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

To piggyback off of the outstation base conversation, I'm very interested in Republic for their MCI base but am curious about how much flying I can expect my first year, estimated time to upgrade, and subsequent time to be spent on reserve after the upgrade.

My current alternative is Trans States where I can commute to DEN or ORD, hold a line almost immediately, and upgrade upon meeting minimums. I'm a military rotary guy so my FW time will be very low (~300 hours) when I make it to the line and I think it would be in my best interest to fly as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Is it worth commuting to a carrier with a questionable future in the hopes of reaching major hiring minimums a year or two faster?

Boston would be a perfect fit for your situation. All of the above is readily available. Drive north and you’re in the mountains. Stay in town and there is plenty to do. Lots of professionals in the city and quite a few colleges to make it entertaining. Plenty to do inside once it gets cold out. Best skiing in the northeast is about two hours away.

Philly would be a close second for you. Similar to Boston but not as isolated in my opinion. Where in Boston you can drive an hour and be in the ‘middle of nowhere’. Not so with Philly unless you head down the eastern shore of the Chesapeake.

The nice part about Philly is you can hop on the train and be in NYC or DC fairly quick if you need a change of scenery.

Lots of international non-rev options out of both too.

Good luck.

lol, Houston has the worst weather. Hurricanes, floods, oil fires, miserable hot and humid weather from May through early October. That place is all yours man.

Not at RPA but I moved to CMH for a job not too long ago. Single, mid 20s and love it here. Definitely like it more than IND and PIT and I've spent time in both. PM me if you have any questions.

Same as this guy but moved here for this job. Live in German village and leave my apartment 20 minutes prior to show time and I’m still early

Lemme know

It’s too bad Repiblic has killed ORD because it’s a great place to live. DC is awesome. Just live where you want bro, everything else will fall in to place.

You said your rent budget is $1200? Easy to live in Queens or even Manhattan with a roommate at that price. You’re young and single, come here and live where you will have the time of your life. Plus, not owning a car saves you several hundred dollars every month.

I moved to Long Island City in Queens at the start of my time with Republic and I’ve loved every minute of it. A young single person would have to manage their time and energy wisely living here because there is never a time when you don’t have something to do.

How much have you been paying in rent in LIC? I’m looking at possibly moving there after upgrade.

I always thought it would be awesome to live in NYC. Any suggestions on finding roommates? Never had to look for roommates outside of my friend group before.

Do you find NYC affordable? I simply threw out the $1200 number because that appears to be roughly 30% take home FO pay. Might need to work more to make that 30%, but that doesn't matter to me.

Indoc might be a great place to look.

Having said that, getting tangled up in finding a place to live before / during indoc can be a distraction you don't need. We had two folks in my class looking for places and or moving during indoc. It added a LOT of stress that they didn't need while trying to get through their first airline training. They both had families so it was likely more than you would deal with, but, I might want to wait till initial is behind you.

Once training is over you can commute / crashpad while you look for a place (while on reserve not getting called) :D

Manhattan will be pretty tough but do-able if you reeeaaally want to. I'd wait until you upgraded and have some more coin available before trying that. Going out to eat or to the bar ain't cheap. Grocery stores are a different ballgame too. Just understand that things you probably take for granted like having an in unit washer and dryer or an elevator for a tall building can be difficult to find in certain parts of the city. They will also cost A LOT. You'll have to be pretty disciplined with your budget because state AND city taxes are no joke. I'm not trying to discourage you, those are just a few things that surprised me when I moved there. There's a ton of things to do and you can really take advantage of your non-rev benefits there.

You should look at Hoboken if you want to work out of EWR. You'll be very close to the city but it's a little more affordable and the apartments tend to have more amenities. It's also way less ugly/dirty than Queens and there are a lot more young professional people. You will probably want a car to get to work if you live there and reserved parking spots can be pretty pricey ($200 a month). However a car is not required at all.

Well my plan was to move into my new place before Indoc so I didn't have to do it during the whole training period, so I can focus on learning and not finding a place to live

My indoc is early February, I'd be willing to live in NY. I'm also seriously considering Indy, it's pretty cheap and seems like a nice town.

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Made the move to Indy after training, no regrets so far. Credit hangs at a minimum of 100 being able to pick up on days off and I’m only paying $600/ month with a roommate.

I’m considering the same but isn’t reserve long for an FO and CA?