Originally Posted by
thunderbird22
Not to hijack the thread here but a question for those with more experience in the airlines. I am currently living in a base and am coming up on the end of my seat lock. Life is pretty great. Having said that I don’t know that I want to fly the same plane the rest of my career. I have a fiancé but no kids or really any serious life responsibilities and she would be cool with me commuting to a different plane. I know there is a strong argument to drive to work (which I currently do) and i get that. But I am wondering if any of you have gotten further on in your life when you have a wife/kids/responsibilities etc. and regretted not flying a certain plane or planes or trying a different type of flying? Even if you had to commute? The way i see it is i have the rest of my career to be based locally and drive to work when i have a family. I dont know if the price of commuting will offset the adventure of learning/flying a new fleet. But I feel like if there is a time to do it’s now.
It's a different job when you are commuting. I live in a base, and had to commute to JFK for a while.. when I could be based back home, I had 1-2 days a WEEK more at home.. because of either SC or commuting in the day before for an early show or coming home a day later because of an late check-out.
So - I really recommend staying in base, unless you REALLY want the other aircraft. If you're going to the 330/350/765 that is purely Int'l and you'll be off reserve, then it won't be as bad. But you'll still have the stress of a commute.
Being in base, I can choose reserve if I want, sit SC on my couch, go around town, do whatever I want and still make a "get here ASAP" call without any worry.