The best place to commute is where you can get a line fastest. Coming out of the military I did not understand how much better a bad commute to a line is, than a good commute to reserve (unless you've got other factors such as family, friends, or mistress in reserve city). You'll get a line faster in NYC than anywhere else. Fortunately even if you don't get NYC out of class there are always openings in the next AE.

Just note, position says 767A and he said sticker shock.

I am a new hire and O5 retiree and determined I could not afford Gig Harbor yet. If you have family, be careful in Olympia and Issaquah since schools are hit or miss. As I recall, all the Tacoma schools were somewhere from bad to terrible.

Very tough commute anywhere. Lots of options offline but then you aren't in compliance with the company's unable to commute policy. I would wither under the stress of commuting from DFW while on probation.

I just flew with a 25 year F/O (777) who lives in DFW and commutes to ATL, he said the standby list to get to ATL is always about 40+ commuting employees long. He buys 'fly confirmed for less' tickets to get to/from work if need be, said it's about $120 each way.

DFW was at one time nearly as big a base as ATL, pilot wise, and there are lots of senior F/A's commuting to ATL from there too. Every guy I know who does that commute says it's a nightmare. You will be competing against some very senior F/A's and pilots to get on any Delta jet going to ATL.

I have not spoken with anyone who commutes DFW to SLC, DTW or MSP but one guy I know who does DFW-LAX uses American's jumpseats more than Delta's.

What's Growth?
 

MSP has been relatively stagnate for a couple of years. The company has been whittling it down since the merger. Not many displacements, but not much in the way of back fill either. I don't think growth is in MSPs future. If I had to commute from MSP it would be DTW.

"""Very tough commute anywhere. Lots of options offline but then you aren't in compliance with the company's unable to commute policy. I would wither under the stress of commuting from DFW while on probation."""[/QUOTE]

The above information is incorrect. A flight may be on or offline both for the contractual policy posted below and for the flight ops policy to get PS.

commuting pilot who travels to his base by air will not be eligible for treatment under Section 23 Y. 2. unless he has attempted to travel on at least two flights (on and/or off line) that: a. show adequate actual seat availability within 24 hours of the departure, considering the pilot's seniority and the normal load factor of the flight; or, on which the pilot has a jumpseat reservation, b. are scheduled to arrive at his base at a reasonable time before his scheduled report, and are separated by at least two hours.

In regard to the unable to commute policy, per the FOM vol 1 dated 7 May 2015, Chapter 11 Section 5 page 11.5.1:

"Note: Both the primary and back-up flight must be on a Delta mainline or DCI carrier."


Edited since the original quote was all messed up, which made my quote look screwy. Also figured I'd play nice.

Actually, the latest update to the FOM Commuting Policy can be found on the Flight Ops page under "headlines". It is dated 18JUN15 and supercedes the change in the MAY FOM change which was published in error. The latest version essentially says that the Primary flight can be on anybody: Delta, DCI, or OAL (Other Airline). The Backup flight is supposed to be on Delta or DCI

You need to update your FOM. That was a inadvertent change corrected since.

That FOM was taken directly from the online pubs section on deltanet, not my surface. Not sure I can be more up to date than that, unless the moderators there are using old stuff.

Quick question for the new guys...

I've always been a book study-er. Now that we have the tablets, I am finding it harder and harder to study the way I always have. I think I'm transforming into a dinosaur.

Is there a simpler way to study using the tablet?

Yeah, no income tax is awesome, but from my research, Washington has above average cost of living and taxes so they must make up for it somewhere. I have seen a few places in Gig Harbor that we could probably swing on the top part of our price range.

I think I'll just have to visit and see.

What about SLC? Is the air quality as bad as everyone says? A few pages back some guys were saying Park City is a great place to live, but I couldn't find any houses less than 700K that weren't a condo. The properties in my price range were empty lots. Also, i hear a lot of different opinions on the strong LDS influence on everything.