Originally Posted by
Flyler
thanks for taking the time to respond in depth I really appreciate it. Im coming from ACMI 74 so I dont need fancy destinations. I just want good commutability and flexible schedule with some potential seniority movement being the 3rd criteria. Given these would bus be the way to go? The only reason I considered 7ER was the widebody "lite" schedule seemed like it would be more commutable, with the benefit of better pay over time. Is there a downside to the 220 that im not seeing? People seem to not mind the schedule.
ORD commuter here, based on your priorities, I would definitley recommend DTW. I used to be on the 717 in DTW, the commute is super low stress. Its 1 hour gate to gate, all mainline flights, and it seemed like our flights always had 10+ open seats. I never really even looked at loads, I always just showed up for the 7am flight and got to work no problem. Also commuter hotels around DTW are super cheap. As a bonus you kind of gain an hour commuting home since its a 1 hour flight with a 1 hour time change, ie 5pm flight lands in ORD at 5pm.
I bit the bullet and switched to NYC 7ER for widebody flying, and while its an awesome category, its not commutable most of the year if you're junior. ORD-JFK commute is pretty rough, our DL connection flights to JFK seem to always be oversold and loads seem to change up to the last minute, so majority of the time I commute to LGA and then uber over to JFK.