jeffmjohnson53

Crazy question, but anyone have success as far away commuter to reserve (mid seniority)? Any gouge is appreciated!

CBreezy

Can you be more specific?

Wolf424

There are some old 747 guys that could give you some pointers…

Too soon?

zippinbye

You don’t mention your commute city or if any drive potential exists, so it’s somewhat hard to offer a proper answer. That said, consider the following:

if you have a one leg commute to base it can be pretty decent. Presently a 12 hour long call, so you’ll have to do the calculations on a “risk period,” wherein a call at exactly 12 hours could make it impossible to get there. Short call is 6 or 7 per bid period, but often you serve less than that. The new TA (if approved) will bump long call to 18 hours and SC is capped at 6, period, unless you volunteer for more. New proposals for airport standby, picking up trips (yellow slip) and voluntary premium assignments provide a new set of tools in the QOL war chest.

There are co-terminal coverage concerns for NYC and LAX, which adds complexity and expense. Lodging costs vary widely between domiciles.

in summary, multileg commute to NYC is probably a nightmare scenario, but single flight to SEA, SLC, DTW, MSP and ATL can be pretty liveable. In reality, not many coterminal flight originations exist in LAX, aside from 7ER, which can an be pretty sweet if you are driving in from the south or east.

if you are in reserve, know the contract and are willing to spend time surfing data on the computer, you can greatly enhance your QOL. A final caution: reserve goes senior in some categories, so you can actually be forced to line holder status. If you do hold reserve, some of the senior dudes that aren’t chasing money and live in base are not very engaged, meaning that with effort and knowledge, a new guy can sharpshoot the system for enhanced lifestyle or financial experiences.

jeffmjohnson53

Sorry about that. Live in VPS, commute to DTW. 717A. My gut tells me it's too far to take advantage of any potential QOL gains.

zippinbye

Already responded before seeing this comment. I was a 747 guy, but I’m uncertain how that could be relevant to the OP’s question. I’m guessing this is a “dig” at the great Short Call fiasco that brought unwanted scrutiny and changes to pretty much all categories? If this comment had practical intent, I’ll just say that commuting to WB reserve can be easy. Depending on commute city pair, there may be no “impossible” callouts, and you generally get back early enough to make it home. Plus starting and ending with a DH is common. And the worst trip you get assigned to is better than most NB trips. I assume the OP might have stated if he envisioned sitting reserve in a WB. It’s a fine gig if you find yourself in that position.

CBreezy

Depends on what QOL gains you're looking for. Is it a 2 leg commute? How many daily flights? What is your "deadzone?" Why are you considering a change?

igotgummed

Lots of gains for your situation:
-18hr callout
-trips now assigned 2 days out
-released from any obligation between trip assigned to sign in
-biddable shortcall
-trips/sc must now be on your line by noon on last day off
-only 1 flight required if your sign in is early on first day back

Viper25

Can you explain the third bullet? I heard it in the road show and I didn’t get it then. Hoping somebody can clarify how that actually works (and explain it like I’m 5). Thanks.

Wolf424

Yes it was a dig at the SC fiasco. It was also a joke. OP didn’t provide enough detail at the time to give him any sort of opinion. (Fleet, location, etc)

In the words of the great Sgt Hulka…

Lighten up, Francis.