20 minutes door to ops.

 

I own property in JAX, which is why staying here for the time being was the best option. I'm going to stick it out for the rest of 2015, but moving might seem more enticing if the commute gets worse. I'd take a 2 hour drive over what I went through last night to get home any day.

 

Do you have to drive through winter weather?

 

Answer these questions for yourself..

What is your strategy with this commute when your report time is 7am?
When you are finished after 9-10pm, or later?
When you have back to back trips (1 night off in between), or 1 day off between trips?

I drive 1:10 now, and have to leave 2 hours prior to account for traffic and airport overhead, and that's long enough to where I don't care to make the commute any more than 1.5-2x a week.

 

I was living in Kansas City (on the Kansas Side) and was based out of St. Louis. Ended up driving numerous times, but more often than not i'd fly. If the flights looked even remotely full, I'd just gas up the car and drive across state.

I lived about 30 minutes from the airport, and would arrive 30-45 minutes prior to boarding for my commute. The flight was right around an hour, then I'd have to trek from the East Terminal to the main terminal for work which could take 20 minutes depending on the metrolink situation, or hopping on the shuttle. After all was said and done, it was about 2.5 hours of "commute" time before I'd arrive at the crew room...when I drove it, I'd be there in about 3.5 hours. Not a WHOLE lot of difference.

 

I have a 90 minute drive and then 3 1/2 hour flight... can usually expect to waste at least 14-15 hours of my life a week getting to/from work. It's miserable- best advice is to live in domicile.

 

Its about a 20 to 30 minute drive to the airport for me. But like was stated above, the flights are being reduced. I had to be in CLT at 9AM... The 7AM to CLT was completely full (when there used to always be a few seats open) and I almost didn't get on. They reduced the daily flights and did away with a morning flight and a late afternoon flight. My day ended at 4PM yesterday and the last afternoon flight back to JAX was at 4PM. The next one was at 8PM but was oversold by about 10 seats and 4 mainline employees had priority over me for the jumpseats. So no go. There used to be a 6:00PM flight but that one is gone now as well. I have to wait for the 10:30PM and that flight was full. I made it on at the last second by the skin of my teeth but my luck could just as easily not been so good and I would of been spending the night in CLT on my own dime. Finally get back to my house around 12:30AM the next day. So I was up from 4:30AM to about 1:00AM the next day. 21 hours. I know this isn't unusual for many of us, but for anyone reading this and thinking of commuting, all I will say is consider your options carefully. Because it sucks and it can suck the soul out of you if you do it long enough. Chronic fatigue is the name of the game.

 

I'd argue that commuting is required at the regionals, because even if you do move to your domicile there is nothing that says mainline cannot swap your domicile's flying with another regional. I've seen it happen more than once in my short stint in this industry.

 

I commute from an outstation with three flights a day to the hub. The flight is just under two hours and driving is not an option as it would take twelve hours. The flights are fairly full but there's never any competition for the jumpseat. One of the problems I've ran into is weight restrictions on Skywest 200s, but even then it's usually never a problem. It works out well because there's always an early flight (6AM) headed into work and a later flight (8PM) coming back home.

The other problem is having a plan B, which involves two legs and adds a lot of time to the commute. 95% of the time I get on the first flight and make it in with 4-5 hours to spare. Some guys chance it on one flight that gets them in an hour or less before show time, but then you have to burn a sick call if that doesn't work. It really depends on how ballsy you're feeling that day. The ONE time I went without a plan B it ended up being a full flight with a check airman in the jumpseat. Go figure!

 

Does anyone have any experience commuting out of Phoenix to any bases back east? i.e. MSP, DTW, NYC