Dallas is senior and getting more senior.

Every month there is a vacancy bid and you can change your base if there is a vacancy in that base and you’re senior enough to hold the vacancy

As others have said, DFW is a tougher commuting base due to the fact the majority of trips start in the early morning and finish in the late afternoon/evening. Credit on trips are good mainly due to the 3.5 trip rig for being 90 hours TAFB on a 4 day

general trend for people that want Dfw is to bid there as soon as you can, running around 3-4 months of DOH. Then bidding back to another base once they can hold a line there. Then bidding back to Dfw when they can hold a line in Dfw, around a year or so.

Is that the trend because they try it, hate it, then have the seniority for it to work, or is there another reason? Is that what you would recommend?

There’s good info on DFW if you comb other threads. Even if you could hold DFW after 2-3 months holding a line there would take no less than a year, unless of course they decide to give resume growth in DFW. I don’t see that happening anytime soon though.

We have vacancies every month. The bidding and awards come out about 2 months in advance, so you need to plan ahead a bit.

One more important point to remember. We’re a very seasonal airline. You could be holding a line during the summer and go back to reserve right thereafter. This is specially notorious in FLL. It’s our most elastic base. You can easily find 40% of the pilots on reserve in Sep-Oct. So plan accordingly and play your cards right.

One last thought. Think about moving to base at some point unless of course you really have a good reason to stay put and your commute can be done on a single 1-1.5hr leg on company metal. It’s not the same commuting while working for a legacy than commuting at Spirit.

I started at the end of August. A guy in my class who is senior to me now has nine people below him in DFW. Conversely, I have thirty people below me in MCO. So, movement is slow in DFW.

its because you have so much more schedule flexibility as a line holder here. Most people go hold a line where they can then try to drop their flying in whatever base and pick up Dfw open time.

So my commuting options are my hometown airport with no Spirit service, an airport with a one hour drive with no Spirit, and a 2:15 drive to an airport with Spirit. All have multiple departures to DFW daily, hence why I was thinking this would be a good option for me. Am I totally misguided? The drive and longer leg to FLL or MCO (potentially 2 legs) would be better than the 1 hour direct flight to DFW from home on CASS? Keep in mind I have no idea how CASS or anything else works.

What people are saying is you are better off holding a line in FLL or MCO and controlling your schedule vs reserve in DFW where the above scenarios will all require you coming in the day before probably to sit reserve

There is “home based” and everything else is commuting. You’re a commuter so you pick a base that gives you the most schedule flexibility vs simply closer on a map.

Aha, ok that makes sense, thanks. I imagine as a commuter, I'll have to come in a day early for reserve no matter what though, right?

depends on when your RAP starts. If you are R3 then you’ll need to be there at 3am. If you’re R8 or R11 then you can commute in the morning of.