Commuting from LAS
 

Hi Guys,

I'm about a year away from applying to the regionals once my time in the Air Force is up but just trying to look at all sorts of options. I'm aware that living near your domicile is recommended and that is a possibility for me, but does anyone commute from Las Vegas to their Regional Domicile? Is it even possible to do when starting out with no seniority?

Any advice/experiences greatly appreciated either here on the forum or PM.

Thank you for your time.

IIAB

Yes it can be done. West coast bases are best for a LAS commute.

Or Skywest in SLC.

You can commute just about anywhere. It's all up to you, and what you are willing to put up with. I know a CA who commutes 2-3 legs from Louisiana to DTW. Has been doing it for over 15 years. The question becomes... How much of that are you willing to deal with?

LAS is a good commute because everybody goes there, many times each day.

Not too much weather to gum up the works, occasional windshear and the airport might overtemp once or twice a year.

Its a SWA base, so their jumpseat s can fill up, but there are other options.

Been doing the LAS-LAX commute for over a year (so basically no seniority) I've only ever been burned once. There are a lot of commuters, but there's a lot of flights. AVOID leaving Mondays and arriving Fridays and you'll never even sweat one bit. I have flights on my own company too tho.

Lots of flights, all hours of the day, generally good WX.
It can be done.

After I retired in 2013, I commuted to Envoy in NYC and ORD for a year. Getting flights in and out was not a problem (Friday and Monday flights are pure entertainment! Party animals on the way in and depressed, hungover, broke people leaving on Monday).

The tough part was the work rules and commuting. For a year, I basically had enough time at home to throw the clothes in the washer, take a nap, and leave for another 4 - 6 days...

Cheers

Honestly, the biggest aspect to consider commuting out of LAS is that it is going to be hard to get *to* Vegas on a Friday night, and hard to leave Vegas on a Sunday evening or Monday morning.

I commuted to LAX for a year, which is possibly the easiest flying commute known to mankind: 30-ish flights per day, each way, on numerous different airlines. Still, the friday-sunday-monday rule of thumb made commuting during those times challenging, and I often had to go to work the night before and get a hotel, or get a hotel and go home the morning after a trip.

Some junior regional domiciles are tough from LAS, as smaller towns aren't likely to have direct flights (many of the east coast regional junior bases, for example), but most of the big cities are going to have at least something useful.

Spirit does a lot of red eye out of of LAS to the east cost, which is helpful for some commuters. I commute to LAS from the west coast and it's very easy, and crash pads are reasonable.