I'll echo what others have said - a commute on an RJ is much more difficult than mainline. Even though you'd be less senior in ATL, hotels are a lot cheaper and mainline planes cancel less in my opinion, and are rarely weight restricted. When I commuted to NYC as a new hire, I would almost always take the mainline plane to LGA and cab it to JFK than gamble on getting on the CRJ-200 going to JFK.

As a note, the reason someone suggested picking an airplane that is based in NYC and ATL is that you can switch bases whenever your seniority allows you. Since you wouldn't need any training. That would be the 717, 737, 320 and 7ER that are based in both locations. (well and A330 and 767-400 but those aren't a new hire plane... yet...) If you need training to go to a different plane, you would have to wait for your new hire seat lock to expire (1 or 2 years, not sure)

Thank you everyone for your comments. Sounds like ATL is the safer bet to start with.

Just to echo previous points, I know several STL commuters. They all bailed out of NYC for ATL at first opportunity for the mainline commute. There’s more flights per day and being able to reserve the jumpseat is a major stress reducer. I’d say bid a junior airplane (717, 73N) to get the seniority advancement, but get to ATL when able.

I just flew with a STL-NYC commuter. He makes it work and didn’t seem overly stressed about it. Holidays have less flights so plan ahead.

I would think ATL would be a better option. Booking a J/S is a huge stress relief. Then you add in the frequency of flights just adds to ATL side(never thought I would say that). Also another thing to think about, it appears that most schedules suck out in NYC even if you are more senior. As an MSP base looking from the outside it seems that in more "normal" staffing time NYC is always short staffed, ATL usually has more adequate staffing. Of course this assumes they quit running it at redline.

I flew the -200 for a few years and with 50 people and an alternate it is very difficult to get a JSr on board. I have even had to remove an LCA from a line check over W&B ( he had the option to remove Pax but it was easier to reschedule the line check) with that said I always worked very hard to get jumpseaters on but sometimes there was just no way to legally do it

I have no doubt. I’ve never seen a crew on any airline that didn’t try to get the nonrevs and JSers on. Very impressive sense of community in my experience.


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All I will say is it’s always easier to commute on your own metal. On the other side if you get NYC I have done that route with Endeavor for years and rarely have I ever seen those flights full and the few times I had someone on the jumpseat, all of them were OAL. You also have WN and AA to LGA and UA to EWR.

I would have thought the DCA-NYC commute one of the best/easiest in the system.

I never did it, but wait until they start cancelling one of the shuttle flights, because it's already 30 minutes late and the next one is in 30 minutes. And both are 60% full... or the weekend when it's half service.

I agree, when everything going smoothly it's a great commute but...