Commuting from Europe to a U.S. Regional
 

Hey y'all,

Does any one here commute from Europe or know of someone who successfully commutes from Europe to a U.S. Regional? Is it possible to structure your schedule after picking up open time and swapping trips to get 7-10 days off in a row? How easy is it to jumpseat to and from Germany and what are the pit-falls to watch out for?

I'm looking at getting my career back on the airline track that I intended to follow when I was in college 15 years ago. Along the way I picked up a European spouse that is now homesick. Flying Single Engine Helicopters probably won't land me an interview with the Majors, although my applications are in.

The biggest thing I've flown is a Casa 212 and I know I need turbojet airliner time if I want to succeed in the industry here in the U.S. or on the old continent. Any stories of success or nightmares would be a great help in wargaming my future.

Thanks for the Help!

Its possible - but will be very rough. When you start you'll be reserve so you will need to commute in just to sit and wait for a possible call. Also if you only have 2 days off commuting home may possibly mean 5 or 6 hours at home before commuting back. That being said I know of a flight attendant at my airline that commutes from singapore and at my last airline there was a puerto rico commuter and an England commuter.

Once you hold a line you should be able to trade/swap trips to get 2 or 3 weeks of flying followed by 1 or 2 weeks off. (Save for the rest between trips in a crashpad).

Also I think you have to pay the international taxes if your jump-seating out of the country, but I don't know for sure.

Difficult yes, but not impossible.

Hope this helps.

It can be done. My airline has/had a flight attendant commute from Prague to ORD. Another guy commuted from Bangkok. There is currently an FO here that lives part time in Athens. They seem to be in the same boat as you. A significant other living overseas so they make the commute.

Their magic is base seniority and without it I think you'll be struggling to get 4 days in a row off consistently. With it, you should be able to drop a 4 day trip between two blocks of days off and get 12 days at home.

I don't live in Europe but travel there extensively. Commuting is doable, but it all depends on how much you are willing to commute.

In the beginning before you have any seniority plan to spend only one or two days at home tops. Once you can hold a line things will be better.

I know of people who commute from Alaska to ORD and JFK which is much, MUCH worse than a commute from Western Europe to the American East Coast.

I also know of flight attendants who live in Brazil and commute to MIA, a pilot who lives in Ireland and commutes to JFK, among others.

So it is not impossible. Like I said before, just be ready to be away from home quite a bit while on Reserve.

If you have time I am just curious. Have you checked into the European helo operators like Britow? Are those 80-100K Euros a year jobs? Are the US regionals still the best option with EU work rights? What do you speculate the Lufthansa feed jobs are paying?

Even a short commute while on reserve is brutal. You may get 24 hours at home once a week, if your schedule breaks a certain way. A long commute like that may very well kill you, if your spouse doesn't first. I'm not being flippant, just realistic. I would not recommend it.

If an international commute doesn't ruin a marriage, I would be shocked!

Not possible on reserve, and probably very impractical as a low-seniority lineholder.

But once you're around 50% or better, it can be done and people do it. Sounds rough though. I'm beat for two days after I cross the pond. I can function, but it's not really fun.

Doing a commute like that, your quality of life will approach zero.

Most regionals give you 11 days off a month. You will have to commute in the day before as a junior pilot on reserve. You'll be lucky to get 5 days a month at home--and they won't be in a row. Now if all this attrition that's supposed to happen comes to fruition suddenly, it becomes a lot more doable as your seniority increases. But at XJT, even the middle of the pack guys get 14-15 days off; that's it. The schedule would actually probably be better than a commute from the east coast to the west coast of the USA. You could work all day, then catch the late bank of planes going to Europe, and arrive on the continent early the next morning--that is IF you can get a stby seat or don't mind paying for ZED fares. Cockpit jump seating is not allowed.

Why wouldn't you work where you're at? Don't come here this place will slowly drain the life from you. Stay over seas and make way better money and save your marriage.

I know someone who semi-commutes to Germany. Kalitta does regularly scheduled CVG/JFK - Leipsig Germany.

Holy crap...

...and I thought I had issues to work out before flying for a regional. Geeeesh...good luck with that, amigo!!

