Hi guys and gals.

I’ve been a 91 pilot for the better part of 15 years with a couple years of 135 freight doggin before that. I’ve never had a 121 desire until recently. I’ve heard too many stories of forlough and low pay when I was getting into the market that I’ve pretty much discounted it until now.

I’ve been following these boards for about 6 months now trying to get a good understanding of the 121 lifestyle, in particular the southwest lifestyle. I have a good 91 job that allows me plenty of time off and pays the bills. As I get older and see more 91 departments shutdown the potential career stability of the airlines has become intriguing.

If I was fortunate enough to join Southwest I would be a commuter. From what I’ve read the general consensus is don’t do it. The few airline pilots I have spoken with whom commute say they plan to move to domicile some day. I am very grounded where I’m at and intend to stay here forever. It appears the majority of commuters have to fly to get to base. I live just under 4 hrs to a domicile so believe I would drive the commute. Does anybody here do something like that? Is the commuting stress everyone refers to more associated with trying to get to and from work via jumpseat/ standby.

Thx in advance for your opinion.

If there's a major that has a base where you live choose that one

There isn’t.

Once you have a line, commuting is slightly easier. However you will be giving up access to some of the "easy" flying and much of the very lucrative open time, if you're not close enough to the airport to get there quickly. You can do ok commuting and still get your 15-17 days off, but it'll just be harder to pick up that easy extra 10-20% that someone in base can generally grab out of open time. Like those single leg trips that contractually require 2 days either starting or ending (or both) with deadhead legs, so you're getting paid 10 TFP for a single leg and you can be back home less than 12 hrs after going to work. Hard to get those if you're not living in base.

I will say that if you need to be convinced that a 121 job is a good move for you, then maybe it's not... If you think your current job has less job security then you need to be living well under your income and piling up cash for when times are tough. I know lots of people who make $300k/year in industries that might evaporate tomorrow. They live off $100k and bank the other $200k against the time when they have to switch career fields because their previous career field simply doesn't exist anywhere anymore. That's smart no matter what job you have but it's really important in the flying business because we're darn nearly the proverbial canary in a coal mine. When the economy tanks or something significant happens (anyone willing to bet automation won't replace FOs in the next 20 years?), professional pilots tend to get hit early and hard (sts). If you're not seriously planning ahead for the next downturn then your backup plan isn't really much more than the local soup kitchen.

There are a number of guys who a drive like you describe - more specifically, from central Cali to OAK. There are also several who fly their own airplanes to work - something you might want to consider, depending on where you live.

If I was going to commute long term, FedEx or UPS would be my goal. With some seniority you can start or end your trip with a paid deadhead from your hometown. After that I would look at the legacies and try to get on widebody flying as soon as possible.

A 4 hour drive to start and end a trip wouldn’t be much fun. Then you have to do that 4 times a month. 32 hours in a car each month. That would get old fast.

Also consider at SWA you would have either report time (am trip) or end time (pm trip) that would make that very unsafe/unhealthy so you’re looking a a hotel to start or end a trip.

Southwest would probably be my last choice if I was committed to commuting.

Yep. I am bewildered as to how any company with 40%-50% commuters has zero commutable LINES and almost no appetite among the pilots to correct the deficiency.



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Thanks all. The replies were kind of what I suspected. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t overlooking anything. I may have to ride out the 91 life as long as it’s there. Take care!

If 1 out 2 pilots do it, then can it be that bad? I don’t think anybody is arguing that all things being equal living in base is better then not living in base. But life gets complicated and it obviously works for a lot of people or they wouldn’t do.

Having lived in base, commuted and worked a real 9 to 5 job. I’ll commute to a decent airline job over a 9 to 5 gig any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I drive approximately 3 hours to my base. It's a lot of miles but mostly it's not too bad. So I don't live in base but I'm not a true commuter either.

That said, I do have costs associated with being a commuter, like several hotels per month plus the cost of driving, which is not insignificant. I estimate my commute probably costs me $500/month in hotels, gas, food, car wear and tear, etc.