Gateway and home basing are two different entities. Atlas gateway basically relieves the stress of having to list/jumpseat to work as a non-rev. You pick the airport closest to your residence that has airline service and that becomes your “Gateway.” You either call/email crew travel prior to the start of your trip and tell them which flight you wish to be on to get to base and they book it or you just let them pick it for you. Most pilots are very proactive here call travel with a plan in mind. They’re usually to busy to argue and just book what you ask for as long as it isn’t like $5000.

Home basing usually implies that you travel on day one of your pairing on the company’s dime and travel home on the last day.

That said, 95% of my trips end on the last day early in the morning with a flight back to base so very rarely did I lose a day off traveling on the back end of a trip. I now live in base so I don’t use gateway travel at all anymore. When I was on the 747 most of my trips were 15-16 day trips so I rarely lost more than one day a month getting to work. Just the thought of non-revving to/from ATL, ORD, or DFW three times a month for a legacy makes me tired. But to each their own. Also, most majors have a 3-5 day pattern with 4-5 days off in between. That’s a lot of back and forth every month. I do like having 14 days off straight and traveling to base only once a month.