Originally Posted by
BlueScholar
I’m a DEN 737 FO thinking long and hard about these SFO 787 FO vacancies.
I realize commuting sucks, but if I can commute to a line and I’m willing to buy tickets to minimize stress, how will the stress/work/frustration of a 1 leg commute to a widebody trip compare to a typical 3 or 4 day, 4-6 leg trip on the guppy? I assume it would still be easier, but I don’t have much experience crossing that many time zones and commuting while that exhausted.
Then these 25-30 hour layovers in Tokyo or London or Australia sound great, but how much awake time during normal business hours do you get on the typical layover to explore the city and do tourist stuff?
They are great but it’s not like you’re on vacation. I do Europe mostly and if I do a late departure we get in around 1 to the hotel, I sleep for 4 hours (sometimes more, remember you’ve been up all night minus bunk time)and go have dinner, by the time that’s done it’s closer to 8pm. I stay up late to stay on clock then get a good nights sleep, few hours in the morning then off to work. So even though it’s 24 hours or whatever layover, you’re fun time is a lot less. Look at trips in open time and see what you think your sleep will be like. It does get boring being bunky if you’re junior. I like the layovers for food, culture and some sightseeing, eventually sightseeing drops off.
best advice is make sure you can hold captain at a schedule / seniority you want where you want to be based before you do it, that way you have an escape plan in case you can’t sleep etc etc