Originally Posted by Balker

There are other recent threads with base seniority discussions, I suggest you go through them.

Is DFW the only one-leg commute from your city? Maybe if you share where you live, other commuters in similar situation could give you more insight.

No matter how you look at NK, if your commute sucks, you’ll never fully enjoy the benefits of our schedules. I know that could be said about any airline, but if you’re commuting on your own metal, or at least on the regional of the legacy you work for, things will be infinitely easier.

If moving to a base it’s out of the question, then I would seriously consider living based on 60-70hrs of credit a month. That way you’d only have to work 3 4-day trips a month. We have some commuters here that claim they don’t move to base because the high cost of living related to big cities, yet they seem eager to credit 90+ hrs. Can’t have it both ways, at least not in happily manner.

Originally Posted by FLYBOYMATTHEW

For March, 84% of the DFW trips are 4-days. There are very, very few that are commutable on both ends. The majority of pairings there have always started early and ended late. A "good" commutable 4-day starts after 10 am, and ends by 5 pm, and is worth around 20ish hours, which means as a line holder, PBS will assign 4 per month. You wod have mixed rests dropping specific pairings. Right now, as mentioned, it's fairly easy. I've also had difficulty some months unloading commutable 4-day weekday trips. The commuting options to anywhere out of Lubbock seem rather limited, is it realistic and sustainable to live there and commute to any major hub, especially to reserve? I mean, you do still have to allow 2 flight options to be protected by the commuter clause.

Originally Posted by badtransam97

Not to hijack the thread, but what about commutabilty for say ORD or DTW?

Originally Posted by GrassLandings

Cant speak for DTW. But even when I was a super jr lineholder in ORD, I was getting commutable lines both ends. But I bid for that above all other preferences usually. Something like 9:45am and later starts, release by 5 or 6 pm. So I guess it depends on where you are flying from. ORD seems to have alot of commuters from all over just from what Iv observed, and most the “local” guys that drive to work that I meet either drive from WI, IN, or even western MI.

Originally Posted by 2GoodEngines

I know reserve will be a complete nightmare out of Lubbock, no matter what the base. As for the other bases, DFW would still be preferable because it's just one leg, several flights a day, I have family and friends there, etc. However, I think other bases, particularly Vegas (since they have the red-eyes that start late) might still work ok, because my plan would be (once I hold a line) to try and get three 4-day rotations per month at about 60-65 hours. Even if one end isn't commutable, that basically means I have three 5-day rotations (including the three travel days) and still have 15 days off. It's not ideal, but it's sort of a happy medium between getting reasonable days off and reasonable (although reduced) pay.

Originally Posted by badtransam97

Thank you for the info. I’d be coming from MEM or BNA.

Originally Posted by Balker

ORD it’s pretty senior. DTW is way faster for holding a line. Also MCO could be a good option out of BNA. No matter where you go, it would take at least 6 months to hold a line at a jr base (12-18 months at ORD/DFW). So the first question you need to answer yourself is where do you want to sit reserve? As a commuter I would go to base that has R19 (MCO does). R19 has only 15 periods per month, so that will give you plenty of time at home. The downside is that they’ll use you less, so better have a decent crash pad (and maybe nice WX .

Once you’re a lineholder you can swap/pick up trips from any base, making BNA a strategically positioned airport.
Obviously, there’s nothing like living in base, but at least you’d have a way better commute that our friend from Lubbock. (waaayyyy better)