DFW commute, newhire QOL
 

Have a friend from DFW area wondering about commuting from DFW. With the high frequency of flights in Dallas it’s a pretty darn easy commute it seems. Also told him the advantages of DFW with commercial positioning and depositioning DH’s and possible DFW layovers. Anything I’m missing, tips, downsides? He’s got an in with one of the legacies so trying to decide between the two. TIA

Ideally, live in domicile. However, live in a city heavy serviced by your colour of choice; purple, brown or yellow. Look for direct passenger carrier flights with a lot of frequency, but minimal airline employee traffic. Unfortunately, you won't know many of these challenges until you live it. Two leg commutes will get old quick along with getting bumped by 500 higher priority jumpseaters, think CLT-DFW. SDF-DFW doesn't seem like a bad choice. Good luck.

I go through DFW many times on my 2-leg commute when I am unable to ride UPS direct to my hometown (weekends/afternoons).

I would think DFW would be a piece of cake commute with the large number of UPS flights running back and forth as well as the American hub. (At least as far as commuting goes - and certainly compared to my 2 leg commute)

That being said, just a few thunderstorms in the area can wreak havoc on the airline service there.

There are quite a few UPS pilots in the Dallas area. And, of course, life would be immeasurably easier living in base.

But its still Louisville ... :eek:

If spouse, family, friends, are happy in DFW, do the commute.

65+ SDF based pilots live in the DFW area.

I typically had more trouble getting home on Friday night than I ever had getting to or from ANC when I was based there.

Doable, but not without its challenges.

DFW

Friday nights are a pain for commuting to many cities.

I have no dog in the fight, but when I was commuting, I tried several times to get on a flight from SDF to DFW on Friday night/Saturday morning and was always told it was full. I did make once and the 6 other guys on the jet all had the same question, "How the HELL did you get on this flight?!"

Is Western Global still doing SDF-DFW?

They are killing jumpseat availability everywhere they fly.

Don't know about DFW for sure, but saw two of their MDs on Ramp 6 the other day ( Jan 2-3 ).

They won't be gone until June 29, 2019 ... unless UPS decides to wipe its a$$ with the Arbitrator’s Award, just like they did with our Scope section last year.

:eek:

This!! We moved from a major metropolitan city to SDF and it has been quite a culture shock. We realize now this place is not for us and we have to go. Be careful moving here.

Be specific for any future potential new hires thinking about moving. What did you miss?

I think he moved from HKG???

If so, yeah, Luavul is just a tad bit different.

And got spanked majorly, in record award notice fashion!! Besides the major $$$ it is costing the company, I would love to see them attempt to continue operating WG and 21Air past June. The language of the award is harsh and clear with enforcement avenue in Federal court. Plus, not to downplay the significance ‘cause it could of opened the door for a much worse scenario, it is only 7 airplanes and now that door is clearly shut. So by them attempting to circumvent our solid scope clause, it actually worked out in our favor as now we not only have the CBA language, but we also have a clear arbitration award which is court enforceable. Not to mention we all got 3 relaxing vacation days, that is 8000+ days the company has to cover if no one sells them back [emoji106].

Not sure what his gripe was but schools are a big issue for a lot of people. Private options are expensive and limited to religious affiliations. Public schools vary by districts and there aren’t many “good” districts out there.

And, it’s Kentucky...;)

Oldham Co in KY and Floyd Co in IN are both known for excellent public schools.

After just exploring the options there are a few non-religious affiliated private school choices. We chose an affordable private school option that has worked out great for us so far and we are what I would classify as having special circumstances.

Pretty sure 21air got replaced by ATI

Don’t forget that even an affordable private school gets pricey when you have multiple kids... again, options are there but limited.

Other reasons I’ve heard:

Louisville is Isolated.

Travel is usually a 2 legger.

Lots of petty crime and drug issues.

All it has is a 30 sec horse race and a giant bat.

Allergies are bad*. This is true.

Not a cheap tax state.

It’s kentucky...;)

I suspect what the Guy was referring to was cultural issues.

Same culture shock if you moved to CVG, IND, BNA, MEM, OKC, TUL, etc etc
Louisville is a standard mid pac mid country city like the above, All have a few variations, but net affect is about the same. Each has own special draw. SDF is horses, IND is auto racing, BNA is music, etc etc.
All have some fantastic restaurants, local events, some a ballet, theater productions, symphony, ball games etc.
UPS SDF folks can drive 90 minutes to enjoy CVG or IND special events, sports, culture. No different than when I lived in San Diego and drove 70-90 minutes to events in Socal. Caveat: If want beaches, SD was fantastic, above cities not fantastic :)
Live where you want, personal choice. Lived in way to many places to say any of the above are better or worse than many others. You like New York city options, then only a few cities will satisfy your desires and the above cities likely wont. Guessing I am a cultural Neanderthal though.
To the question
Agree with assessment. DFW will work fine. Other DFW folks will tell them its horrible and should not commute and move LOL

Yes very well said. I would only add there is no culture here. If your into chain restaurants, strip malls, mega churches, and liquor stores....this place will be heaven for you. Otherwise dissapointment. Also the people here are very strange. What high school you graduated from or your religion you come from is everything to them. My neighbors stopped talking to me when I told them I wasn’t from here and didn’t have a clue about the high school they graduated from. It’s really weird!!!

