Originally Posted by
Flapps3658
Speaking of commuting; I’m trying to wrap my head around some things. I am a new hire living in Tampa. I thought being based in Miami and bidding LC would be a no brainer. After speaking to several people, I was told that I would be better off commuting to CLT, DFW, or PHL. Reason being that I will have a hard time non-reving to MIA from TPA due to the large amount of AA commuters. Checking AA, it looks like there are 5-6 flights a day from TPA to MIA. So my question is, if the commuter policy says I only need 1 flight to get me to base on time, why do I care if the flights are full, I get bumped or can’t reserve a jump seat? I have met the commuter policy, haven’t I? What am I missing? Caveat, I understand I’ll be on probation and I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize my job. Just don’t fully understand why commuting to another base would make much sense. TIA for comments
You’re not missing anything. You don’t need any flights, let alone a single flight. There are a ton of AA pilots that live in metro Tampa and metro Orlando, making those commutes “difficult” in the sense that the reservable jumpseat(s) are pretty much always reserved as soon as the reservation window opens 8 days prior.
I’d obviously tread lightly on probation. Use the policy sparingly and you’ll be fine. Never lie on a recorded line.
The biggest hassle of a commuter miss when you’re commuting via air is the loss of pay. At some point… you need to work to make money, right? Some bases may be more commutable by virtue of having more reservable jumpseats closer in to departure time, perhaps.