FPQ? We talking like 7 years down the road? Just enjoy the C-17 and being bull lieutenant.

Everts Air Cargo is a home based carrier too, with 14 or 16 days on and the rest off. Operations are generally out of Laredo. Summertime assignments in Anchorage during fish haul. Company apartments with vehicles are provided.

Home based with XOJET now and I’m far happier than the regionals and am 8 on 6 off so I’m not gone as long as the ACMI carriers. Sure I’m often out early (6am) home 5pm (as early at 11 or as late as 10pm). Some Long hard weeks but company pays for food and rental car. Do your research for sure :-)

TROF your ass off.
Become an AC/IP/EP in the c-17.
See all the great dusty parts of the world on the air force’s dime.
Get hired by a major.
Profit.

Wasn't that NAC that was doing that?

My friend is really enjoying NetJets. Good contract and structure and the pay is good with all their additional pay stuff. He is also diamond/platinum on every US Airline and Hotel Chain. His family vacations are all used with points. Not saying it’s better than the majors but there are advantages and disadvantages to both sides.

Hoff... get off here and study your gracc book. You'll have plenty of time to think about domiciles when you're an IP and have no more upgrades. ;)

ELTW

There are no advantages to fractionals which outweigh a big-six job unless you absolutely MUST live in a specific town, which is fractional home base, but a very hard commute to the majors. Even then it had better be so important that it's worth a lot of money and time off over your career. About the only thing I can think of would be difficult family circumstances which cannot be relocated (ie divorce + kids). I already told my parents they will need to move to me when the time comes that they need ongoing help from their kids. Mom had been trying to get us to come home but I'm not trading drive to work in base for a 2-leg RJ commute from Podunk Falls.

I'm talking to new entrants, if you're already settled in and cozy where you are then of course you do you.

I’ll never go back to jumpseating and crashpads.... home basing and hotels every night away from home is hard to beat.

You can make huge money commuting to an airline that doesn't have a base where you live.

You can make huge money and get twice the number of days off living in base working for an airline with a slightly lower payscale but better work rules.

Living in base was worth somewhere between 10-20% to me. This year alone I've picked up around $10k in extra trips that were easy money but totally non-commutable, simply because I live 20 minutes from the airport. $10k for about 12 extra days of work and no commute hassles, due only to living in domicile. That's not bad for a 2nd yr FO.

Also, for a couple of recent months I ended up with a decent line but it was all weekends, didn't work at all with my family schedule. Because I live so close to the airport, I traded almost my entire schedule for 1 and 2 day trips that would suck for commuters and aren't desirable for anyone who live an hour or more from the airport. Super nice for me, home almost every night and it gives me flexibility to trade around kids/family schedule without worrying about commuting issues or spending money on hotels. Before I was in base, picking up 2 days extra work generally burned at least 3 days away from home, so I just didn't do it very often.

That said, some of the guys getting the most credit every month are commuters. They've been doing it for a while and often don't have kids at home, have a spouse who is self-entertaining (or have no spouse), so they don't mind spending 20-25 days on the road. I couldn't do that so I don't, but it works ok for some.