I do the MDW commute from a midwest USA city serviced by SWA. I will say that it is harder than I imagined. Flights frequently fill up and I have missed 1 report in 1.5 years here. That also being said I did tally up the numbers for this year so far and I have spent an additional 31 days away from home because of commutting. Not only do I miss out on significant monetary value but also time at home. Also being a summer 2017 hire it took me 4 months to get to MDW but some are able to pick it up as new hires. YRMV. Good luck

 

Most people from my commute city commute to MDW, but I find BWI to be easier. I can even manage commutable on both ends pretty often.

I’ve commuted for more than 15yrs of my career, and I’m still married to the same woman (lol) for 20+. It’s doable but it’s not easy. Successful commuting is a mindset. You have to view it as part of your trip from the moment the lines are awarded. It’s extra time on each end.

That said, I would move to a domicile in a heartbeat if your situation allows. You’ll have a lot more time at home and/or make more money. We’re just too dug in to move with family on both sides living close, etc.

 

31 days x 6.5 TFP (ADG) x $103.27 per TFP (2nd year FO rate)

Ball-park figure of unpaid time away from family: $20,809 for a 2nd year FO.

Just for kicks and grins, if you were a topped out captain:

31 days x 6.5 TFP (ADG) x $231.54 per TFP (12th year CA)

Your ball-park figure of lost income due to unpaid time away from family: $46,655

Mind you, none of those figures include your NEC contribution, profit sharing, or per diem.

Add that over the duration of your career, throw some compounding on there, and the numbers get pretty scary. Hope you like where you live and are OK being gone away from home as long as you are because when it's all said and done, over the course of your career, you'll be leaving 7 figures on the table.

 

Exactly. The cost of commuting is staggering, on many levels.

 

... and notice we aren’t even talking about the cost of hotels or crashpads.

 

Or parking at the commute airport, or ubers or extra meals etc. It really adds up quickly.

You pointed out one of the biggest costs, which are the completely wasted days just getting to and from work and effectively paying to do so.

At WN, the lack of opportunity to pick up short notice flying is also a huge cost. I figure my 3+ hour commute has cost me between $50-$80k per year over the last 17 or so for that reason alone.

If you plan on commuting over an entire 20-30 year career, you'd better REALLY like where you live , because you're gonna pay for it, dearly.

 

It doesn’t matter if you really like where you live or you really like living in a domicile it is what the family (especially the spouse) likes. That’s because you will only be living there 1/2 the time while the family (spouse) will be living there 100% of the time. Yes you will make more money and have more time off (especially at WN) living in domicile but if the family isn’t happy then it isn’t worth it.

 

Sure, i could sell my house in Ohio and go into major debt to buy something in the Ny area. I could fight that crap traffic everyday. I could fly to see family and friends in ohio on my off days. I could but ill be gone on the road anyways so why in heck would i do that? Could move to a desirable domicile and have slower seniority progress but again, why? What if another 911/2008/whatever happens? Forget about it.

 

My wife thought that too, but after 27+ years of commuting, she is singing a different tune these days.

Hindsight being 20/20, she now admits that we should've moved to a domicile within a few years of my getting hired at SW. I can't agree more.

We're finally punching out of our hometown of over 30 years, and moving within an hour's drive of a domicile. I cannot be happier.

 

Most spouses I’ve met and talked to haven’t even considered the effect of commuting on:

- the family
- the finances
- themselves
- you

We are schleps and we’re willing to put up with all sorts of crap to insulate our spouses as much as possible from this career. After all, we’ve put our spouses and kids through deployments/PCS orders/chasing regional upgrades/moving for a corporate aviation job and now that we are at a career company, out of guilt, we tell our spouses “OK honey, you choose where we live and we are done moving. I’ll commute and make you happy.”

Of course, any sane spouse will be the happiest ever. But sit down with her/him and give them the FULL story i.e. explain to them the true cost of commuting in terms of additional separation (a month or more per year) and uncompensated time off as explained further up the thread, and ask them if they’re willing to lose that time and leave that kind of money on the table for the duration of your career. Just think what kind of a place you’d be able to pay off with just that lost income over the course of your career. Give them the full disclosure of the opportunity cost of commuting. Mind you, I’m also not even going into our happiness factor and our additional time away from our loved ones over the course of our careers, and the effect on our health, morale and happiness... all out of our own self-imposed guilt.

See... I don’t think most spouses know the full story of commuting and the associated opportunity costs in terms of time, money and the effect on the family. If they don’t care even after explaining this to them, at least they can’t complain later on down the road... they were given the full disclosure.