegas, are any of the times below reasonable to expect either a front or back commutable pairing? I'm guessing most are not gonna work out (again, besides maybe Vegas). Thanks again for all the info!
earliest 2 flight arrival / latest departure
mco 1205 / 1930
fll 1205 / 1910
dtw 1353 / 1925
las
0900 / 1645
dfw
0800 / 2035
ord 1135 / 1835
acy complete nightmare
There are other recent threads with base seniority discussions, I suggest you go through them.
Is DFW the only one-leg commute from your city? Maybe if you share where you live, other commuters in similar situation could give you more insight.
No matter how you look at NK, if your commute sucks, you’ll never fully enjoy the benefits of our schedules. I know that could be said about any airline, but if you’re commuting on your own metal, or at least on the regional of the legacy you work for, things will be infinitely easier.
If moving to a base it’s out of the question, then I would seriously consider living based on 60-70hrs of credit a month. That way you’d only have to work 3 4-day trips a month. We have some commuters here that claim they don’t move to base because the high cost of living related to big cities, yet they seem eager to credit 90+ hrs. Can’t have it both ways, at least not in happily manner.