If you are hell bent on staying in Iowa, id look at a carrier with an ORD base (not spirit, theirs is shrinking) probably United or American.

Frontier is probably some of the best QOL you will get if you live in base, that being said, if you are open to moving. A big and growing F9 base could have you enjoying your QOL easily.

Commuting sucks and there is no way else to put it, but some people find that commuting for their family and needs is more important than moving to any airline base and will gladly do it. That choice is up to you.

NK ORD has settled at about 250 pilots, still plenty of flying and high hopes for when the JB merger happens. I've flown with a handful of IA commuters while being based in ORD. Only your standard commuting complaints but as they were 8-10 year captains, they have no plans to leave.

Commuting to a major is still a better career than corporate though. I’d go hard for United/AA.

I read in some other posts that seem to indicate that F9 is currently favoring shorter trips say... 2 vs 4 day. That'd probably further reinforces being in base. What say you F9 peeps?

You read correctly

how is reserve in base? do you get used less than a line holder on average at the expense of being on call basically?

You will almost certainly be used less frequently than a line holder bidding a normal schedule. How much you get used will vary widely from base to base and even month to month, and will depend on which reserve slot you end up on. Either way, being on reserve while living in base is a pretty decent gig for most people.

i used to think the same way. Not any more. QOL is what you make of it. The company goes out of its way to get around our rules. Or they just flat out ignore them. They had their chance to do right by us. Thank you delta. Now it’s all about the pay. I’ll fly day turns as a commuter making 350 an hour. NK’s ta is a no vote here now.

"Goodwill has no value" -Frontier CEO Barry Biffle. That's what we need on our lanyards and bag tags.
Where are my old XJTers at? FUPM.

I’m out of the loop, did BB actually say “goodwill has no value”?