Unless this is a temp situation waiting on a move to your forever home in-base.... I recommend against it. I second the Atlas recommendation. Also consider the 135 companies like FlexJet and NetJets, they also buy you a ticket to get to your first leg.

 

I’d say that it depends. Commuting in any form adds stress and hassle to this job, but what are the other circumstances? Does your spouse have a good job and doesn’t want to move, are kids currently in great schools, do you have a good side hustle where you live,………and the biggest question…….are you happy where you live? I used to live in base and hated it. Couldn’t stand living in the burbs, family wouldn’t be happy living near any big city so we moved to the middle of nowhere. The commute sucks, but the family is happy and I’m where I want to be when I’m not at work. Met another guy who lived on a family farm in Kansas. He drove 2 hours to the nearest airport to commute, so basically 2 legs. He was happy as well since all he really wanted to do was farm and raise cattle. Bottom line is that it depends. If you’re someone that would be ok living in a city or the burbs and can move, then I’d move. If not, consider yourself extremely fortunate to be able to live where you want and have a job with flexible schedules, more days off than the office crowd, and that pays what this does.

 

Only if you're doing it no more than two times a month. Ex. commute out and do two 3 day trips back-back, go home for a week then repeat.

 

Pretty much all of this. Quality of life is a very subjective thing and what is great for one pilot can make the other absolutely miserable. Be careful about uprooting your life based on advice from people whose life you wouldn’t want to replicate.

 

Exactly. This job makes it so easy to put your life first and the job second. Commuter clause. No minimum work requirement. Live wherever you want if that's what makes you happy.

 

Compressed RSV has been available in WBs for quite a while (a year at least). The plan was always to test it in those categories then expand it to NB if it worked out. I don’t think they ever defined how long the test would be or what the criteria were for success, so from that standpoint it’s true that we are at the mercy of the company.

As for the OP: You can make anything work for a few months. If your plan is to two leg commute for life… I’d come up with a new plan.

 

I feel like it would be difficult to commute on one leg, let alone be a pilot.

 

that’s why he’s asking about two. No issues there.

 

Oh man, this question brings back some pesky memories of a recent experience I had of doing a 2 leg commute at my regional. Thankfully it was ONLY for 2 months until I was able to get awarded the base I wanted and make my commute a 1 legger again. But it was a long and painful 2 months in the middle of the summer this year, with constant IROPs and delays, even cancellations. It was very stressful. Even coming into my base the night before, and with a late afternoon report into the next day, I still had major headaches with it. Always missed my connection because of the first flight getting delayed for a myriad of reasons, and had to spend the night in the intermediate city and basically do a split commute. Every single time. With the exception of one time, I had some luck in making my second flight, but I had to pretty much high tail it to get to the other gate. Once I got on the aircraft, every passenger was looking at me as I’m huffing and puffing like “why does this pilot look like he just did sprints in the airport??” It sucks all around.

As others have alluded to, it’s almost always never worth it UNLESS you are grinding it out in hopes of getting that base that you’ve had on your radar for a one leg commute. Other than that, ain’t worth it. Not one iota.

 

I’ve done it before on occasions my 1 leg commute didn’t work out. IMO it’s something to be used as a backup option, because it eats up an entire day when it’s a primary option and a 3 leg commute becomes a backup plan.

Unless both legs have multiple airlines flying flights frequently (something like 10x flights/ day total) I’d seriously look at another airline with a better commute and commuter rules (ability to reserve the jumpseat etc), or move to a base asap if a 2 leg commute is going to be your primary means to get to work.