Commuting from DFW
 

Just hired and have a training date. I am retiring from the military and would like to move to DFW area. Looking at trying to get to Atlanta or Memphis (driving would be a option in a pinch for MEM). How hard would it be for me to commute from DFW. I understand the quality of life issue about being in the same area as your base but due to family constraints, that is not the best option for me. Appreciate any info or recommendations.

A DFW commute to either MEM or ATL would be "sporty". There are a lot of DL pilots in the DFW metroplex, and surrounding wasteland. In your first year or two, what you save in income taxes could be offset by what you spend in hotels, gas, and anxiety. JMHO.

Commuting to ATL like the others have said is a challenge. You do have AA and Airtran as an option.

Commuting to MEM with only three or four daily flights on a RJ might be tuff, but you do have FedEx out of DFW and AFW to get up there.

If you are trying to move to back to Texas move somewhere else besides the DFW if your going to commute.

Funny. Every stain on my tie can be blamed on that tasty breakfast treat and why I leave a sani wipe.

I commute from IAH to MEM currently and what others are saying is true. Its a lot of RJ's which can be a pain. With that said, from DFW you have American who still flys the MD80s in between DFW and MEM which should help. Drivability would be a nice back up but you wouldnt want to do that on a regular basis.

Now Fedex is a great back up and like others have said, you'd have AFW and DFW to commute from and once booked they're pretty much guaranteed seats.

Either way, congrats and welcome!

You also have airtran out of pns to atl, so no RJs.

I commute out of DFW. ATL is tough in the summer and holidays, tons of people do it. ATL has the most flights with all mainline so u can book the jumpseat, but your lucky to get 1 to 2 jumpseats a month. A total of 9-10 flights a day. American matches it with Super 80 and airtran has 5 flights. American and airtran I seem to use more than Delta. You can get home at the end of a late trip with a 10:00 flight or so.
MSP I have tried too. Alot less people, but only 6 flights and only 1 is mainline. 175 RJ so u can't book the jumpseat ahead of time. American matches it with Super 80s 6 a day. Another negative is the last flight home is 7:15 so you can get stuck and spend a night after a trip. You can hold better senority in MSP than ATL.
Overall one of the worst commutes in the system its a toss up between ATL and MSP with more flights to ATL with less senority on an airplane or more senority in MSP and less flights and RJ to deal with. With MEM only having 3 flights on Delta and such a small base I wouldn't thank long term.
Good luck, and I love DFW, but I'm going to have to move to a base one day, I can't keep this up for a whole career.

I use my tie to hide the stains that get on my shirt! :D

Computer/new hire question
 

Looking for some new-hire help. I have a Macbook, but found out that apparently much of the new-hire computer based training cannot be done on an Apple. Has anyone successfully installed boot camp for training so as not to have to buy a PC based computer? Thanks for the help.
BTW, can new-hires bid the 777 on the current AE?

I'm not sure that FedEx flies AFW-MEM. I asked the question once and the answer I got was that is is only DFW-MEM out of the Metroplex.

A quick check on flightaware confirms this...at least for the first leg. However I did notice AFW to ATL, MSP and LAX.