I remember laughing and toasting the same thing at dinner in Rome (over a holiday weekend), then I got booted off the 330... Now while those WB crews are waking up from a 3 hour nap before dinner, and wanting nothing more than to sleep longer, I'll raise a toast from my back yard patio an hour or so after blocking in from my 4.8 TAFB (1.8 block) GS. One big plus is no 0200 wakeup with a 50/50 shot of getting back to sleep lol. So much variety, there is a home for everyone.

 

All redeyes are fatiguing to me. It doesn't matter if it's 9 hours with a nap or 4 hours without one. Trying to sleep during the day has never worked for me. I'll work until 2am or get up at 4am but if I'm not sleeping soundly during those two hours I'm useless. I'd bid any fleet and any seat that doesn't have them. Unfortunately that no longer exists. Avoiding them was much easier 4 years ago, now I am a slave to the drop/swap to rid myself of them. I can't say with certainty if its the cause but but my experience seems to correspond with the optimizer Gumming things up. My only fatigue calls were directly related to redeyes, either no rest on a "dayover" or unable to swap sleep cycles mid rotation.

What that has to do with a 4% noncon raise, I have no idea but I feel better sharing because this seems to be getting worse (or I'm getting old...er)

 

 

Well played, and very true.

 

...in my current base (home) because I moved "here" because Delta closed "there." My bad and I deserved that, but BTDT.

 

Lol, I certainly understand that, few things beat driving home 20 min. after you block-in. I'm certainly thankful it's still in my base. The lack of redeyes and shifting between AM flying and PM flying is one the reasons I stay on this plane.

 

Are the positives that positive for you? I’ve never flown international, I’ve been a RJ and domestic guy my whole career. I was looking at 330s in the future but could hold 717A now. Red eyes are rough but survivable for me, are they a decent correlation to international?

 

They can be, particularly for the Europe flying. Near Europe (DUB, LHR) really not too bad at all.

Pacific flying is an entirely different animal. People who have difficulty sleeping on the airplane tend to have a very difficult time in the Pacific particularly eastbound.

 

International is not for everyone. Consider a 3 day JFK-CDG trip. You might sign in about 6 PM. If no delays push at 1930. Fly all night and arrive in CDG at sunrise. Spend a hour deplaning and waiting on the flight attendants and their 5 bags each to stagger down the stairs to the bus on the ramp and clearing customs. Then spend two hours in traffic on the bus to get to the hotel. Arrive at the hotel to wait another hour for your room. Now sleep for 3 hours, grab a workout and meet the crew for dinner. Pickup for the leg home might be be 7 AM local with a 6 AM wakeup. The departure is 10 or 10:30 local. Your wakeup call is at midnight or 1 am body time. Good luck getting more than about 4 good hours off sleep prior. We used to fly this with 2 man crews! Now at least you have a break but they are short and hard to get quality rest.

 

I'd take 717 all day time flying over that description in a heartbeat. Why is widebody so senior?