Originally Posted by
Noisecanceller
The thing is it’s not just a couple bourse on the front and back end it’s loads of time on the actual works days. While the commuter is sitting at the hotel wasting away prior to show and after release each day the in base pilot saw their kids off to school or picked them up, got house projects done, went fishing, played golf, hiking, cycling, or took his wife to lunch.
This all on the actual work days where if you compared the schedules of the two pilots side by side it may look like they are working the same amount of days but in reality the in base pilot it’s living a real life. It doesn’t have to be turns either, I could be two days stacked together or mixed with turns or single days off in the middle for a special event. The flexibility gained and real quality time at home manufactured living in base isn’t just a couple hours.
Something like 10% of trips in my category are day trips. What you are describing is available to a very small minority of people at all airlines. Sometimes, my wife has to travel for work too. We have all chosen our particular work lifestyles. It's completely absurd to try and compare the day turn lifestyle to the remaining 90% of pilots at an airline. You can have it. I wouldn't sacrifice my living near family and friends to move to ATL to do island turns even if my seniority could hold it. It's amazing you can't comprehend that people have different priorities than you.