Advice on where to live?
 

Going to be starting at Republic in December and I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for where I should live. I currently do not live in any of the bases and my goal is to not have to commute.

I'm really having a hard time making a decision. The MIA and IAH bases are attractive because of the good weather, but also it seems like they are both senior bases and I wouldn't be able to actually hold that base for a long time, causing me to commute. (please correct me if I'm wrong, still trying to understand the whole bidding system). I'm not sure if moving to either of those places would be a good move financially and career wise if I have to commute for a year.

Living in most of the northeastern bases is out of the question simply due to cost.

That leaves me with all of the midwestern bases. ORD seems like a cool place to live other than the cold 6-7 months a year. IND, CMH, SDF, MCI all seem about the same to me.

Any general advice is welcome, I am pretty lost on what to do.

Stay away from ORD... pretty difficult base to deal with mostly because of very little movement of the seniority list. I would choose CMH, PIT, or EWR if you’re interested in getting off reserve quickly. If not, then IND or MCI would be ok. SDF looks like it may be ok too, but since it hasn’t opened yet, there’s still a little bit of uncertainty there. Plus, SDF went a little senior on the CA side because we still have a lot of folks who were there previously when it was a Chautauqua base.

Married? Single? Kids? Just out of college? or are you changing careers?

I agree - living in Manhattan is not the cheapest but you can find plenty of affordable places to live in the Northeast. Albeit not as cheap an IND or CMH but not that much more either.

Boston and Philly are both great towns with lots to do. Same with the DC area.

It all depends on what you want to do when you’re off. Culture? Nightlife? Outdoor activities?

Answer some of those questions and we can help you out.

I would think CMH or SDF would be the best bang for the buck QOL wise.

CMH is pretty cool. College town, cheap. You could probably drive from CVG or northern Kentucky if that’s more your speed.

What are you flying goals? Want the quickest upgrade? Want to be off reserve quicker? So many facets to choosing a base.

MIA and IAH, you'll be on FO reserve for more than a year, and that's after you're based anywhere else for 6 months or more on initial award. Then, if you want to upgrade, it's going to take many more years to get even the most junior upgrade in either. I know the most junior upgrade just awarded in MIA is a late 2016 hire, and he'll expect to be on reserve better part of a year until he's able to get a composite more than likely. I know IAH is very senior on the both sides of the aisle as well, so I'm assuming the situation is much of the same. I wouldn't even think twice about ORD at YX.

If you're really a free agent in life, I'd say your best bet at a reasonable cost of living, fast advancement, and good QOL appears to be BOS right now. It's gone junior, and the company says it will be a lot of day trips aka home every night, which is the feather in the cap of QOL. But that's right now...it hasn't even opened yet so a lot can change over time. Any NY airport is always going to move quickly and have some of the most junior upgrades. The outstations obviously have cheap cost of living, but IND is Mecca around here, so it moves a bit slower than an outstation farther from the sun. PIT goes junior on FO side, but senior on CA side. CMH is probably the best bet for outstation balance. And while living in a small market is attractive for some, it isn't for others, so that's up to you. Whatever the case may be, it sounds like you're willing to make a move for QOL, and that's already a huge bonus vs commuting.

Single, out of college for about 2.5 years working a 91 operation. Mostly into outdoor activites in my off time. Riding bicycles, hiking, kayaking. Would like to live in the city or somewhere urban enough to walk to starbucks or to get food type of vibe. Close to a train to get to the airport would be a plus. Suburbs are fine, but also I don't want to be a mid twenties single dude not close to nightlife/things to do. $1200/mo budget for rent (seems to be about 30% of takehome?)

Short term career goal is to work as much as possible. I like being out of town and flying around. Current gig is fairly typical 91 job with not a ton of flying time and a lot of time at home. I'd like to be off reserve quickly. I don't mind often moves, if one base is FO junior but cap senior and it makes sense to move.

Long term goal is to get to a major/lcc/cargo and move to Norcal or Socal.

PIT is a very underrated city. It's a small city but still very much has that large city feel. It's a very cheap city as well.

Culturally, it has everything a city multiple times it's size would have. It's got an amazing food scene, museums, sports, entertainment, etc.
Between all the parks, rivers, lakes, you can pretty much do any type of outdoor activity.

Climate wise, summers typically are upper 70's into lower 90's. Winters aren't horrible here as it is far enough south that it does not typically receive lake effect snow storms. Winter here really is from Mid January through very early April.

IAH and good weather? Are you high on drugs?

no snow and doesn't freeze is good weather in my book. Can't stand how the air hurts my face for like 50% of the year in a lot of places