usmc-sgt

Two leg commute would be miserable and should be reserved for damage control only. I had the easiest commute (one of) in the business with Boston to Newark. Countless flights a day on a few airlines. When it’s good it’s good, but when it’s bad it’s very bad. It’s a shuttle so any hint of weather and they cancel half of them and then every flight is oversold for 2 days. Weekends off... almost worse. If you show at say 8am the morning flights are risky so you need to likely go the night prior. Last flight is pretty booked and risky so you take the one before...it’s a Sunday so it’s at noon...and wide open. Now you take the noon and get there at 1pm and have the rest of the day and night in the crash pad. You can only take that for so long before you get risky and start taking the 6am that lands at 7:20 with no backup and hope for the best. As others have said, if you have to and it lets you live in your dream location, it’s nice to have. There is no scenario where a commute is good, fun, easy, or marginally doable. You sound like most optimists wanting to believe it’s a good jump. “Two flights a day.” “Jumpseat is almost always empty.” “A few two leg options.” These are things I told my wife trying to convince us that it wouldn’t be bad at all. Your commute will be in the “doable” category, but far from good. More often than not you’re likely to go in the day early, Miss the last flight and go home a day late. Not to be discouraging but we’ve all been there. Welcome to the suck!

Disclaimer: I love what I do and wouldn’t change it for the world*. *winning powerball excluded.

Bulldog08

I am in the almost exact same scenario. I’m also looking at XJT. I’m still reading and trying to research the 121 lifestyle. IAH is about a 3.5hr. drive for me. I imagine this would get old driving every week. It seems I read mostly about 4 day trips. Is there anyway to lump more days together to only have to commute 2-3 times a month vs. 4?

ZeroTT

This is kind of like asking if subsistence sex work is really all that bad.

2GoodEngines

Speaking with a friend who works there and asking questions on these boards, it seems like (once you have a line) that the line improvement mechanism that XJT has in place allows you to do a LOT of manipulation to get a more desirable schedule, even if you’re fairly junior. It’s all subject to part 117 rules and company coverage requirements, but I believe their union contract has some minimum amount of flexibility that must be built in to the schedule to allow for this type of trading. That same friend showed me a bid package and I went through every single pairing. I’d say well over 50% of the pairings were same day commutable based on my hometown airline schedule and the company commuter clause.

Of course, all of that is subject to change, but I would think based on the current challenge of hiring new pilots at the regionals, it shouldn’t change for the worse, barring another economic downturn (which will happen sometime). And the previous poster is probably right, I’m probably being optimistic. But with over half of the airline pilots in the country commuting, you’d think if it was just horrific (as many say), that people just wouldn’t do it. That’s why it’s pretty much impossible to know until you do it, but if you do and it sucks, you’re stuck. I should probably just grow a pair and make the jump (but I’m skeeered).

2GoodEngines

Is it commutable? :-)

Swakid8

The other big factor is if you know relatives that live in base you are willing to commute to. That can ease the pain with crash pad expenses and staying with folks that will make resting in the base you have commuted easier.

black cat

I work for AA and we can reserve the JS on our metal so that takes almost all of the stress out of commuting. Having said that, commuting still sucks. Hard. I couldn't imagine doing it my whole career. I'll only have to do it a few more months then I'll be in base. But it's nice to have the option if needed. There's no such thing as a "good" commute. Even if it's a quick one hour flight, it's still a whole extra level of logistics you have to figure out to just get back and forth between home and work. Not to mention all of the extra time you **** away not being home when you're off. And don't even get me started on crashpads.

filejw

The biggest issue is time and by that I mean time you never get back . I’m not talking hours but days in most cases as the hours add up . I did it for 38 years and only survived because the last 20 I was International an was able to start and end most trips with a DH . FYI commuting and living in base is two different jobs .

pangolin

What are you commuting to? That's the bigger question. Commuting is difficult because you are dependent on an airplane to get you to work. It's NOT DEPENDABLE! There's a couple aspects to commuting - and I've done it all.

Commuting to sit reserve is bad because you have to worry about housing/hotels IN BASE and that's expensive and a pain. I have a second job that I can do so the sitting around is not bad for me but it drives some people bonkers.

If you are commuting to your line - where you have a start time that lets you commute in the same day and and end time that lets you go home on go home day then that part isn't bad. But once again, going home you are depending on an airplane. An airplane that can break. An airplane that can be delayed. Weather can mess with you and back things up literally for days. How well you handle all of this and what level it sucks for you depends largely on YOU And your attitude handling these complications.

I commuted from a large airport in Florida to a large airport in Texas. Some days I got on the first flight to work in the back. Some days it took me 4 flights OR MORE to get an open jump seat. Was that stressful? Not for me. But some people can't handle the rejection of being told no you can't get on this one. Now I commute from a small regional airport and I REALLY reasonably only have one shot to work. I watch the inbound and make sure it got here and I watch the loads to see if I have a real shot to get on. Sometimes the flight gets weight limited and I know ahead of time I need to drive to another airport where I have a better shot or I need to get creative and make it a two leg commute. I would never regularly plan a two leg commute. However it happens. Stuff happens. I hitch hike to work and I'm dependent on an undependable mode of transportation. Know it for what it is. The actual ride to work isn't bad. What you are commuting INTO can be bad.

JayBee

NO.

Move to base.