Is this on mainline flights, or on your company's flights? Here in HulasWorld, the only people who can bump TSA pilots are the Feds.

I guess some of the rest of you would disagree, but I enjoy my days off way too much to commute.

Mainline only. Most regionals give priority to their own people on company iron. I think UAL pilots have priority on mesa UAX flights, but not sure about it..

Commuting really sucks unless it is a short 1-leg commute.

My piece of advice is to get a crashpad for those early shows. And the late finishes when you can't get home afterwards.

My other piece of advice is to leave yourself lots of options. Check loads early and often. Check the weather 24 hours before your commute. If you know the weather will suck, causing delays, go early.

During your first (probationary) year you don't want to do anything which will raise eyebrows because your employment during your first year is pretty much 'at will'. Very little protection. So do almost anything to avoid telling the Crew Desk that you missed your commute.

Sounds like TUS-IAH is not that bad a commute. Can you drive it in a worst case scenario?

Rick's rules of commuting are pretty solid.

But I don't commute!!

The only time commuting is better than living in or near domicile is if you have a really short commute on flights where you pretty much are guaranteed to get on.

For a while I commuted from ATW (Appleton, WI) to ORD and it was easier than living near ORD. Door of the house to the crew room in ORD was no more than if I lived in the burbs of Chicago.

Haha, thats funny. Are you familiar with the size of Texas? You can FLY for 2 hours still not be across Texas!!!:D

Sorry. You are right. I had Houston misplaced. My bad!! :o

Thankfully, I only "need" to commute for the first year or so. I can see that this is going to consume a bunch of my time off.:(

It doesn't need to once you get off reserve. It is possible to build your schedule with trips that start late and end early so that you may only have to spend 1 or 2 nights a month in a crashpad or at a hotel in Houston. Of course even if you bid for the perfect schedule, there will always be the chance that you get delayed or the flights home are full, etc etc. I guess thats the cost you pay for the perk.

You'll figure it out soon enough. Just don't miss work because of a missed commute. Management pilots don't like that, especially from newer guys and gals. If you have 10 flights per day you should have no problems at all.

Does anybody know how commutable LAX to DEN is?