Mia is currently the most Senior along with SDF MD. Mia a little more, since it is so difficult to get in to. Very, very few vacancies a year. like 1 or 2. So it goes to a Senior person when one of the slots opens up. Our last Bid, the only slot went to a 400 seniority number on the Captain side. That's 26 years on property.

New Hire to Mia, about 4 years to be the plug.

 

And then 2 years to bid out because being the caboose sux so bad ! Even for the FL natives.

 

I would not suggest trying to support a family in HKG or CGN on first year pay. Commuting is doable, even preferable in many respects.






.

 

Thanks for the quick responses guys!

 

Tony ... my hunch is that Albie is recommending against commuting while on Probation. What happens if your jumpseat arrives late? Can you get fired for that on Probation?

 

You can get fired for anything while on probation. You can be Memphis-based and living in Memphis and miss a trip. Anchorage-based pilots don't have the "No harm, no foul" jumpseat protection, but I'm not aware of any Anchorage new-hires who were fired because their jumpseat arrived late.

My point is that commuting is doable. I did it for two years without a single problem.

Living in Germany on 1st year narrow body pay with a wife and 2 school-aged kids -- that's a tremendous challenge. What's a guy to do when he has to make a choice between paying the 4th-grader's tuition or the VISA bill that hasn't been paid the past 2 months? Unless he has a good-sized savings account before he gets there, or a rich uncle to help him out while he's there, living in Germany with a family on 1st year narrow body pay will not be a cakewalk.

In my opinion, it will make commuting look easy.


But I wouldn't recommend either for a new-hire.






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By many measurable qualities, Louisville is an equal city to the vast majority of cities commuting pilots live. Personal choice. Have lived in over a dozen places and have lived the commuting life professionally.
Anecdotally, most pilots who live in domicile (ANC, ONT, MIA, SDF) enjoy quality of life issues outside picking up extra flying. Extra flying often done as frequently by commuting pilots as local domicile pilots.
Many pilots choose to commute for family reasons, not quality of town or city until kids out of house. Spouse family benefits, elderly parents need help etc. Rest of family from XYZ etc.

MIA and ANC is hard to get as a junior FO presently.

 

Every person i know who lives in Nashville or Indy live there by choice. Not because of family, spouse, or elderly parents. It's because the cities blow away louisville in all metrics. I would say only 5% stay in the cities where they live because of the reasons you said. Most want to live in an awesome place for the 1/2 year per year that they are off work.

99% of the people I fly with wish they didn't live there, but they do for the ease of it and the extra$.

 

OK. guess alot of IPA pilots BS me when I ask :/
I don't have statistics though so I'll concede
Personal choice

 

I commuted from DFW to SDF for the first 5 years, the majority of that time was on the 757 Domestic or the DC-8 (very junior in seat). I moved to SDF in 2005 and have a normal house in a nice neighborhood. Life got a whole lot easier. I don't think of SDF as a dump to live in. Are there better cities? Yes, and we are semi-commuting again to enjoy a better city.

UPS has "Base Trip Lines" that tend to go junior in respective seats. They are short trips with short time off, that would be a real challenge from BOI. If you get the job, go in with open eyes and patience if you commute. It will be a long road to senior F/O (I am at 15 years and a little over halfway up the F/O list).

Good Luck!!!