If your commute was a 45 minute flight to your base from home, with 3-5 flights a day, that can't be that terrible right?

 

Whens the last flight? Whens the first flight? When do you start a trip? When do you end a trip? 3 to 5 is not good. You want to be able to travel the day of. Something I managed to do with Mesa 90% of the time.

 

I bid weekend trips and split duties. This year I've only been out of my office for 3 days due to airline flying. It's not easy but can be done. The split duties are the key, though.

 

I used to commute and probably had one of the easiest commutes ever, but it still sucked. I had 4 flights a day (1:25 flight time) all on my own metal with basically no competition from my own airline for the jumpseat. I was senior enough to bid commutable trips and only had to spend 2-3 nights in domicile over the course of 2 years. I would usually just give myself one leg up arriving 1-2 hours before my report and I never missed a trip. Once my commute flight was scheduled in 1 minute before my report time.

Even as easy as a commute as I had I still would avoid it like the plague, at least for a regional. There was still always that uncertainty of if/when you'd get home (sometimes I'd make the last flight but it could be delayed a few hours for wx or mx). Sometimes on weekends with a reduced schedule I'd finish a trip and have to wait 4-6 hours for my flight home just bumming around the airport. Later trip starts were nice but after having to get up at 6 to catch an 8 am flight to make a 12 pm report followed by 5 legs getting to the hotel at midnight still was no fun.

I have been very fortunate to never have had to commute to reserve. That always sounded like pure torture.

 

Can anyone speak on commuting for Endeavor? With a commute from BOS with plenty of flights each day, would the "2 flights to get to base" rule allow you to commute day of? I would assume it depends on your show time

 

BOS to NY is about as easy as it gets. In the nearly 5 years I've been doing it I've had to spend the night in NY only 3-4 times. Having 2 flights is easy when early in the morning there is a JB headed to JFK at 545, then a DL at 6 and an AA at 615. Obviously if you get one of those 630a shows you're coming in the night before, but those are rare.

It still sucks to commute, but if you have to, it doesn't get much better than BOS-NY.

 

That sounds horrible to me. My flight is blocked at about 1:40, but I have 15 flights per day on my own airline and about 10 more on other airlines. There is more than a flight per hour. 3-5 flights means you have to sit at the airport for hours waiting to sign in of go home.

 

Do airlines have an incentive to TRY and place pilots in a base located in their home town with no commute? Or do airlines not care if pilots commute?

From a logic standpoint placing pilots in a base in their home town seems like a win-win for numerous reasons: Pilots more likely to show up on time, pilots are less fatigued, airlines more likely to retain pilots b/c of higher job satisfaction, etc.

In other words: If I live in DEN, and get a job at Skywest as FO, would Skywest have an incentive to place me in DEN? Or, would Skywest not care that I live in DEN and determine where I'm placed based solely on Skywest's needs?

*I'm not the original poster. Just curious for my own path.

 

They don't have any direct incentive of where you live/are based. The indirect incentive would be like you mentioned there would be less missed commutes if you can drive to work.
Either way they don't really care. If you don't make it to work for missing a commute or fatigue they will just use a reserve. Reserves are budgeted into their costs.

 

No, it's all seniority based. Be prepared to commute until you are able to hold Denver. If that's where you live.