What's Your Commuting Experience
 

Starting with XJT soon and considering a possible family move from the east coast to Houston with the hopes of getting IAH soon after training.
I have young kids and want to maximize time at home but also don't really want to uproot the family and move. It's a toss-up. How awful is being a commuter? Do you usually have an extra night or two away from home on the beginning/end of trips? Or have you been able to get "commutable" trips pretty easily?

To start with, what city/airport would you be commuting from, if you stay where you currently live. Everyone will tell you, if you want to maximize your family "at home" time, live where you are based. Some cities it would be difficult to commute from (like most of Florida to Chicago) other cities not as difficult.....like Shreveport, LA to Houston....also, Texas has no State Income Tax & CHEAP GAS, I paid 1.88/gal yesterday at the Sam's Club off I-45 in The Woodlands

Like Ibell said, your commuting experience will vary depending on which city you will commute from. Generally, if it's a one leg commute from a non-hub city, it won't be too awful unless there is only one or two flights a day to IAH. If it's a two leg commute, plan on most of the day to get to IAH. If it's a hub to hub commute, you will be competing with Legacy pilots who will get the seat before you do. Also, if it's not our metal (airplane), you are at a lower priority for the jumpseat. Another variable is the number of commuters from that city.

Expect to spend one to several nights in a hotel or crashpad every month due to early starts or late finishes or both. That is an added expense on top of the time away from home. I have been mostly successful in IAH trading for commutable trips but I do have to stay in a hotel 2 to 3 nights a month.

We moved to the Houston area before our kids started Jr. high school. If you have family or friends where you plan to move, it makes the move much easier. If you are moving away from family to avoid commuting, that will be hard on your kids and spouse. It will also be hard on you when you are taking time and spending money to fly the family back to visit. On the other hand, you will be at home more so it may be a trade-off when it comes to family time.

You will lose a lot of time with family if you commute. It will also cause expenses you wouldn't have otherwise. On reserve you will likely be paying for a crashpad and paying for food while waiting for a trip without being paid per diem. When I was commuting to EWR years ago, I had to pay for a crashpad and food due to not flying much (no per diem). I spent between 300 and 450 dollars a month out of my pocket being a commuter during this time.

Bottom line, how hard it is depends on a lot of factors.

There are lots of commutable lines on the 145, at least outside of EWR. I can tell the company is trying to put commutable lines together.

The real question is how much time you’ll be on reserve and remain a junior pilot with a crappy schedule. Personally, I think not very long... attrition is still very high and movement is very good.

2-3 months on reserve and then you can get a line with 10 days of work per month. Easily commutable if you want.

I would be super happy if that is true

Not true at all. You need to get a line and do the line improvement window. You’ll have a 12 day off a month line and can easily improve it to 17-20 days off.

It’s misleading to say you can be awarded a line as such.

I would have NEVER believed it would be awarded that way. To even get to 17-20 days off with line improvement is impressive.