Commuting from CVG....
 

Reality check please - would anyone give a wave off at the idea of commuting from CVG if being based at ORD or LGA? It seems doable at Envoy. Please give sanity check if this sounds like something other than sane.

Thank you.

CVG is a non-terrible commute.

Thank you sir!

Ord is easy peasy. Lga not that great.

From the midwest airports, ORD is a great commute. I live in Indy and there's like 15 flights up to ORD daily. I'd assume the same for CVG, and that's the beauty of having both AA and UA with a bigass base there. Tons of flights daily so you should be able to do a same day commute nearly every trip (unless its a super super early show).

CVG is a totally easy and doable commute. ORD, LGA/JFK, and MIA are also all on our metal so you'll have priority in the jumpseat if need be.

Psa has a Cvg base. I’d take a drive to work over having to take a jumpseat any day

More "inside baseball" commuting from CVG q's
 

So how does commuting to go on reserve at Envoy actually work - as a 50+ retired military guy, no previous exposure to 121 world.

And by "reserve" where do you sit your reserve? In the crew / ops office at the airport?

Envoy touts this: Commuting pilots receive four company-paid hotels per month at the beginning or end of their trip and schedule flexibility up to six times in a rolling 12-month period, if they experience difficulty with their commute. Pilots awarded LGA in training, they will receive unlimited commuter hotels as well as positive space travel to and from work for the first three months after training.

If I commute from CVG and my base in ORD or LGA (I assume those are most likely) to go on reserve - is the typical scenario to arrive the night before ?

And then where do you stay/sleep? And how are your accommodations paid - is it up to you as a pilot to pay out of pocket for a hotel? How does the clause above above factor into it as far as Envoy reimbursed? Is there still a concept of "crash pads"?

Thanks - being a Part 91 MEI/CFI/CFII and former Military dude, I have a lot to learn about this 121 world. Apologies if the questions are so basic.

Thank you!!

I agree with what someone said earlier about just going to PSA with their CVG base. Commuting to work (especially for a regional) is always going to suck, but is 10x worse on reserve.

You can sit reserve anywhere you want, you just have to be able to make it to get gate in 2 hours (3 hours for LGA). However, if you're assigned airport standby, you must be at the airport and ready to go, most hangout in the crew/sleep room.

With your age, it's hard to say what plane/base you'll get. It will depend on the number of cadets in your class. Generally, if you get the 175 you can pick either DFW or ORD, or if the cadets push you far down enough you'll get the 145. It's hard to tell at this point if you'd get ORD or LGA. Time on reserve is also almost impossible to calculate, but I'd prepare for 3 months after IOE on the 175 and 6 months after IOE on the 145. As for the free commuter hotels/positive space to LGA, it starts after IOE and is for 3 months, and only if you get assigned LGA in training, not if you bid over there later. Going in the night before would be up to you. Our default reserve start time is 4am, but you are able to bid the night before for open trips, a later start reserve time (10am) or a later start airport standby (generally starting at 6am, 11am, and 3pm for options). But you will most definitely need a crash pad commuting on reserve as you'll probably burn through your 4 allotted hotels each month fairly quickly. You'll probably just hangout in the crashpad for your 4-5 day reserve assignment unless you get called for a trip, because of the 4am reserve or 6am airport standby you'll get for a month or two being at the bottom of the reserve list. Once you hold a line, you really won't need a crash pad anymore. The company doesn't reimburse you for the hotels, you just request one through scheduling and they will assign it, up to 4 times a month.

But again, I would pick a regional you don't have to commute to. Your QOL will be 10x better, and you'll be sleeping in your own bed probably 10 more nights a month on reserve and 3-4 as a lineholder. Something to think about.