Originally Posted by
CBreezy
I don't know if you realize this, but most places day turns are very limited and mostly to the most senior pilots. Besides that, I and lots of other people like spending time on the road. The international guys seem to all love their international layovers. I have places I like to go and spend time at a lot of cities we layover in.
Again, your truth is not universal. So you want to do day turns? Cool. You can have them.
You say he’s generalizing, then you say turns only go senior. I fly turns all the time, and have been in both seats. On property less than 3 years. I frequently walk in my door by scheduled block in time, and almost always by end of debrief. Nobody would go from that scenario to commuting and say commuting doesn’t suck. It does, relatively speaking. It’s still better than 99% of other jobs, but that’s not the comparison here.
Also, from a strictly numbers standpoint, commuting is expensive in terms of time. TAFB rig is 3.5:1 at my airline, and I’m guessing similar at most legacies. So assuming you’re averaging $400/hr with company DC, that’s roughly $110/hr that you’re not getting paid for commuting. A four hour commute each direction is almost $1k per trip. That time adds up over a career.
Of course none of this takes into account family requirements for living locations, but it shouldn’t be swept under the rug when making decisions. The difference in earning potential when living in base is massive.