Seeing that a lot of new hire FO's have to commute initially before being able to hold their base of choice, I'm looking for some overall perspective on what qualities in a base other commuting 737 pilots have found "desirable".

Is seniority in base worth going to LGA? Does having a line mitigate the headache of covering JFK/EWR/LGA? How commutable in general are the NYC trips at the bottom end of the seniority list? Could one plan on a couple (3-4) hotels per month max? Or would crashpads be a better option?

Is DCA a better alternative to LGA if one wants to avoid NYC?

How about the bases serving single airports like BOS/CLT/DFW?
Being more senior bases, do pilots on reserve get used much in those bases? Do trips at those bases tend to be less commutable?

And as a general catch-all, do any bases stand out as a "DON'T COMMUTE HERE"?

Feel free to chime in with anything you've found useful in your experiences. Thanks!

 

Not really the thread for this question. Maybe a new thread?

 

Find out how many AA flights between your commuting city and the different crew bases? How many are AB's (2 jumpseats) vs 737 (1 jumpseat). How many commuters? Some city pairs are brutal like MIA-MCO. You might be better off doing PHL-MIA commute as it might be easier than MCO-MIA. For AA ATL, AUS and IAH are bigg commuter cities. ATL goes to DFW and MIA and it's been my limited observation that AUS and IAH goes to DFW.

Next consideration is how many airports does the commuting base cover? PHL? One. CLT? One. DCA, LGA, MIA, cover 3 airports each. Different fleets (320 vs 737) might cover all or only some of the cities. What do hotels charge? Miami in the winter? Good luck...it was often $200 out the door.

On reserve you might get, on average, the less desireable trips. If a good trip pops up people try to grab it and drop their less desireable trip that might not be bad but in general trades are done for 'better' trips. I wouldn't overthink it...if you're commuting it will only be for a couple months in today's hiring/retirement = movement era. You'll be on board and can research whatever *you* think is important once you have access to the lines/reserve days off guys at your seniority are holding in every base in every bid status. Eg. I showed a guy the last trips assigned on the 737 in LGA (about as low as you can go....). He looked at the trips "those are the worst?!?! I'd fly those any day!!" The entire bid status didn't care for trips that he'd gladly fly (used to fly for an Asian carrier) so for him actually seeing the actual monthly awards was eye opening.

 

I purposely bid reserve to actually get a shot at day trips and 2 days, which are difficult to hold for most people in most bases

 

same I bid reserve on purpose
to never fly as well. Probably about 400 hours a year I do.

 

Next Drop --- See Below

 

I had thought about that. The intent wasn't to hijack the current thread, just trying to gather some info between class drops for new hires. We'll give it a shot.

 

They get very anal In the class drop threads about posts. After all they need room for the 13 "are the drops out yet" posts we see every Thursday and Friday.

 

Are the drops out yet?

 

yes

filler