The general rule is Commuting Sux. Commuting (no matter who you work for) will generally cost you more days away from your family. It is a balancing act of living where you want and commuting. In some cases at FDX. if you are senior and can hold Deadheads or weekend layovers at your resident city, you can gain many of those days back. When you factor in coming back for annual or recurrent training, not to mention upgrade or transition training, you will spend more days away from home than if you lived in Domicile.

Occasionaly pilots are forced to commute due to cutbacks/furloughs. It really sucks when you lived in Domicile and are displaced by cutbacks. Or worse furloughed for a couple years and then recalled to a domicile across the country.....been there done that, got the T-Shirt. Fortunatley, that is not the current case at FDX, but it could be some day.

Living in SoCAl and being based in LAX is a good thing, but in the case of FDX, unfortunately MEM is your future ( unless you are a Senior CAPT in LAX) because it has all aircraft/Seats and will always give you more seat progression choices. Unfortunately MEM isn't the greatest place to "Plant the Flag" so to speak. Many of us have done it, many have moved away after 2-3 or 7 years. Very few FDX pilots actually stay there after they retire. You can see the Moving vans idling after the Fire Truck Fountain and "So-Long" Cake is served in the Crew Room.