STL Commutes to Majors' Domiciles?
 

Greetings APC'ers,

This is a great resource for those of us trying to break into the industry...THANK YOU to those who share their knowledge here!

Me: Retiring USAF who will be a St. Louis commuter despite understood QoL & $$$ considerations...15 minutes door-to-door from STL in Clayton, MO so I hope it may be as painless a 1-hop commuter location as possible?!

Would STL commuters from these 4 airlines be kind enough to chime in with any feedback on the following commutes, to include your non-rev mainline rules (i.e. relief from line/reserve call-out with xx missed commute options) and any reciprocal agreements with other Majors?

SWA: 3 x Jr. western domiciles + MDW
DAL: LGA, DTW, MSP, & ATL
UAL: EWR & IAD/DCA (looks bleak with RJs except for sr. ORD dom)
AA: ORD, DFW

Many thanks!
Cheers,
bkC130

Atl is a decent commute because there are ten flights a day and all are on big equipment.

SWA has a pretty good commuter policy. Either two flights that will get you to base 1 hour before your report time or only 1 SWA flight that will get you in an hour prior. The commute out west will be long but there are many flights headed out to all three bases. Most STL guys eventually choose MDW just because it's such a short flight with around 8 directs a day I think. Lots and lots of SWA flights through STL, by far the most of any carrier. Good luck with your 2nd career choice.


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Thanks much Illinipilot and OB for the good feedback....I'd hoped for more perspectives with 500 views but maybe this is the wrong forum...or folks just aren't too excited to advertise capacity on their own rides to work! :D

ORD is awful. Too many commuters and not enough seats.
LGA is alright....worse now that TSA is doing it with 50 seaters. I used SWA mostly when I lived there.
EWR is all RJ's and 2 SWA...same with DC.
ATL/MSP is ok depending on the day...since STL shrank in 2010 most everyone has to fly to a hub to get anywhere so most hub routes are full.

Find where SWA goes and commute on them and you should be ok.

Have you looked into TWA? They have an STL operation :D

Kidding aside. Some of the questions you've asked about commuting/non-reving get answered a lot.

And unfortunately, many answers about commuting can all be subjective/relative to the specific individual's experience between a specific city pair on a specific carrier working for a specific airline, etc.

I just started my 16th year of commuting, it sucks.....

But if you you it FROM DAY ONE with no other perspective of living in base it eases the suckerey of it all. Kind of an "ignorance is bliss" sort of thing.

DFW is 10x on affiliate RJ's.
ORD is 4x. But only one afternoon flight.

New hires lately aren't getting DfW. They've basically never got ORD. Currently they're getting LGA or MIA. So there will be a period of time before you'll be able to do a one leg commute to DFW.

Thanks Sliceback,
AA isn't generating much buzz because they're only training flow-throughs vs. off-the-street hiring, but I think their future is bright based on the day-long tour at DFW I took this Spring...that STL commute is problematic though...appreciate the feedback. BK

Thanks flyguy81,
I think SWA & DAL are far and away my best commute options out of STL...I have a neighbor who commutes STL-MSP for DAL with no issue but I was thinking STL-DTW may be just about the same capacity and a bigger/more junior base for better seniority quicker?! DAL has sent me the "fix it" emails so I'm hopeful that when I get closer to my Feb '15 avail date I'll get an interview shot with them....Cheers, bkC130

Do you have job offers from SWA, DAL, AA, and UA?

You will only have to commute to the domicile of company that hires you.

Are you only going to apply at companies that have an "easier" commute?

Good Luck.