2 leg commute
 

Curious if many commute to work with 2 legs. I know anything is possible but would a 2 leg commute be a deal breaker?

Thank you for your time. Appreciate this forum and all the help provided.

It's possible but most people wouldn't recommend it. You're introducing an extra layer of failure that can happen every time you try to go to work. What area are you trying to commute from? Based on that, you can probably do the research and see how many flights per day to your intermediate point, and then how many from there to the UA hub you'd want to work at. Now take into account whether they are RJs or mainline, and whether it's on UA or OAL.

Unless there is some kind of non-negotiable, unavoidable reason you have to stay somewhere, I would avoid a 2-hop commute like the plague. I know quite a few people who do a 1-hop commute and it's not uncommon for them to have to jump in their car and make the drive. People get stuck in their hotel or crash pad because they couldn't make it home. And that's with 1 hop, not two.

From where to where? A 1 leg commute is bad enough. I’m sure 2 is doable but I would certainly make every attempt to switch bases or eat a longer drive to skip one of the flights

Your home airport and likely commutes would help give a more informative response. I would recommend looking into a company with a gateway type domicile system. I’m not former Atlas, but seems to me that would be a better option than a 2 leg commute. I know a pilot that flies for Atlas but lives on a ranch in Montana as their family works cattle. I think Atlas is the perfect fit for something like that. Best of luck.

This is the wrong job for you if you want to live in no-man’s land and 2 leg commute to base…. You will be better off moving to base (or within a couple hours of driving) or somewhere with good amount of options by air…

I did it for about eight months, the caveat is I was a sim instructor at mesa and picked my schedule. I didn’t have kids, and it sucked. I flew pretty much everyone, fedex atlas, and others out of phoenix to get home. If I had kids and couldn’t pick my schedule no way in hell I’d recommend it.

I was going phx to orf, and knew it was a temporary gig. The one thing it taught me is I’d never want to fly at fedex. Memphis sort and seeing the zombies was enlightening…good folks though, just not my show.

Did a 2 leg commute for 6 years. One of those legs was across the Atlantic. Missed getting to work 1 time, because of a diversion. Possible? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Nah.
But I didn't really have a choice back then.

Now that someone mentioned sim instructing it made me think of at least 1 pilot that is a TK instructor that lives in Europe. I believe he typically has a 2 leg commute. He is able to bid his entire work schedule into a 2 week block and then he’s home for the other 2 weeks. It actually turns out to be less than 14 days because of flying days. But that is a possibility for a 2 leg commute. The other option is GUM pilots. They can do the same thing and compress reserve days into one block to limit commutes. The compressed reserve line is something that was supposed to be tested with other bases with our new PWA but I haven’t seen the company do it yet. And I believe implementation is at company discretion. So that may never happen…

Commute for a commuter move for a major.

A two leg commute is exponentially more difficult and painful than one leg. Can it be done? Yes. Should it be avoided at all costs? Yes.

But the big question is "what is your alternative?" If you need 1-2 years to move, yeah you can make it work. If you're contemplating doing it for 35 years ... no.

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.

I believe Amendment eight to the US Constitution would preclude the US government ever making you do two leg commutes. It comes under “cruel and unusual punishment.” If self inflicted it is legal, but if your AME finds out you are doing it you may be heading for a psych eval.

Not much activity on this post recently but like temporarily it can be done. Lotsa people were doing like Corpus Christi-IAH-EWR, or Harlingen, McAllen, Brownsville …(I think I got all the RGV cities)…….Ive seen people do that for like 3 months until a vacancy in “UGH-stin” (IAH) opens up.

But like Singapore-Tokyo-SFO……..which is what my family (basically Wife and her family) is hoping I’ll consider …………not sustainable I think.

Well there is a direct from SIN....

Who are you my father in law?

Right you are. 2 in fact. …..4 if you count SIA. Well I hope they don’t find out, then I’ll have to come up with a better excuse than 15.5 hour flight and being away from my kids for weeks at a time.

As for the OP……I still think it’s something you can do only if at least one of the flight segments is super short and many flights a day…..

And even then only temporarily would I advise it.

In hindsight would it have been better to get an apartment to avoid it for a couple months?

It’s really a conversation to be had with your family, friends and significant other. If you prefer not to do long stretches of work block you can plan on 4-day trips, and in the beginning a commute the day before or after. The net result would be 2, max 3 days at home a week. If you block your work together into one or two blocks then you could plan on being home for 5-7 days but then gone for 7-8 days. Could be challenging unless you have a really strong support structure at home and a solid relationship.

The other issue with such a commute is that you really don’t get to enjoy seniority. After 20 years you would still have to do 4-days, possibly higher time, but hard to get a high time 4-day that is extremely commutable on both ends, so you would probably lose a day off on one of the ends, resulting in a loss of time at home. Compared to living close to base and you can hold two 2-days or high time three days and you are only gone two nights a week.

Regardless it’s a completely different lifestyle than you may want.