DSflyer05

Good evening all,

I wanted to pick your brains on what it is like to commute as a UPS pilot. Specifically for someone living in the PHL area. I have read many threads in the past that have said PHL makes for the easiest commute in the system, and I have heard that the jump seats can be reserved, first come first serve, up to 2 weeks in advance.

I’m am currently a 91 corporate guy so I not familiar with all the ins and outs, so any recommendations on how to maximize QOL while committing would be helpful.

I’m curious to know what you think the percentage is of pilots who commute as compared to living in base. 50%?

I know that I am asking a pretty broad question but any helpful comments are appreciated.

Thanks and fly safe.


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jetlaggy

sounds like u have all accurate info to me

TurkPhlyer

I've been commuting from the Philly area for about a year and a half now. I can't speak to any other Gateways, but PHL is pretty easy. Five days out of the week there are roughly eight flights to SDF (and probably about just as many coming back). Currently there are no flights between the two on Sunday and Monday. However, AA has 3-5 directs to and from that you can use as a backup if you need to get to work.
As far as booking goes, the process is as easy as selecting your dates and flight numbers and hitting submit on your iPad/iPhone/laptop. As a UPS crewmember you can book 12 days out. From what I've seen, no one is really booking that early for a jumpseat between PHL and SDF and vice versa. Honestly, I don't think anyone in the system is booking any jumpseats that early unless you're trying to catch a ride to ANC.
The one good thing about PHL is that it's a big Gateway for the jets bouncing around the east coast and the ones going across the pond to Europe. As a commuter on any fleet but the 74 (as of right now, they were scheduled in PHL for peak), you can find trips with layovers in PHL and trips that start and/or stop with a commercial to/from PHL. That's pretty big for QOL since you're getting extra paid days at home. As a new hire and depending on what fleet you end up on, I wouldn't count of getting those right away, but they are out there and you should be able to hold those after a while based on the movement we're currently experiencing.
Obviously, things are subject to change at any time and without any notice, but those are my observations over my short period of time here.
Any other specific questions, shoot me a message.
Turk

FTv3

To further elaborate, you also have trips that have commercial DH’s, CML (company paid tickets on pax carriers), either on the front end of a trip (positioning), the middle of a trip, or on the back end of a trip (depositioning). The company selects particular flights with an associated cost (index) either to or from a domicile (Mid trip CMLs not included). If you want to take different flights, they will pay up to this amount. For example, scheduled for SDF BWI PHL the company found and chose a flight for $200. But you want to use, say...Delta to boost your miles, or it’s your airline preference, or it leaves at a better time, whatever (this is called deviating (from schedule)); as long as that ticket price is $200 or less (hint: it often isn’t) you are free to change it. If it costs more you are still free to change it but that will come out of your travel bank. If there aren’t enough funds in your travel bank then they will payroll deduct the difference from your paycheck. Travel bank is built up from buying tickets less than the index or not using any ticket and the company’s credits 67% of the difference to your travel bank. You can start from anywhere to get into position. For a depositioning CML, you can only go to your residence. I believe this is for tax reasons. They let you list 2 addresses and you can change the second one to some extent. All good? Here’s the rub...

So far we have been talking about fully non refundable tickets. These are naturally more expensive (though still discounted through agreements with our travel agency). You CAN change your ticket to a non refundable and almost always get below the index. The risk is that if you don’t make the flight you are paying for that ticket so the trick here is to wait until within 24 hours or so before committing to a non refundable to be somewhat safe - note: this comes with the risk that there might no be any seats left or they raised the prices in the last few days.

Also, you live in a hub city, PHL. ATL, NYC, LAX, etc are all hub cities and the pax airlines love to charge a premium for flying directly to/from these cities. SDF is not a hub city so the indexes from there are typically less than flying out of hub cities. Eg. SDF BWI PHL on SWA is $200. SDF PHL on AA =$300. Imagine you live in ATL and the trip starts in PHL, you’re gunna be over the index to get to work. What to do? Use your travel bank to buy a ticket over the index. Note: only the difference is taken out of your bank. . Not enough funds? Get yourself to SDF and take the company flight as prescribed. You could use your JS ability / Zed fares to get to work but there is some argument / grey area against doing so and it sort of defeats the purpose of having a CML trip in the first place. There are some absolute no-no’s as well such as buying a ticket then using your nonrev access to get on a flight. Also, on reserve you can deviate. But good news, you already live in PHL so you automatically bank 67% of the index and get paid for the scheduled DH by being home. The key to all this is to build up a bank balance.

Last, we keep the miles we earn from CML tickets. Not uncommon to see guys with upper tier status luggage tags in the sort. One can get to the mid levels of a particular airline pretty easily in fact and the accumulation of miles is a great way to get to or from work when you don’t have a CML on your schedule. I don’t even waste time jumpseating or using Zed fares anymore. I also flat out buy tickets from time to time when the prices are right. With my status I get upgraded, often to first.

To summarize, we have lots of trips with paid tickets to and or from work. The catch is that it’s not always an affordable perk. Using miles, buying tickets, or nonrevving are other options.

navigatro

great summary. I think you meant to say that reserves can NOT deviate.

BrownDoubles

Usually... there are exceptions but 95+% of the time; "Reserves can't deviate" is an accurate statement.

FTv3

Yes, this was a typo. Note the addition as well:

whalesurfer

Great summary FTv3!
I hope you’re one of our new-hire mentors? if not, you should volunteer. You’d be great at it.
Boiler and several others here would be great at it too.
We’re always looking for new mentors.

FTv3

And reveal my identity? never....

Thanks for the compliment. Think I’m still too new to join that party.

whalesurfer

Too new? Hmm, you’ve provided more useful, up-to-date information to many of our hopefuls than the majority of senior - to you - folks here. So no, absolutely not too new. Technically you need to be off probation but many great mentors begin helping other newbies when they’re still on probation themselves and thus they became natural mentors once they’re officially on the list.

So if you haven’t done it already I encourage you to reach out to Kevin W. (look for mentoring committee) and apply. He’ll give you the criteria to join. Basically you’ll be doing what you’re already doing but in an official capacity.