Commuting/Health Insurance Question
 

Greetings all. Been lurking the forums for a while, decided it's time for a post. Have a few questions about the feasibility of commuting at Endeavor (from RDU mostly) and potential issues with health insurance for commuters.

Quick intro, I'm a CFI getting close to the magical number of 15,000 laps in the traffic pattern. Married, no kids, for now. Fortunate to be getting close to mins at a time when I can get a job at mins and have a choice of which regional to go to. We're getting serious about Endeavor and will likely interview next month, could take a class date as early as Feb. I have several friends at Edv (who are happy there) but none who are familiar with these specific questions.

(1) Commuting. If we go with Endeavor I'll likely be commuting from RDU for several years. Already planning on getting a crashpad in NYC. My question is, does anyone here have experience doing the RDU-NYC commute, or potentially the RDU-ATL commute? It looks like there's ~15 daily flights from RDU to both LGA and JFK, many on 9E metal, that looks like a decent setup, if you have to do a commute. Lots of RDU-ATL dailys on DL too, but from what I've read ATL's a pretty difficult commute for a regional guy, not to mention I'd have to hold ATL in the first place.

I've heard about the current commuter policy and the new policy proposed in the TA, but I don't have expectations of that making commuting easy, just "easier."

(2) Health benefits when commuting. IIRC the benefits provider changed recently, and I'm not sure exactly where to look for this info. My question about health benefits is, does anyone have experience using the Edv health benefits with a family while commuting? For example, if the family is in RDU, and we have Edv benefits, is there a good possibility that everything we'd have available healthwise in RDU would be out of network?

Thanks a lot, hope everyone's having a decent weekend. Now back out to the pattern with me :D

Heard RDU-NYC is pretty easy as far as commutes go. Manageable to get to both JFK and LGA as well.

I just looked at the flights between RDU/NYC, and I don't think you'll have any troubles at all commuting between the two cities. 17 daily flights as of now flown by DL, AA, and B6 (JFK/LGA).

RDU/ATL doesn't look that bad either on DL. 12 daily flights as of now flown by DL and WN. Flights look pretty open throughout the days. Crashpads in ATL would be somewhat more cheap than NYC, but you'll move up quicker in NYC as of now until more airplanes get to ATL then things might change.

Best of luck! I know how you feel doing those pattern circuits :(

The provider for 2018 is going to be United Healthcare. You just have to find a doctor that's in network wherever you live. They're all over, it doesn't matter where you're based or live.

The new TA will guarantee you positive space on your second flight to work as long as its on DL or DC. First flight could be any airline, just second has to be DL or DC if you want to take advantage of that protection for getting to work. For the trip home, you're on your own. No experience with commuting but there are a lot of flights between RDU and JFK/LGA between DL/DC, AA and even a Jetblue.

Thanks a lot guys, that info was exactly what I was looking for. United hc's what we're on right now so that would be an easy switch.

I'm assuming that once you're an employee you get access to a system that allows you to check flight loads at least on DL, allowing you to predict how "easy" your commute will be?

Yes, you will be able to use DeltaNet, where you can book your own flights and see seat loads. It used to cost $50 per year, now it is free.

As for health stuff, wherever you live is where your doctor should be, whether that is RDU or NYC or SFO. IIRC, those benefits take 6 months to become available.

Can someone confirm this or look it up? Are you saying that an Endeavor pilot doesn't qualify for health insurance until 6 months after employment? -OR- maybe you are referring to the DeltaNet benefit?

Please provide more detail if able... as both would be important facts to consider for a new hire to factor in as part of the decision making process.

Health insurance, vision, dental, et. al.

DeltaNet is right away during indoc, if you sign up for it.

I have a friend that is a recent hire and would be able to pass along some info possibly. Check your private messages for more info and good luck.

Yup! Once you figure out how to properly read them ;) You can also join a FB page called "Non Rev Loads" that a lot of us use to ask for seat info on other airlines.