SKW has no commuter clause, and that's better than most other airlines because

1) They'll work with you to get you back on your trip (or some trip).
2) There's no set of requirements you have to meet for commuter clause eligibility. Those requirements usually make it impractical to fly in the day of.

That said after commuting to a variety of bases, I will say a two-hour drive is nothing, far better than almost any air commute, assuming you can hold hold multi-day trips. I've driven two hours each way for locals and that would suck if you did it all the time (occasionally no big deal).

If your two-hour drive would be be marginal in traffic, find a small town part of the way there, say 30-45 minutes or however much head-start you need . If it has a gym, movies, library, coffee shop, shopping you're good to go...drive to your "forward base" before traffic picks up and then go home after rush hour. If you don't get called it costs some gas but you got paid to go to the gym, movie, whatever.

 

The forward base is a good idea, but I would extend that by saying drive a minivan or truck with a camper shell. Put a mattress in back and a portable heater--you can use electric or get a propane one for camping. If you get stuck somewhere or get tired waiting to be called, you can crash in back. I live in a very expensive urban area, and a lot of people who can't afford to live here commute in at 4am to beat the traffic then sleep in their trucks till 6 or so.

 

Rickair777 has it exactly right. The 'forward base' concept is the way to go if you're worried about your ability to make a 2 hour callout.

Whatever you do, DO NOT COMMUTE TO RESERVE. I've commuted to both ORD and IAH for reserve...it is a miserable existence and you will find yourself questioning your sanity. Commuting to a line is tough enough... Commuting to sit in a crash pad for days on end will warp your soul.

Trust me.

 

Thanks for all the great advice guys! To clarify a bit, right now I'm CFI-ing outside of my home state, 20 hours drive from any family. I am married but we're totally mobile. So, at the end of my gig instructing here we're moving, one way or another. Choice #1 is move right back to the same area where the whole fam damily lives and try for an ORD base. Choice #2 is to pick something with a base on the eastern half of the U.S. and move to within an hour of base.

I'm partial to choice #2 for the fact that I think I'll be able to base my choice more on the things that really allow you to enjoy your job like a good pilot group, etc. Plus, we'll be closer to family than we are now, but not too close if you know what I mean.

If my logic here is silly, just say so.

So, I don't necessarily need to be at ORD. That's just what has always seemed like the obvious choice to me, being from the area I grew up. Say I did choose to move back home and go for ORD, what happens if I can't get it?


I would be coming from the east-ish

 

At SKW you are virtually guaranteed to hold ORD out of training, it's our second-most-junior base. You might get MSP for a month out of training but I'd be shocked if you didn't get ORD by Month 2.

Just whatever you do, bid-avoid the SKW American Eagle ORD flying like the plague. One day doing hub turns in an Eagle-branded -200 out of ORD will have you clawing your eyes out. Those who have done it know exactly what I'm talking about and why. Fortunately, most of the ORD SKW flying is UAX.

 

This is just my anecdotal opinion but generally the places that use the term "great group of pilots" think they're great because they've had to repeatedly band together against draconian management.

 

I would agree with everyone here...apply to an airline close to home. Do your homework as a couple of those airlines in Chicago may be in trouble but hey all regionals are in trouble.
Day one of training is InDoc...spend that first couple of days redoing your resume. Apply to every major airline. Then update as much as possible
Hurry up and get your time

 

Can anyone speak to commuting from AUS to either DFW (Envoy) or IAH (Skywest)?

I get it that commuting sucks, but I really don't want to leave Austin and am trying to do my best to look before I leap.

 

Commuting isn't fun at all but the commuter rooms do help a lot. CommutAir's policy gives 4 hotel rooms per month. They also have an unlimited "make a good effort to get to work" policy with out being penalized. Also, take a look at the reserve time and how long you will be on reserve. We are flying 65-75 hours on reserve, so we aren't sitting around in a crashpad most of the time and don't expect to be on reserve any longer then 6 months.

 

A good part of the year SkyWest doesn't have any reserves at all. Get out of training and hold a line the first month you can bid.

Do what ever you can to not commute. I'd rather take a daily kick to the nuts than to ever commute again.