I'm a new commuter and I'm wondering how to handle this situation: The question I have is: How early is too early of a show time to have to commute in the night before? My next trip I have a 10:30am show and I have a few options that will get me there by 9:30am. Is that cutting it too close? I just want to avoid paying for a hotel if I can.

 

How far is the commute? How often each month? How many flights will get you there before your show time? Are they direct? If you are on probation that is way too close! Miss a check in a time or two and you could be gone depending on your airline policy or managers. Also, will you be properly rested when you start your shift? Doubtful if you end up doing a 12-16 hour day AFTER commuting in that morning. Suck it up and get a crash pad if you need to.

 

There are cost issues associated with getting a crashpad or hotel. You can't really afford much as a regional pilot. Just do your best, you will probably realize if it's not going to work out and can go to another company. Don't blow your salary or go in debt on hotel expenses just to fly.

 

A common commuter clause requirement is that you have two flights available, one of which arrives 3 hours prior to your show, and the other arrives NLT than 1.5 hours prior to show. Both flights must be on an airline you can non-rev on, and must show seats available in the cabin the day before. If you apply something like this you should be fine.

On probation, I would want a third backup flight. It's unlikely that you would get fired for one missed commute if your plan was conservative, but if you do miss a show, be VERY careful after that (at many companies you might want to move to domicile).

If is looks like you might not make it, call your crew schedulers and let them know so they have a few hours to call a reserve. If your no-show causes a canx flight and you didn't warn them, you are toast. OTH, if you give them a heads-up, and they can cover it, you can probably just take over for the reserve pilot who flew your trip and maybe get away with a phone call from the CP.

A lot of this depends on your company and their attitude...ask around.

 

if you are on probation be there 2 days in advance... not really but you get the point, nothing like being a probie and getting called into the office for a mistrip.

 

You can also use flightaware.com to get a feel for the ACTUAL block times on your commute legs...