A lot of pilots commute in from the Sacramento area. I drive to work, aggressively bid short calls for add pay, and have a swimming pool so big and deep they probably aren't legal in California anymore. But every time I'm called it's a fire drill. North of the bay...Santa Rosa, Petaluma...you will find higher prices, cooler temperatures, and more of a "Bay Area" experience with less crime. Look out at Santa Cruz for surfer/beach culture...I mean, you're moving to California...there are plenty of options out that way.

I got a few months til I'm available to start but I'll hustle down once I do. Thanks for the numbers

I know north bay has already been recommended, but also consider the Tri-Valley (Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore) and Walnut Creek in the East Bay. It's relatively low crime, really nice downtowns, close to Napa with the Livermore area also having its own wine scene, big nuclear weapons laboratory so you'll be the first to get nuked and you won't see or feel it coming... Glass half full.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. The flying out of Ewr is everything a pilot could ever want. The small europe cities are the most fun I have ever had. If you can sit reserve in base on something big and wait for the senior sick calls it is awesome. Yes you are going to be taxed to within an inch of your life but it is fun.

No need for NJ when Eastern PA is well within SCR range.

OMG Cali TAX is your life.. LOL

In Unity...

Any DEN pilots in here who can speak to the flying at DEN (NB or WB)? Just curious to start learning what to [hopefully] look forward to. It seems DEN as an initial assignment isn't quite as likely, so I'm curious, out of the drops that seems most likely (EWR/SFO/IAH/ORD), which would be the easiest to commute to from DEN until I am able to bid DEN?

-Cart firmly placed before the horse...

how easy to get 73 CLE FO?

Not senior but it may take a few months.

CLE/DCA/MCO/LAX are smaller bases with little to no growth and have less open slots.

LAS is super junior because of all the redeye trips and easy to get.

SFO/EWR/ORD/IAH are the growth spots and are available either immediately or shortly after indoc.

DEN 737 will take you all around the system and is the most diverse. Downside is the summer flying has quite a bit of redeyes (47% of pairings for August, 37% for September). 320 will be a bit more regional type flying but might change when more 321’s show up. I haven’t looked at the 756 bid packet in a while but it was mostly Hawaii flying with redeyes back. Just passing through the airport it seems like the 777 (no DEN 777 so it’s flown out of other bases) is doing a lot of the Hawaii flying so the 756 trip mix might be a little different. The 787 is pretty small and therefore quite senior and limited to just a few destinations. The training center is another great option if you want to spend all your nights at home.

Most of the new hires I’ve flown with recently seem to have spent a few months commuting to IAH before getting DEN. It’s hard to forecast how long it could take to hold DEN, but the base is supposed to grow even more which should create opportunities to get there quickly.

Having experience commuting to LAX, that was a super easy commute, but it has also gotten more senior. SFO sees a lot of commuters who are typically quite senior going there for arguably the best WB flying in the system. Personally I prefer to commute westbound if at all possible. At the end of the day commuting and flying standby out of DEN kind of sucks. Lots of positive space bookings for training and then you’ll run across someone who finishes training early and last second lists for the jumpseat to get home earlier. The good news is if the last few years are any indicator, you’ll get home to DEN pretty quickly. Good luck and hope to see you here soon.