This is terrible advice. Reserve in base is always better. Always!

And SC Reserve when you have to deadhead in is the worst.

No... no it's not. Unless you're holding the exact days you want off and want to fly 70-80% of them.

If you want control over when you fly, the trips you fly and layovers you get; having the ability to drop trips in your base and then pickup everywhere is a huge QOL enhancer.

If you’re a weekend lineholder in another base your ability to drop is majorly diminished. You may not be able to and you’ll get stuck commuting. Or what if you can drop but there is no open time in your home base? Commuting again. Or worst case what happens when the music stops? Would you rather be in the base you live in or stuck commuting to some other base potentially for years.

RSV in you home base is always better than being a commuting line holder.

LIMITED control over trip types and layovers of all things is the dumbest reason to be a commuter I’ve ever heard

I didn’t advise anything. I simply suggested to keep that in mind. In some cases it might be preferred and I’ve certainly seen quite a few pilots changes bases to get a line faster with the intention of dropping in base to pick up close to home. I don’t know the reserve times in all bases but if the time is significantly different and gaining control over your schedule is high priority that’s one way to do it.

100% disagree.

"live in base, SCR reserve forever, wear 2.5 hour leash" GTFO

I have dropped in my base and picked up in almost all of our bases for the last year and a half. Open time is full in every base with plenty of great credit and commutable trips. I pick up trips when I want to work; and don't when I don't.

But please go right ahead and keep sittin on your couch waiting for CS to call you for your next jungle turn that a lineholder dropped cause the grid was green...

I’m also interested to hear about Vegas. Is there ability to get long call pretty soon? I would be commuting from LA. I guess if utilization is pretty high at least I wouldn’t likely need a crash pad too often?

Question, can I pickup open time while on a vacation day or is it just x/y list that im eligible?

What if you were using this strategy in March 2020? Stuck commuting for years instead of stirring at home on rsv not getting used. Those events are not telegraphed so you never know when they might happen.

Ive never worked less or made more than on rsv in base. So if you get a jungle turn or two, you probably got paid to hang out at home the last four days with not flying at all. And you more or less avoid the jungle turns by bidding the correct rap although you may fly more overall.

Bidding out of the base you live in and can hold because you think you can do better or because you’ve actually done better for a period of time is mine playing with fire. You will get burned and it will hurt a lot.

Vegas reserves will be used more than other bases but it's also seniority based. Most times there's gonna be guys with the same buckets so the more junior guys will work instead. But you can also list for call first as well if you wanna work when you're more senior as well. If you wanna work more choose the day reserve periods like R5 or R10 and choose the redeye reserve periods to work less because of the duty time limits.

Vegas also has many more long call slots than other bases due to the amount of trips that start with a redeye. It's a 14 hr callout so it's pretty easy to commute with it.