I commute from L.A. to MSP. The commute, believe it or not, is tolerable. NWA has a bunch of flights to SoCal so finding one is never a problem. The only problem is that you are wasting half a day commuting. It was harder during reserve, obviously, but now that I can hold a good schedule its not so bad. I sat reserve for six months in MSP. That was two years ago though. The good thing about MSP and DTW is that they have late airport reserve which allows you to commute in that same day and you are done early on the last day. Basically gives you an extra day off.