PolarTiger

Any UPS pilots living in Europe/UK? I was contemplating a move to London and (COVID aside) wanted to know if anyone could share how they commute? Are you able to pick up trips that start and end in Europe?

303flyboy

No UPS, but we have several pilots and Flight Attendants commuting from Europe, Japan etc. Most just ditch their schedule when it comes out and pick up to where it’s commutable and they get all their work done in two weeks and then go home.

I am assuming it’s the same ish at UPS and most airlines.

East coast - Europe is very doable. Almost same as JFK - LAX. You will be well rested for early shows in the States when you come in from Europe and go straight to bed. On your days off it will take a few days in Europe to recover at least for me but who cares it’s your days off

Good luck !

tnkrdrvr

Polar,

We do have a few guys who live on the wrong side of the pond. As a junior guy, you are unlikely to be able to hold trips that start over there. We have a lot of trips that transit Stanstead, so commuting probably would be doable. Part of the equation comes down to your ability to deal with the long commute. Due to retirements and growth, you probably could hold a decent SDFZ line in about 5-6 years that would make tour life much better. However, you will be in a relentless pursuit of relative seniority on the Z in order to improve tour QOL. This will mean bypassing upgrade for far longer than your peers.

FTv3

Use the search function - we’ve discussed this at decent length two or more times in the last few years. From Stanstead you’re looking at the 76 for the most part. Gets tricky: often its a 2 leg to get there from the US and the crews usually don’t care for JSers especially if the flight doesn’t have a PRM (a can setup as crew rest facility). Pre-Covid, no prob - tons of pax options to supplement. Now, and the short to med term future, not pretty. To tempt you a little, there are Z trips that have a CML to or from Europe or both but those go quite senior, at least to hold them consistently; can sometimes snag them in OT or vacation lines. The 74 SDF might open up more options as it’s rumored to resemble the old MD flying which had flights to CGN and CMLs sporadically. If you’re willing to sacrifice to make it work you can do it but it’s going to cost you days off, probably some cash here and there, as well as a lot of headaches. In this day and age I’d say something like Kallitta or an Asian commuting contract, or even FedEx with their CGN domicile might be better options?

mjpilot

Can you still do this with the required 14 days quarantine in place returning to the USA?

What about arriving in Europe? I love to visit my family in Switzerland, but they have a 10 day quarantine in effect.

Can you just travel in uniform and be exempt?

tnkrdrvr

Welcome to the Covid travel nightmare. The short version is it depends on which country and how you are entering. Crewmembers tend to be exempt, until someone decides they’re not. Impossible to predict how commutable it will be until Covid is no longer an issue.

mjpilot

Thanks 👍, that's what I was worried about.

I do have a Swiss passport though, so getting into USA might be the challenge for me. 😰

tnkrdrvr

If you don’t have legal residency in the US it will be impossible to get hired. If you can’t hold a US passport it could be difficult to get necessary visas for some countries.

Sunrig

i think mjpilot has already a job in the US and therefore most probably a greencard. And you won’t have any problems getting the required visas if you have a Swiss passport compared to an US passport.

FTv3

Residency is irrelevant for eligibility. