Oh boy. We already went down this road when I said a captain can’t force another company pilot into the flight attendanr jumpseat. The ego captains came out in full force telling me they could and would.

 

Yeah, it's not ideal. It's an amazing job when living in base. But compared to doing another job, even with commuting or commuting long distance, this still wins.

 

Yeah, I think the tax ramifications will be complicated for sure.

 

Every one you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Not every Delta pilot is from the US, or has his aging family in the US.

Why do you commute?

 

Not on ULH…you can’t book the jumpseat. You can jumpseat on Air Canada but only in the cabin. Foreign carriers don’t do the jumpseat thing.

You can’t get any useful information if you don’t name the county/city. Vancouver BC is a complete contrast to Warsaw Poland. It’s like the difference between night and day.

If your considering Australia, send me a PM.

 

A matter of opinion…the very last place I would live is Florida. I’m not wrong or right.

Do you know how much pilots make outside of the US?

 

I only know a couple of people that did it but they kept a house in their domicile. That way they would always have a place to stay when they had back to back to back rotations and didn't have to worry about hotels or crash pads. Probably some tax/residency angles to that as well but I'm not sure.

 

I've known a few people over the years try this. If you are someone who doesn't really care about work, and are good getting what you get without trying to work the system for max pay, you can probably make it work OK. This works if your spouse has a really good deal. If you need to maximize your pay, you're probably going to wind up unhappy. One guy I knew had secure finances outside this job and was happy staying senior on low paying equipment to make his commute less hassle. He did that for years and sat number one in pretty much the bottom category until he could be number one in the next category and so on.

You're going to need some seniority to stack up a manageable commute, otherwise you'll be on course for a divorce. Building that kind of seniority is going to mean sitting in a seat way longer than you might otherwise.

International commutes go to poop in a hurry (including the inevitable strikes), and you have very limited back ups, you so you're going to have to have some fall back plans. When it does go bad, you can easily burn all your time off.

The most important take away is you have to have an accountant/tax person who absolutely understands international tax law and what you are doing, and not just "some guy" or DIY. If you think the IRS is bad, try getting sideways in Spain or the UK. You need every box checked and your records need to be tight.

None of these are insurmountable, and some make it work to their benefit. You really need to ask yourself what you want out of this job, and if the juice is worth the squeeze.

 

I commuted to BRU for one year before I got on with the airlines. It sucked, not fun at all. On the bright side, my wife got pregnant by a friend of mine, negating alimony, which made things a bit more tolerable.

 

I’ve met pilots who commute from Accra, Tokyo, Cannes (2 leg it through CDG in the winter), Poland, Germany. It’s very do-able. Your seniority will determine the QOL. Usually you aren’t double taxed, at least in the EU as far as I’ve heard. Just stack your trips up 1-2 weeks on and get a crash pad for in between trips.