Not sure about other airlines but I believe that you get something like six round trip standbys for ocean crossing international on Delta. In addition to a crash pad its going to cost you for those standby ZED fairs after your free round trips you can also add international taxes on top of that. Not sure about United/AA systems they could be free, im sure it could be done and has been done but I would probably quit after six months to a year of that.

Not that I know anything, but I have got to think that after paying for your crashpad, international taxes, and ZED fares, you'd be better off taking a bucketload of cash and setting fire to it. Your regional salary would probably be devoted entirely to travel costs...

We had an FO at Eagle commute from Germany to DFW. He was senior enough to be a Captain though. Schedules have gotten worse since then but before he said he was able to get a full two weeks off every month after shuffling his trips around. He also didn't need the money so not sure how much he just dropped. As a new hire forget it. You would be miserable and wouldn't last long. All your time off would be spent going back and forth.

Depending upon the country, this is probably actually true. Departure taxes vary, but even if it's $75-80 out of someplace like Rome or Paris you've just cost yourself a whole reserve day's pay before you even get to work. Then you have the scheduling/days off/crashpad issues that have previously been mentioned. FAR 117 has made it more challenging to stack trips together than before so unless you can get your thirty hours off on a long overnight, you're destined to need a hotel or bunk so you can get your legal day off every week.

Commuting domestically is hard enough, the few people I know who do international (A) Don't mind being gone from home for two weeks at a time (B) Are very senior, and (C) Did not start as newhires making an international commute. If you're already well-established, off probation and off reserve and have some schedule control, and commuting to JFK or ORD, then maybe... Not having multiple flight options really will make it tough in the event of weather or a cancellation though, and if a flight is full/weight restricted, you may not make it home or to work at all. It is hard to argue that it is worth it. Throw in jetlag and fatigue, and yeah, the likelihood that you'll quickly come to loathe the job is practically guaranteed, and the chances that your marriage will not survive your career goes up tenfold. She may be homesick, but she'd also like to see you occasionally, yeah?

i think jumpseat is unlimited on DAL, non-rev has a limit for ocean crossings. You will always occupy a cabin seat while jumpseating across the pond.

AAh yes forgot about that.

Not sure if anyone has already said it, but a non-company pilot cannot sit cockpit jumpseat international on pretty much any airline I can think of (including cargo operators with the exception of Atlas/Polar).

On first year regional pay, assuming you go home only once a month, you'll basically be spending half your monthly guarantee on taxes and departure fees.

Not to discourage you further, but you will get stuck at least once or twice, and being "that guy who commutes from city xxx in Europe" and having a few call-in-honests/sick calls here and there is not going to look good while on probation.

Additionally, you should be very wary of what you're proposing in light of the new 117 rules on "acclimated." Being classified as a cabin-only jumpseater on a Europe-US flight greater than 60 degrees change in latitude, then having 8 hours in crashpad prior to a trip wouldn't be something I'd want anyone to know about if I had an incident/ASAP reportable thing happen on my trip--you don't want that on paper in front of a Fed. Not sure how they're interpreting non-acclimated commutes but it just seems unwise all around.

Either way good luck and hope I'm not overloading you with negativity--just pointing out some realities and encouraging you to strongly consider not doing this in your first year at a regional.

Also just figured I'd point out that year 1 RJ pay at Lufthansa CityLine is about 46,000 euros per year with 4 weeks of vacation and probably a billion times better retirement/medical benefits than any US regional that has ever existed.

One more thing to consider if you want to get some fixed wing time--not sure if they're still in existence, but you might want to look into CFIing for the US military's AeroClub in I think Mannheim. Can't remember which base/airfield, but they do have N-registered Cessnas. You do need a SOFA card through a job to do flying/flight instruction there, but there are part-time jobs at the many US military facilities in range of the airfield (just look at Germany jobs on usajobs.com).

Of course all of the aeroclub work, base jobs, etc. that I'm referring to were booming during the major phases of the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts--I have no idea how busy the bases or base aeroclubs are at this moment in time.

Just google aeroclub US Germany or something--there's a thread on here or JC about it I think.