Ok,

On reserve in NYC. I live very near ATL.

I've read and I have always believed that driving to work trumps everything else. Is this true?

My situation.
Early upgrade so I am at the lower end of the reserve list in NYC; Senior enough to not sit ready every day, but too junior to get called with trips. Most all upgrades for the next 6 months will be senior to me. So It will be approximately 1 year to hold a line in NYC as a CA.

If I bid ATL, I would be able to drive to work. I would also be the plug and sitting airport reserve for 11 days each month. The junior line holder is almost 500 employee numbers above me.
I can probably hold ATL in 4-6 months as the plug


So lets assume 1.5 years to hold a line in ATL. (Yes..just a SWAG)

I realize everything will change in the next 12 months, but I'm talking about the next 6 - 12 months:

Here are the POS and NEG

STAY IN NYC
POS:
I am in the sweet spot where I don't sit RR everyday.
I will hold Long Call sooner.
I will get a line sooner.

• Easier to drop or Trade
• Better Pay

NEG:
I don't get called to fly because I'm too junior
Expensive (Crash Pad, food, etc)

Go to ATL
POS:
Home in bed every night
Cheaper

NEG:
RR for half the month.
Near impossible to drop Reserve days.
Almost forever to get Long Call
Forever to hold a line
Worse pay because of reserver (Min Guarantee)


I would really like to open the floor to all other pilots.
Is it always better to drive to work and sit reserve or commute and hold a line? Even if you are from another airline, please chime in. Does anyone have a similar experience? Did you make the right decision? The wrong decision?

Go........

Well Atlanta is going senior so if you’re that junior in New York, you won’t be getting Atlanta any time soon.

When that time comes why commute when you can drive to work. I don’t get some people’s logic. “Well i get 13 days off here and I’ll get 17 there so I’ll commute from hub to hub”. Yeah and you’ll lose those extra 4 days to commuting.

Me personally, I'd rather drive to ready reserve every day than commute to any type of reserve at the co dom.

I don’t think you’ll have much a decision to make, you need to be about 3 years seniority to think of holding an ATL CA spot. But if you can actually make the decision, in ATL you can only get RR 10 days in a month, you no longer have to pay for a crash pad, or worry about the snowstorm cancelling all the flights. With all the extra “days off” you have because you no longer commute, you can pick up a day or 2, and you can make extra days off sitting at home with family.

Then again, I sit LCR and can do the same thing as I would be doing sitting SCR in base, I just have to worry about getting to work when called, and getting home after the trip.

Bid ATL at SCR/RR and when you can hold a line in NYC switch until you can hold the same in ATL.

This... particularly once you could hold a line to which you could commute on the same day, so those extra days off don't disappear.

Singed in just to say NEVER commute if you can avoid it.
I could write a novel as too why...but trust me after 30 years of commuting.....never commute if you can avoid it.

I work for a different airline, but but if it was me. I wouldn’t commute. All that extra pay your are commuting for is going into crash pads and commuting. So it pay will be a wash.

Plus you are probably commuting on days off sometimes, those lost days are wash being at home.

Plus treat driving to RR as you are going into a regular 9-5 job...... But only where you have to do it for a few times a month (10-11 isn’t bad compare to our M-F 9-5 counterparts).

So to me, your decision is simple. Don’t commute.

Keep in mind, there are more opportunities for open time in base as well.

That’s just me. But I live in base for the airline I work for....


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I’m about 75% of the CA reserves in NYC and get hit with RRA about 3-5 times a month. My drive is 2-3 hours each way depending on traffic, it suuuucks, and I will be on reserve for another 1-2 years. How far is your drive? If I was in your same spot and lived within one hour of ATL, I would bid ATL yesterday.
Commuting to reserve where you don’t even get called out is pointless and a waste of life (unless you hate your family, love crash pads, have a thing for a stripper in NYC, etc).
Come back to NYC for a line. And by the time you get a line, the mythical growth may finally be here and ATL might be growing.

A crashpad is less than 300 a month. Ymmv but 3600 a year and having a line with the days off we get and block or better is no contest to me. Get a crashpad, take the better bid, and if you really feel bad pick up a 4 day at 150 with you 18 off once a year.