Commuting to Europe
 

Hello, Im a Spirit guy but apparently will be a Jetblue guy in a year and a half.
Do you guys know anyone that commutes from Europe? And if you do, how do they do it?

Where in Europe will you commute from? I think we have a BOS FO who commutes from London, but that is infinitely easier now that we actually fly there.

Hi, I will be commuting from Athens, Greece.

Just spitballing but if that were me then JFK would be your best bet. If you are senior in seat then you could bid desirable trips and drop and/or trade them away to other pilots to maximize time off.

Otherwise bid Reserve and stack 17 days in a row of duty with 13 days in a row off afterwards and try to drop 1-2 RSV days on the end if possible.

Thank you for your response! The 17 days on 13 days off sounds really good. How easy is it to drop RSV days?

It is pretty difficult to be honest, but it wasn't always that way. Hopefully JCBA can address RSV rules like this

Wouldn’t the job you’re looking for be at FedEx?

Unfortunately I dont have the PIC time

They still require that

Had an Orlando guy that did that, I think he retired recently.

Officially it’s 500 jet or ME turbine required, 1000 preferred.

Weekdays not too hard to drop, weekends almost impossible.

I commuted to Germany while working as a SIM instructor at a large regional. Stacked up 7-12 days often doubles then went home. I lasted about a year and a half. It sounded great on paper and I'm really senior so I could make my schedule almost anything I wanted. I would work the early shifts in the US to try to not change my body clock. Unfortunately you cant really fool your body when you're trying to go to bed at 4pm with the sun shining bright.

I usually spent 2-3 days recovering at home after returning, never really slept well while in the USA, and eventually just gave it up because it was too hard on my body. Your results may vary. Oh and there's dealing with flights. If you're in a major European hub it helps (I wasn't) and if not you may spend an entire calendar day trying to get home/to work. Look into the tax situation too because it can be complicated depending on your citizenship/residency.

I'm glad I did it but I wont do it again

Wait, we can do that? Is it in Flica or do we need to call a chief?

In Flica, same as dropping a trip. You can drop one day a month UTO and the rest PTO, assuming the plethora of necessary grids are green. You have to do it before the block of reserve days starts though.

Can you bid (and be awarded) all 16-17 reserve days in a row?

Yes, this is pretty common. Basically if you have enough seniority to hold one or two of the weekends off then you can bid 17 in a row on

That's great - good for the commuters who likes that kind of schedule!

Apart from the whole non rev embargo thingy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Shouldn't include the jumpseat, we can jumpseat on our own metal intl still I think. Now…I’d probably have a psychotic breakdown in short time having to commute over the pond requiring to ride Airbus hood ornament class to work but that’s another issue.

Embargo included the jumpseat. It’s lifted for LGW now, still in effect for LHR.