What I said above excludes UPS folks. One of the main reasons I moved here was based on how nice the staff was to me. Just a warning, don’t let that fool you. This place isn’t the south and most people here are not pleasant and just plain weird. It’s really hard to explain, this is just a strange town that is mind numbing lame in so many ways.

FACT. I dont get it either.

Well... https://youtu.be/ZZvT2r828QY

All joking around aside, it has strong elements of a Deep South culture situated in a relatively small college town. You don’t get the diversity larger cities like Atlanta and Dallas get so it ends up being mostly nth local generation of white conservative Christians. Still, lots of non natives have moved in and made the town their home without too much issue, Salty being an example. Perhaps you just got a bad neighborhood? Perhaps not. Beauty of this job is you can literally live anywhere so there’s no real reason to live in base unless you can’t bear to be away from family for more than a few hours or as someone posted earlier, you have a family with special needs.

And it beats Memphis. So we have that going for us...

Not sure where Bushmaster lives, but my experience in SDF has been great. Lived in 2 houses in the last 10 years and all our neighbors have been extremely welcoming and friendly. ALso SDF has an outstanding restaurant scene. If you are only eating at fast food places, then you are not trying.

Obviously, people’s taste in places to live varies widely. My wife and I have spent time in Kansas, Texas, Washington, Colorado, and California before I started at UPS. Prior to applying here, Louisville never figured in our discussions of where to live. However, after weighing the pros and cons, the benefits outweighed the costs. We lived close enough to Ontario to sit reserve in my home, but the high cost of living, traffic, crime, lousy schools, and pollution all pushed us out. We would have loved to live in Colorado, but we figured that we could afford to spend as much time on the slopes in Colorado living near Louisville as we could if we lived in Colorado. Long story short, by living near Louisville, my peak only involved working six days. Three of those were due to picking stuff up off the trip board. By living in southern Indiana we get access to better public schools and still have easy access to downtown Louisville. Unless you have a “need” to live in a major urban area or see the ocean/mountains from your deck every morning, commuting probably won’t beat living in Louisville. We did seriously discuss Anchorage, purely because we could have had mountains and ocean from our deck. YMMV

I thought this thread was about DFW;)

Wow, so your neighbors stopped talking to you because you didn’t know anything about their high school?!!?
Aren’t you precious... :rolleyes:

1. Southern hospitality wears out pretty quickly if you don’t fit in.

2. Relatively speaking, it’s good for what it is.

Not understanding what you’re getting at. I commute and didn’t work a day of peak. I’ve barely worked peak since I started.

A little condescending for you, no? Have you not experienced the pettiness and simple mindedness of small country town folk? I don’t doubt Bushmasters veracity.

I’m not a KY basher myself, just passing along the talking points I’ve heard on the line. For me and my family, we’re not from the area so the it was never a question for us given the benefit of commuting and the commuting skeds at brown. “But you could be home every night...?” Been there, done that at my previous gig - I don’t like reserve or day trips and wanted to fly international so even if we lived in SDF I’d be away just the same. And what’s to do in SDF when you’re home every day? I did choose a place with an easy commute to make my life easy and it seems pretty clear DFW would be one of those places too.

So you don’t work between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

I need to come to your fleet.

Truth!

...SIK/LTM doesn’t count...

Other than ocean, desert and mountain-related activities...the same stuff you can do pretty much anywhere else in the United States?

SDF certainly isn’t for everybody (same as working for UPS) but it is rather amusing to see it accused of being some poor, boring, rude cultural backwater.

But hey, at least there are good options for those that choose to commute for WHATEVER the reason, along with diverse flying and domicile choices.

Ok dude, the bad parts of peak, peak week included. I think you knew what I was getting at.

And....

Sounds like you and boiler should be talking to tnkdrvr...

Really? Did you read BM’s posts? Now THAT’s condescending!

I’ve lived on the West and East coast. Large cities (not sure if New York qualifies as a metropolis according to BM) and in small BFEs which are hard to find on a map.
The adage “When in Rome, do as the Roman's do” has served me well.
I’ve found kindness, curiosity, generosity and friendliness pretty much everywhere. Occasionally I’ve also experienced rudeness, impatience and ignorance.
Based on my experiences, and if given a choice, I’ll pick the South every single time!
However, no matter where I live I’ll never talk disrespectfully about the people who welcomed me to THEIR city, state or region.

Good advice. Especially the welcome Committee members who park along the highway in black unmarked Dodge Chargers.



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