I live in the middle of the city and it was a minimum 45 minute drive to airport parking. A friend flew for Delta and lived in Peoria, Ill. He was based at ORD for much of his career til it closed and then he drove to Cincinnati until he retired. The crazy things pilots do, but he never had to fly for his commute.

 

I drive ~4 hours to EWR. I hate it. Somewhere around the 2-2:30 mark is where I start to lose my mind. I could probably do it for the rest of my career. Even with 0500 shows and 2345 releases effectively being red eyes on either end of the trip. But it is miserable.

Still, its much easier than driving an hour to BOS and then worrying about getting on or not. Or getting back.

 

I do a combined commute. (Delta NYC 757/67)
Commute out of Norfolk, VA with a less than 30 min drive to airport.
NYC based with an Ozone Park crashpad.
Crashpad is mostly for shortcall and the 1 day breaks between trips where it's not worth coming home or if weather looks crap and I go up the day before.

That said, I bid to minimize my commuting. I only commuted once, one way in December. After having 27 days in a row off.

I normally sit long call at home. There is a 3-4 hour window a day, where if I got called for an exactly 12 hour callout, I can make it, but I have no legal backup if I don't get on the next flight. Driving is my option if I don't get on. But then it's middle of the night, so no traffic.

Very, VERY rarely do I get less than a 16 hour callout. Unless it's for shortcall starting in 12 hours. That's common, but I also get 2 hours into short call "non contactable" if I let skeds know.

So I usually sit at home until a trip/shortcall pops, then try to JS. If it looks ridiculous, I will rent a car one way and drive up if I don't get on. It's about a 7 hour drive one way. Probably do the ground commute ever other month.

If the wife wants to go on a trip on months I hold a line, or I get a decent reserve trip far enough in advance, we will often drive to NYC in her car since non rev on a RJ to NYC is crap at best from ORF.

Drive car, drop her off at AirTrain, park in employee lot, meet her at the gate after checking in.

 

I agree with most my drive is 3:15.
I’d much rather drive than depend on flights. My personal limit would be 4 hours.
My drive is all highway cruise set at 80 mph
(God blessed Texas with 75mph speed limits)
Now if I was doing stop and go city driving, I don’t think I’d last more than 30’minutes.

 

I know a number of guys who drive to EWR from Boston. I’m sure it sucks but much better than a flying commute.

I live 1:30 from the nearest major airport and commute to EWR which is a 2 hr flight. On a perfect day it’s 5 hours from my house to EWR. I almost always have to go the night before and occasionally miss the last flight after getting back and end up sleeping in ops in order to catch the 0600 back to my home airport. I’ve been doing this for 6 years and I hate every minute of it. We finally decided to move to base which will be a 1+15 to EWR. I can’t wait. I’d probably rather do a 4 hr drive any day over a flying commute, even an easy one, of any distance. I hate having to factor that in 6-8 times a month.

 

How hard is it at most airlines (with a bit of seniority of course) to push multiple trips together in one block so one can minimize the number of times one has to commute?

Could you do like 6 day trips, or even 3 or 4, 4 day trips in one block to only have to commute twice a month (or even once) instead of 4 times?

Sure, you’d be done from home in longer stretches, but still be gone same
number of days total each month

 

You could easily do it at Delta.

 

Thats what I do at AA. 30hr rest every seven days is the only hinderance, I look for trips that have that 30 day rest. I was doing red eyes and 117 restricts legs at night, its been a few months but something like only 3 days of 0200-0600, dont qoute me on that. I can avoid red eyes now so i have already forgotten the rule

 

I want one! Preferably CDG

 

“Hinderance”?.........