Hey all, long time lurker. I have been out on LTD for a while now and should be betting my medical back soon. Because I’ve been out for so long, I need to choose what category to come back to and I am having a tough time deciding what the best choice for my situation is. I’m hoping to collect some thoughts from other points of view and see if there are considerations or experiences I’m missing.

First off, I am a commuter. It’s a bit of an odd one too, so the only bases that make sense for me are to the east: NYC, BOS, ATL, DTW, and MSP. Between those, BOS is 330 only (discussed later), I really don't want to deal with 3 airports in NYC plus the seniority boost for going there is quite minimal at my seniority. ATL is the opposite, I'm too junior compared to what I would be in the other bases to make it worthwhile. Which leaves MSP and DTW. In addition to the commute, I really don’t feel that reserve is an option for me.

At DL, I've flown the 220, 73N, and 330. My opinion only, but I hated the 737 and have zero desire to fly it again. The 330 was obviously nice, but I am one of those who cannot sleep in the bunk and the sleep schedule killed me. I'm glad I tried it, but I can't keep doing that to myself. I liked the airplane though, so the 320 would be fine. I loved my time on the 220, and would happily fly it again if it makes sense to.

And because of my commute, my kids at home, and a host of other reasons, QOL is super important to me. I mean, I’ll take making more money if I can, and of course I’d like to get paid as much as possible to fly as little as possible. But schedule control is supreme.

All of this put together, I have narrowed it down to three choices: MSP220B, DTW320B, or MSP220A.
- MSP220B: My seniority would put me well into the first page of the wide report. I would have near first pick of any trips, whether they’re PBS, open time, or premium. I'd presumably get lots of training buy-offs as long as training is going on which should be, well, forever. But it's a growing category that has only existed for two bids periods. The flying isn't fully fleshed out and there is a lot of uncertainty in my head about what a schedule would look like here. It could be really nice, or I could end up flying a lot more to make the same money as other positions. There are significantly fewer GS and QS going out than on the 320, and fewer 23M7 payments due to a generally smaller and more reliable route structure. But presumably I could get a lot of those that come up unless and until the situation changes with a new contract.
- DTW320B, I'd be sub-10% seniority, but not even close to the first page which I don’t expect to change anytime soon. But the 320 appears to be where the scheduling "action" is, and this is the second biggest 320B category at the company. That translates into a much wider variety of destinations and schedule adjustment opportunity, along with premium pickup options. Heck, I see some guys on QS#3 already this month. Having said that, I also see that except for the first few guys (area code seniority), 23.M.7’s aren’t super reliable for any one person and all other premium seems to be much more all over the board with who it is assigned to. And just to top it off, the pay rate a decent amount higher, especially considering I could get 321 pay a lot of the time. It’s a similar situation to the 220, it could work or my expectations could be way out of reality.
- MSP220A, just below 50%. I wouldn't have the advantage of being as super senior as I would as a B, but I wouldn't need to fly nearly as much to make the same money which is its own QOL consideration. My concern here isn't so much being able to get exactly what I want, but rather being able to get rid of what I DON'T want. Are mid-seniority NB A pilots able to drop flying at all and get down to a low credit line, like 50 hours? Even during the summer? Another consideration here is that I still have the 1 yr CA upgrade ticket in my back pocket. If I take a B position and it doesn’t work out as I want, I can transition up after only a year.

I realize that this is a golden handcuffs situation. I have three really good options, and I’m grateful to be in that position. But this is the first time in my career I have the chance to be truly senior, and I want to take advantage of all that that entrails. I'm really curious to see what it's like on this side of the seniority fence. Can anyone offer what life is currently like as a senior B or mid-seniority A out on the line?

 

Obviously DTW717B.

 

You mentioned folks being on multiple QS for the month in DTW, keep in mind as a commuter, most of those QS trips will be out of reach for you. They're running that coverage close enough to report time to make any reasonable commute by air unavailable

 

QS put a sizable dent in premium flying for commuters. Nothing goes out as a GS anymore and QS are too close in to try and snag for most commuters.

So basically, “sucks to be the 50% of pilots at this airline that commute.”

QS should have gone to a vote by the pilots, but what do I know…

 

PM sent.

.....

 

No it didn’t. QS replaced IA phone calls which were already non-commutable.

Where are you getting your “sizable dent” data?

 

Right. But CS goes straight to QS, skipping GS, these days. So in effect, QS has replaced GS is a practical sense.

That said, it seems CS goes to QS so early in some categories that QS is doable for some commuters.

Heres one for you… positive space commute to work for QS.

 

I guess I should have mentioned that the commute will mean I have to come in a day early every time. As long as I can be fairly certain of picking up flying close-in, I'm willing to commute in on days I would've flown anyways. So I'll be available for the days following. I'm thinking for example, if I were to fly in on monday, I could grab something that flies Tu/We.

 

Before QS, they went straight to IA, skipping GS.

QS didn't change anything with regard to commutability of premium offerings.

 

Because when CS gives up on trying to fill the onerous amounts of OOBWS requests filed by pilots all over the country who have no intention of commuting and flying a WS in that base, they have no choice but to go to QS (inserted before IA) and essentially paying triple to cover every premium trip. They'd love to have a system where GS ruled the premium again, but they can rarely get to that step of coverage before really jamming up the schedule. All QS did was insert some seniority into the IA process which was a free-for-all and often causes deal making.