Guys, I am a FO based in FLL , Need to make some extra money for the next few years, ( wife wants to stop working for a few years to be home with the kids - I support her )
What is the best strategy ?
1) Stay in FLL and hope the open time pot gets better
2) Base trade to JFK or BOS in the slow months and bid FLL overnights and then pick up in open time
3) Bid SQ next bid - I see there is a lot of open time for those guys

Regards

 

I wouldn’t commute from FLL to the Northeast just to “maybe” pick up a few more hours of credit per month. If you’re commuting, it always going to be a challenge to pick up extra credit unless you don’t like being home much. Plus the extra cost associated with commuting.


Also JetBlue is becoming more and more seasonal with the loss of business traffic, so even if you’re based in BOS/JFK, you could still find it a challenge to pick up trips around this time of year. Now you’re just commuting for nothing. Was there little open-time last summer in FLL or around the holidays?

 

I think your best bet is to stay in FLL and put your name on the VDA list every day you can, and learn the FLICA watching game/system. If you commute to the northeast (domestic or SQ), I suspect you’ll be gone way more for very little extra pay. Don’t forget to add in crashpad/hotel and food expenses if you’re commuting. Stay in base, watch opentime more, pack food for your trips, etc is probably your best bet. Don’t forget the tradeboard too. And trough months are trough months for all the bases I would suspect.

disclainer: I’m a min work commuter who barely uses FLICA, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

 

There is no money in SQ unless you’d be top 5 and would maybe have a shot at VDA. Even then with the dramatic pulldown, open time isn’t going VDA.

Stay in FL and be aggressive and pick up anything at straight pay. Unless you’re top 20% (at a minimum) VDA will be a unicorn, not the norm. With the lack of premium open time, and open time at all really, any premium trip will be gone before you knew it even happened. The old saying- a bird in the hand. Set alerts and fly anything you can find. Money is money.

Your best tips though will come from folks who aren’t min guarantee “fly your sched” guys though. There are tons of interesting characters that could teach a masterclass on flica and schedule manipulation. The issue is most of them are credit scumbags who would step on your neck for a half hour of credit. They aren’t likely to give away their trade secrets.

 

You forgot option 4. Cut expenses and live off our your income alone.

 

#1 please Bob

 

This is unrealistic, especially with the price of everything lately. I propose a more realistic Option 4: Update Logbook.

 

There are lots of reasons to update your logbooks and update your apps, but your wife staying home with the kids in South Florida is a particularly stupid one.

 

Is it? Homeslice could be 23 to 45 (or more) and going to a legacy would literally change their income in a positive direction.

 

Commuting to the NE will take you out of the family picture pretty quick. Does your wife want to be a single mother 20+ days out of the month?

Even on reserve, our FOs should be able to pull down $200k. I could come up with a dozen different household budget plans in the time it would take to commute just once from FLL to JFK.