ANC Commute
 

I've heard most posters say the commute to ANC would be heinous, unless you live near EWR, ORD, etc. But realistically, how hard would a commute from EWR to ANC be for a new hire?

FedEx operates an MD-11, I believe, 6 of the 7 days a week. By this I mean they leave EWR at around 3 AM and arrive in ANC at about 7 AM. There's one night that they don't operate, so I was taking the EWR MD-11 to ORD, then after about an hour layover, took the MD-11 up. In the year I was based there I never found it difficult to commute. Just Looooooong. The good news was that you could sleep in the back on the way up. I don't believe I ever had more than one or two other jumpseaters on board, so the corporate futon was usually available. I never jumped up to operate the same day, as I thought that was just dumb. So I'd ge to the B&B for the day, see friends for dinner, perhaps stop by the F Street to say Hi, and operate out to Asia the next day around 10 AM.

Getting back from ANC was the same in reverse, except that if you were late arriving from your trip, your ride might have already left. In a year that happened to me once. Forced me to do the B&B thing until the early AM and then took an MD-11 to Mecca-Red-Necka, and then the Airbus home. Otherwise, if all is working as advertised, you'd get back to ANC around noon or 1 PM, with the EWR jet scheduled to leave at around 2:30 PM. Time to change clothes, check the internet, call the wife to remind her to kick out the 4th Army Reserve unit and then board the flight back to EWR. All in all, it worked fine. It's just a very loooooooong commute. Good luck.

Depends on your view of hard.

I can't speak for UPS personally, but I imagine UPS's skeds are similar to FDX's. If you want to lose up to 5-6 days off per month commuting up there and back as a new guy. The actual commute isn't so hard as the lost Free time doing it or the Toll on the Body.

FedeX has a non stop up / back (EWR-ANC-EWR) 6 days a week.
Trouble is you will have to commute up there an entire day before your trip.
If you have 4 or More trips (as a new guy's sked probably would) you can see how you lose 4 days right there, .........and after you fly all night 12 hours in from ASIA on the last leg of your trip, you will age very quickly when you opt to continue on the Jumpseat from ANC -EWR for another 7 hours.

Why do you think ANC goes so JUNIOR? because Cummuting up there SUX.
My advice is either Live there until you can hold a seat in the Lower 48 or don't Bid it. Just 1 man's opinion

Thanks guys. My wife prefers Marines, but the Army grunts keep her happy too. I'm just a UPS hopeful at this point and know they're sending many new hires to ANC, exp with Int'l Heavy experience (which I'm grateful to have). The wife doesn't want to leave the Northeast, so I'd like to do my best to keep her happy, just like the Marines are!:o

Well, if you get the job, I'm sure the captains at FedEx will welcome you aboard for the ride up to the North country. Don't take your wife up there for a visit in winter. Unless she's an outdoors type girl, she won't like it. Better wait until the summer, she'll love it then.

Guys,

How many times a week does UPS do ONT-ANC? Can UPS pilots reserve a jumpseat?

Don't know the exact frequencies, but at least 5. You can reserve a seat 12 days in advance, but it is subject to bumping if the company needs to move someone. Hopefully the new contract will settle that down a bit.

As for the guy that asked about EWR to ANC, we have nonstops on that route, but not ANC-EWR. Those seats are almost always empty

A silly question. Does UPS cater the ANC.EWR flight for jumpseaters?

If the crew gets catered, the jumpseaters get catered. (unless they book very close to departure time) I'm not aware of any ANC-EWR flights, though we do fly EWR-ANC.

TH1

I was THE jumior guy in ANC for a year and lived in Manhattan and commuted out of EWR. Pretty easy! FedEx has a flight a night and there are almost always seats! I also never jumpseated the same day of a trip, but then again, I never had trips, I was on reserve. I always had the last week of the month with carryover to the next month - basically the last and first week of each month, ie. one commute each month.