Hey everyone. I'll be joining you all soon and looking for some advice. It has been said on here that LGA and MIA are the junior bases, that I get. I will be a commuter for the first couple years out of Ohio. I live in between CLE and CMH so both are options for me for commuting. Eventually my wife and I plan on moving to CLT, but we have a Sophomore in HS and would like to get him through school before we move. I'm not too concerned about the airplane, even though all the jumpseaters I've had say bid the Bus. I prefer the easiest commute and quick seniority gain to hopefully get trips that are commuter friendly.

CMH-CLT has 4-6 flights per day. These are mostly all mainline.

CLE-ORD has 2-4 flights per day depending on the day on AA, and another 3-4 on UA. Worst case scenario and absolute last resort I could drive to ORD in 5-5.5 hours. I've seen a couple threads on here that most do not like to commute to ORD because of the high seniority and smaller base, but those posts were over a year ago.

NY is doable, but there is not an abundance of flights per day to each of the NY airports out of CLE. CMH has 2 sometimes 3 flights per day to each of the NY airports . CLE-EWR and CMH-EWR is higher frequency than JFK or LGA because of UA flights. From what I've read though, LGA commutable trips are hard to come by. That all being said there are 4-6 flights per day on AA out of CMH to JFK, LGA, and EWR and times are staggered.

CMH-DCA typically has 2 to 3 flights per day. Usually on YX.

PHL would be tough. Not too many options out of CMH or CLE to PHL.

CMH-DFW and CLE-DFW each have 2-4 per day depending on the day. But commuting across a time zone doesn't sound ideal.

Anyone commute out of CLE or CMH? I would appreciate any input how you arrived at your decision for a base.

Any suggestions or advice any of you have would be great. I look forward to joining you all!

 

Welcome to the team! We're genuinely excited to have you.

I would go with CLT and not look back. There are plenty of mainline flights each day from CLE, started with a 6 AM to CLT and an (almost) 11 PM going back home for you. This gives you great flexibility. Almost every trip will be commutable on both ends if you get the jumpseat. CLT also is the best-kept secret for commutable trips. It's "senior" but it's really not too difficult to hold LCR or a line, since a good amount bid SCR. Until you can get to CLT (you almost ceertainly won't get it in class), I'd go for DFW or ORD. Then I'd take LGA or DCA over MIA, based on flights.

 

Golden. Thanks a million!

 

Agree with the poster above as far as CLT. Likely you won't get it in Indoc, but not long after you're on property.

If you're old enough to have a sophomore in HS you're old enough to get a Bus slot in training. Much more comfortable airplane, and once you're living in CLT you get to drive to recurrent training. There are rumors they're moving all initial and upgrade training to DFW, but if that's not the case then you'll be abe to do upgrade in CLT but as you're a couple of years away from that who knows what it'll be when you get here.

Currently ORD isn't a Bus base, but the NYC area, DFW, and CLT obviously are. As the other poster said, lots of early and late flights in and out of CLT, and many on the Bus so two reservable jumpseats. You'll just have to compare flight schedues between NYC and DFW to home and see what gives you the most opportunities to get from home and back.

You may find someone who will make a vociforous argument for 737 but as far as I'm concerned if the question is 737 vs Bus the answer is almost always Bus, with the exception of if you live in ORD or BOS (no Bus base).

Welcome aboard.

 

im old enough to have a sophomore in HS and I likely won’t get a bus due to the high average age of my class. Hopefully the OP isn’t in my class or had kids much later in life.

 

I’m seeing 4 AA regional flights and 1 frontier on CLE-PHL

and

1 AA mainline and 2 regional flights on CMH-PHL

better than DCA and LGA because you only cover one airport instead of 3

LGA bus slots, and bus slots in general, have been rarer lately. Things change though and nobody knows squat about future class drops

 

Some of the decision about commuting should look at Airbus (2 jumpseats), 737 (1) and RJ's (you're farther down the list to get the jumpseat). With 2 jumpseats on the Airbus the 'alternate' j/s reservation is basically a guaranteed seat. With only one j/s on the 737 must of the time the alternate reservation, in my experience, on a full flight watched the 737 taxi away without me. So count the number of jumpseats as well as the number of flights. Seven Airbus flights is probably a better deal than 10 737 flights.

For backups perhaps look into DAY and CVG flights to the various bases if they're close enough. CLT looks like the best option but what's better until it's available is tougher. Once you're onboard you can check out the 3XP's (monthly bid awards) and you might find out that switching to CLT might put you on SCR while staying in your first base might have you on LCR. Hmmmm, stay at home with fewer commutes or sit reserve in CLT??

Good luck.

 

As was stated before, CLT would be a great choice, even out of CMH. PHL is a tough commute. Some days there's 4 flights a day, one being on a 319, other days there's 2, a 175 and a 145. You just never really know.

LGA, from a commuter standpoint wouldn't be bad, although you're responsible for covering 3 airports. That said, Republic does just about all the flying, and on American flights alone, they generally have 5 to 7 flights a day between CMH and LGA or JFK. If you factor in the flying they do for United to EWR, that's another 5 a day.

 

Cannot help with all that commuter stuff but welcome to the team.

Are you a Buckeye? I am an Illini guy.

 

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​Thank you. I am a buckeye. I have family in Illinois so I have a soft spot for the fighting Illini.