I'm a CVG MD-88 FO that's been with DAL since April. I live in the midwest and commute to reserve. Almost all of our reserve lines are 2, 3 or 4 days off. Problem is it's not commutable for reserve (unless you want to roll the dice). That said, I usually have to come in the day before. So in all essence, take a day off of all the above for days truly spent at home. Last month I had 2, two days off. Problem was I didn't get back to CVG in time to commute home post trip and it wasn't worth going home for 24 hrs just to come right back. Last month I flew over 80 hours and slept in my own bed 6nights; OUCH!

There are very few options for crashpads in CVG but hotels are cheap. The Comfort Inn is $35/night. This month has been pretty rough as I had 5 overnights and have spent over 2 weeks on hotels on my own dime.

If you look at your guarentee of 70hrs@ $50/hr you are guaranteed roughly $3500 a month, plus per diem. Take out about $250 for insurance and another $600 for taxes and I bring home about $2650 a month.

Now take out as much as $35/night plus eating out all the time and you'll spend about $60/day on your own money if you're not called up. So, like this month, 14 days at $60/day and you spend about $840 per month as a commuter.

Finally subtract your commuting expenses from your take home pay $2650-840 and you truly earn about $1810 a month after everything.

And the true kicker. You are required to be on reserve 18 days a month. Each reserve day can be considered to be 12 hours. So 18x12 equals about 216 hours a month. Sure, you're not working all this time but you're gone way more than that. So, if you only take home $1810/month but are "on duty" for 216 hrs you really make just over $8/hr.

Damn near having to pay to go to work. Oh, and one last thing. I tapped out a 8 short calls this month and was called up on long call once, had 5 days on, 1 day off and 4 days on. Out of all 10 days all I did was 1 out and back so I didn't even get a hotel out of it.