Florida Commutes
 

Ok newb to the airlines and I'm learning the commuting gig. I have the wife and kids game for a move but they want to move back to Florida. How tough is the commute to Atlanta and/or NYC from Tampa? I know there are 12+ flights a day to Atlanta but is it crazy hard? Same goes with NYC but I'm an 88 guy and the trips in NYC are too hard to commute to/from. The tax advantages and friends in the area make a compelling case over Atlanta and NYC.

Thanks in advance

A ton of guys do it so.....it's doable. Just be prepped noon eastern 5 days prior....

I fly with a lot of guys who live in the Tampa area, from what they say it doesn't seem awful.

stop for a minute.....and imagine what your options would be with NO JS, and NO non rev privileges.

Ummm. I don't understand your point

ask some of the captains you are going to be flying with....im sure they will be able to tell you about it.

PM sent...

I think he's referring to how some of us had to commute when we were new hires 30 years ago. I commuted MIA-BOS for my first year, mostly on Eastern's jump seats. Delta didn't' allow us to use the jump seat for commuting until 1996, and back in the 1980s', you got one S3 pass first year as a new hire, 2 per year your second year, etc. until you had completed 5 years, then you got unlimited passes... for a $8 fee, each leg. In about 1992, the company doubled the fee to $16 per leg. The union grieved it and won, I got a check for about $178 after commuting BOS-CVG for a year, paying the doubled fee.


BUT... back in the mid 80's-90's, we had so many small bases spread around the country there were not too many commuters. We had pilot bases at (in no particular order) BOS, MIA/FLL, ORD, IAH, DFW, MSY, PDX, and I'm probably forgetting a few.

About the only guys who commuted were senior Captains trying to increase their final average earnings in their last 3 years, and they did that by commuting to ATL to fly the L10-11 to Europe.

I've been commuting from MCO to ATL and NYC for the past 19 years, it's do able but it's very busy too. If you are not on the phone booking your seat at T-0, it will be booked by someone else, no doubt. MCO to JFK you have Jet Blue for a backup, and they have saved my bacon a couple times.

As you've seen many of the NYC MD88 trips are 'uncommutable' due to early sign in and late releases. So pick your poison carefully.

TPA/ATL on S3 is difficult.

What about DAB or MLB or Sanford?

I did TPA-JFK for a couple years, 90% of the time I flew jetblue and I never missed a commute. That being said, I had a buddy's login to check loads AND, at the time offline pilots could sit in the flight attendant jumpseat, which I did often. They no longer allow this. I moved to a base 6 years ago, and although i'd rather be in FL, my life is EASY. Wife is happy, and I have much more free time. Don't commute unless you absolutely have to or you're single.