The stress of not knowing if you are going to get on a given flight is really crazy making. On that short of a flight its probably going to be an RJ. First, you can't list for a jumpseat. Second, if the flight is full and you are on the jumpseat the plane may be overweight or out of balance. and you will be the first one to get booted. You never truly know if you are safe from being bumped until the plane is off the ground. Even then it is not guaranteed I was once on a flight home. Had a mechanical issue right after takeoff. The flight returns to the airport and cancels then all the following flights were overbooked. Face it, commuting by plane just sucks. I've done it for 15 years and the only reason I still do is because I am divorced and I have shared custody of my kids.

Keep in mind that once you have a bit of seniority you can plan on 3 or 4 trips a month. 2:45 is not that bad with only 3 drives a month.

Stupid question- I thought majors had commuter clauses, designed especially to take (some of) the stress off of commuting. How do those clauses work? Isn't your arse covered if you allow yourself at least two flights to get to work?

Or 2 or 3 if you jump to a WB in DTW.

One thing to remember is that if you can drive it in 2:45 your drive could be your back-up. If there is a flight 4 hours prior and you don't make it you can drive. Plenty of guys do this for the SAN to LAX commute.

Scoop

Its great there is a commuter clause, but kind of a bummer that theres language for a min 2 hours between option 1 & 2.
Go to your home airport 1 hour prior, 2 hours between flights minimum (which sometimes ends up being 3 or 4 depending on schedule), lets say 1hr flight, make sure your option 2 ETA has a good buffer before report. Its about 5hrs prior minimum for a 1hr flight to the hub. Not including your time driving to your local airport as well.
Plan on heading in the day prior a lot when junior, then waking up in the early AMs when you can finally get some seniority.

Don't forget, all this is happening before your duty day even starts. For good reason, you're expected to be well rested at sign-in.

At AA you only need one with a reasonable chance of getting on (open seats at check in if on AA metal).

Commuting on an RJ in the winter is going to be bad news.

Does AA’s wholly owned regionals count as AA metal for mainline folks commuting? There are a lot of Envoy and PSA flights out of my home airport to DFW and CLT.


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