Originally Posted by
Avroman
The most days off at Mesaba on reserve without vacation is 12 (by bidding into conflict, 7 consecutive days). That will change to 11 in August with PBS since the computer won't allow for bidding into conflict. Right now I've never seen a reserve line built with more than 4 off in a row. After PBS starts, who knows. After the final lines come out you can try to trade days around to give yourself a longer stretch off. But then you'd put yourself into a 6 on 1 off 6 on, ect then have 7 or 8 off in a row once a month. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you'll be ready to move to base within a few months of doing that.
That's exactly what I'm doing. I live in base, though. I have 8 days off in a row coming up. However, to get that, I had to have 6 on 1 off for the other weeks. It's ok for me, though. They don't call me often so I like to use my days off for traveling elsewhere.
Like Avro said, 11 days off while on reserve is all you get from our company. If I had to commute, I would deeply hate my job. However, I don't mind it now since I don't 'work' much and get to stay home doing other things while on-call.
Commuting from Europe would be insane. Your QOL would be obliterated.