Solid information and advice. Definitely giving me lots to think about.

I commuted from the mountain west for over a decade for this company before finally giving up and moving and second the others. Do not recommend. It’s just not worth it when others with a much stronger presence in that region are hiring. Go to Delta, UAL or even Alaska or Skywest with the bonuses. Enjoy a much easier commute on your own company metal with priority. I have spent countless 22+ hour day’s commuting, double leg commuting, red eye commuting, getting stuck, getting bumped by DL, UAL, and Skywest repeatedly. It’s awful. Seriously. It may be better than what you were doing but I would keep updating at Delta or UAL and get a SLC or DEN base if you MUST live in Montana and do this job at a Legacy carrier.

Yes consider DL or UA, one leg it from BZN to SLC or DEN,
in line behind all the seniors.
BIL-DFW is your only descent option on AA (Envoy). BIL will be the least effected by weather throughout the winter as well, the other MT cities will go down for days at a time once or twice a winter.
I’ve been flying in/out of MT for twenty years.

I grew up in MT and have a few months experience commuting to NY from there. It was a nightmare commute with two-three legs depending on jumpseat availability. Most of the commuters out of there are fairly senior, 20+ year folks. My recommendation if you’re dead set on moving to the west side of MT is find a place like Polson or Ronan that split between Kalispell and Missoula fairly evenly drive time. Another option to look at would be Butte but personally, I wouldn’t recommend living in Butte or Anaconda. Bozeman has the most options but cost of living there is outrageous and you can get burned with more commuters there.

I’m about to move to base after commuting for 10 years, and I have a fairly “easy” commute. I absolutely would never commute from a MT location with low frequency. As others have said, DL, UA or even SWA would be better. But in any case, expect the commute to be fairly brutal. Frequency drops off to those locations in non-tourist seasons, and load factors are nearly always high. You’ll be on a jumpseat most of the time.

Wife and I have always wanted a western mountain home, but just not willing to suffer the QOL loss to do it as a full-time residence. Our plan is to buy a vacation home out that way and VRBO it when we aren’t staying there. If you want to stay at AA that might be one way to have a “home” in MT but spend most of your time living in base.

I’m from Billings and even trying to get home non reving is a epic PIA on AA. About 2 years ago I considered moving back to Red Lodge and commute to ORD in 787. Only base that would work for a aa base. AA down gauged equipment to most of the 5 ports they serve. As bad as our domestic trips are you will be commuting day prior and day after trips more times than not. If you want to live in Montana work for Alaska or Delta. If you can make it work great. Cost of living is cheaper in many areas so working less is possible. But bozangles is not. If you can make it work I would Love to eat my words. But I’ve been gone 16 years and dread going back knowing it’s gonna be a **** show ending up in SLC DEN MSP landing and 11pm and renting a car to get where I wanted

FIFY
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To OP, I agree with what most everyone here is saying except I highly recommend NOT picking UA/DEN as it's super hard to commute for United, even on own UA metal (from personal experience) - it's all seniority based (jumpseat/nonrev) so you will be bumped off the JS as a junior pilot. Highly recommend DL/SLC for reasons mentioned above.

Upon checking my ages old "Commutes to Avoid" list:

1) Commuting out of low frequency airports - check
2) Commuting with multiple legs - check
3) Driving long distance to commute out of low frequency airports, with zero probability of back up flights - check
4) Commuting off line with JS often filled by that carriers pilots - check
5) Commuting with long legs across multiple time zones - check

Man, you hit the trick on every single commute avoid. This isn't a case where you work at DAL, and are commuting to JAX from ATL where there is tons of competition, but at least you have a fair shot, can't get bumped and there are 16 flights a day. What you are describing is shaping up to be a neigh impossible commute.

If you are absolutely set on AA and this is what you are going to do, you really need to plan on never being home for the first couple of years. So plan on an apartment or a crash pad at the very least. After that, you'll need to cluster your trips in a FAR minimum rest kind of way. Any kind of delay getting in from your trips will blow up your commute, and from what it sound like, any commute will be a house of cards.

Good luck man, you do you, but hope you're single, because if you're not, you will be.

I might be moving to Montana soon. Just to raise me up a crop of dental floss. Raising it up, waxing it down. In a little white box that I could sell uptown. By myself I wouldn’t have no boss, but I’d be raising my lonely dental floss.