Easy problem to solve.

Come join the dark side and indulge in the spoils 😉

 

10/22

mia/fo/737/i 5
ord/fo/737/i 5
phx/fo/737/i 5
bos/fo/737/d 4
dca/fo/737/d 1
lax/fo/737/d 6
dca/fo/320/i 3
lax/fo/320/i 11
ord/fo/320/i 8
phx/fo/320/i 8
lga/fo/320/d 8

I know LAX 737 is now I, didn’t the rest of the bases all combine except LGA 320?

 

Unfortunately, I think there is a logic to it.

The 73’s are the middle capacity narrowbody backbone and they have decent performance and the ability to do transcon stage lengths. There’d probably be a chance to further segment that “middle” with the 150 seat 320, but there are just too few of them and they’re now fairly old and becoming relatively unreliable.

So the 319s and 320s are 175 up-gauge for “regional” markets where demand exceeds RJ partners ability to provide the necessary lift within scope requirements. I think the fact that we even still have 320s is a bit of an accident of airline merger history and the fact that they’re paid for at this point, and the company treats them as interchangeable with 319s when push comes to shove and things break.

The 321s are for high density lift where cargo demand doesn’t justify a domestic wide body. Often times that’s hub to large market or hub to hub at higher demand times. As others have pointed out, short field perf sucks. Case in point, DCA to PHX.

I do wonder what happens when the old 319s (the majority) finally time out. AA likes the ~130 seat airframe, and seems to really, really like that it’s a not a separate type, but I understand 319 NEOs aren’t particularly economical compared to paid for CEOs or new 321 NEOs. I don’t know if 737 max 7s fair any better there, and they seem uninterested in the 220 so far.

Theres part of me that thinks it would be kind of funny if we have 737 max 7s, 8s, and 10s in a decade and the Airbus fleet was just a ton of 321 NEOs and 40 XLRs.



All that aside, you’re probably senior enough to be a line holding LGA 320 INT FO when they finally start running to Europe. Why don’t you just bite the bullet and move there if you’re gonna head to the Northeast? Insurance and tax differences are probably close to offsetting on FO pay. It was a wash in my case moving from Florida to the Chicago area.

 

What math did you do when you made the decision?.
I could justify PHL because of the lower cost of living compared to MIA. Not sure I could do the same with NY with the crazy taxes but also higher cost of living.
PHL/MIA breaks almost even according to ChatGpT and Grok, which blows my mind

 

Ultimately we moved because family is in the Midwest, but the math actually worked out, too. That being said, it only works if you have kids.

My property tax in FL was capped and was $8500/yr, but i was in the Tampa area and wasn’t going to do that long term. Something with 4 beds in the greater MIA area where I didn’t have to pay for private school for multiple kids was easily gonna run $14-18k/yr after the COVID real estate price run up.

FL homeowners was $4000/yr and flood insurance was $650/yr for the primary structure and $1350/yr for a mother in law suite we built. That was for the small, cheap place we had in flood zone X, where it wasn’t technically required so you could argue that was optional.

FL car insurance was almost $4000/yr for two cars and one of those was liability. Yeah, I shopped around every 18-24 months.

Call it $26,000/yr to stay in FL before we talk about the mortgage increase that would be a new $1,000,000 plus mortgage on a crappy, tiny 4/2.

Property tax out in the non-Cook county burbs was $10,200/yr when we moved. Homeowners was $3000/yr and the same car insurance was $800/yr. No flood insurance required and zero need. There is a 5% state income tax. Call it 12,000/yr on 3 year FO pay. So the same $26,000, roughly.

Also we got a 3800 sq ft 5/4.5 for less than $500k in a pretty good school district.

Im also a 70% disabled vet and that gets me another 9,200 a year off my property tax. Didn’t get me anything in Florida. Will probably offset CA state income tax.

Edit: the Florida homeowners insurance had gotten as high as 8,000/yr before we dumped $33,000 into impact rated windows. I think that, paired with the continued failure and/or exit of non-Citizen’s companies kind of speaks to where the market is going in the short to medium term.

FL honestly was a low cost state when we moved there in 16. Unfortunately it didn’t stay that way for long.

 

My in-laws immigrated to the US in 1992 and moved to FL. They just listed/sold their house a few days ago, like you said it used to be a low cost state but insurance is absolutely killing it. Don't get me wrong, I expect people who live/build in the paths of hurricanes to pay for it and those of us who do not, to not pay. But the issue is homes were built there for 50 years prior to building code improvements and unless you demolish and rebuild to current (or better) spec, you're going to pay out the butt for homeowners. Car insurance is another issue, with something like 25% of the state having no insurance and since it's a no-fault state, it's a double whammy for normal drivers.

 

The car insurance thing is absurd. Driving without insurance? The car gets impounded. Second offense, 10 years hard time in jail. Stop making law abiding people pay for others intransigence. As a bonus once people stop driving without insurance rates for everyone will go down and unaffordability will cease being an excuse.

 

This common sense approach is ludicrous I say!

 

I have a Chevy Cruze 2014, zero claims in the last 15 years. I pay $1,600 here in Miami. Retarded.

 

I considered Miami as a potential move, but the savings from lower income taxes would be offset by other expenses. I was looking at condos since I prefer not to live inland, and they seemed to be the only affordable housing options near the coast. However, all the condos I found had HOA fees exceeding $1,500 per month, which feels like another mortgage with no end in sight, and those fees only increase, never decrease.