I am in that boat, NYC 73nB about halfway down the list. Commuting from BOS with a healthy drive between there and home. A comfortably commutable trip for me (good wx) means no earlier than 1100 check-in, and a 1500ish check-out from JFK (where almost all 73n trips operate out of). Either give me good options for direct flights between BOS-JFK with time to get to backups through LGA. I can make check-ins as early as ~0900 (within rules of commute policy) and releases as late as ~2200, but both would result in nail-biting as well as driving at times I choose not to.

Instead of single 3-5 day commutable trips, I prefer to build my schedule in 4-5 day blocks of consecutive shorter, higher credit trips, preferably commutable on both ends of the block. I pay the penalty of a crashpad for the benefit of higher credit = fewer days at work. I avoid WOCL flights.

I work zero weekends except the ones I want due to either good trips or other priorities. This month, for instance, I had two tough group of days I wanted off, so I accepted a few Sunday afternoon/evening commutes and some trips that were non-commutable on the end with WOCL flying. My award was 18 days off with just under 75 hours, and I was able to swap one of those ugly trips to make it commutable and no WOCL ops.

However, had I not had those days-off requirements, I easily could have built a Mon-Fri schedule with completely commutable trips and no WOCL ops. Last month, I had 17 days off with 80 hrs, no WOCL, swapped some trips to make it 100% commutable, and picked up a couple single-day green slips to boot.

I haven't been at this seniority for major holidays yet save Easter (off) and Memorial Day next month (off), but I've got high hopes for Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas this year.

Hope that helps.

What is WOCL?

Late, very late!

Window of Circadian Low - The human biorhythm goes through different cycles throughout the day. “Sleep pressure”, or the need for sleep, expresses itself at different levels depending on the time of day. There are times when a person can hardly sleep at all and if they do, then the sleep provides a substandard quality of recuperation. On the other hand, there are also times – in particularly between two and six in the morning – in which the urge to sleep is especially strong. And the restorative effects are also much better if one sleeps during this period. This time period at night is referred to as the Window of Circadian Low (WOCL).

anyone got some leads on SLC crash pads?

No, but I hear the airport parking lot is RV-friendly.

I'm naming my next kid WOCL....

Just received a CJO and live in MSP. What aircraft and base would give a new hire the best QOL and commute until I can hold MSP? Assuming one of the following would be available

DTW 7ER
NYC 7ER
NYC 88
320 anywhere

DTW-MSP is a fairly easy commute. Lots of flights and all mainline.

OTOH, there is a year equipment freeze for new hires, so you want to bid something that goes junior in MSP. 7ER in MSP might not fall into that category.

Nu

88
ER
320

That would be my guess.