So after reading all this I decided to play it super-safe and paid for a ticket to come in the night before my 5-day reserve stint here in lovely IAH. I've tried to APU anything and everything, but haven't succeeded in getting a single pickup to work. And to my amazement -- there are literally no 737 FO IAH trips in open time for today, and only one for tomorrow. I even called CS and begged for a trip, any trip...nothing doing.

You would think that on the busiest travel week of the year, in one of our biggest bases, there'd be OT trips. Does nobody call out sick on holidays, to avoid losing the holiday pay?

So now the questions are:

• What's fun to do in Houston? (is this like asking "what's a nice street to explore in Newark"?)

• Why is the sleep room temperature set at minus seventy Fahrenheit?

• Which airport hotel is least likely to involve a run-in with tweakers in the parking lot?

Ahhhh...Houston.

 

look at the pool display. The 4th is green because of holiday pay. Everyone else is gobbling up the trips because of it. You only get the holiday pay if you actually OPERATE a trip on the day. Short calls, FSB, sick call, don’t count.

the CPO room has always had issues with temp balancing. The whole area was like ice blocks, then they had it fixed once, then it was 140 for a week. Now it’s…almost tolerable?

There are several hotels on JFK that people stay at. It’s…ok enough.

 

With the latest vacancy bid I bet you'll be home base by the end of the year, might even be a CA by then.

 

Ah ha. That makes perfect sense with regard to the holiday pay.

As for JFK Blvd....headed there right now. I remember doing this same routine a decade ago at Skywest when I was a new FO in IAH. I'm guessing the hotels haven't changed much...

 

I'll take a Fresno base flying the Metroliner if it'll get me out of commuting to Houston 😁 But yes, thank you for that... I've put in for anything from Denver and points west...

 

I’m a history buff. If you are too, go to Galveston for a day and learn about its history, including the hurricane in 1900ish.

I was going to suggest the Battleship Texas, but I see it’s closed for restoration until next year.

san Jacinto battlefield is interesting.

San Antonio is cool if you don’t mind a 4 hour drive. Plenty of time if you’re on long call. I like the river walk and the Alamo.

Thats all I’ve got, those are the places I’ve been when stuck in Houston.

 

Thank you! I do remember once going to the Johnson Space Center, which was fascinating. Galveston sounds interesting too. I appreciate it!

 

My advice would be to take things slowly, you have lots of options coming towards you but don’t limit then out of haste, what I mean maybe don’t take the upgrade to get back west coast a few months early. Bid 737, try out 756 after , WB, upgrade all with no seat locks. Figure out what you want while not commuting is always goal one, don’t trip over just any assignment to make it happen, especially in sfo where Nb slots are always opening.

 

my advice to you....is to start drinking heavily.

 

Since there's been little activity on this thread for the past month, I'm going to hijack it with a similar question to the original post (instead of creating a new thread):

If I plan to live near Denver and have to commute from Denver until I can hold it as my base, what would be the ideal place to commute to? It looks like ORD, IAH, and SFO are all nearly equal in commute times, while EWR is about an hour further away.

Also, how long is probation?

Thanks!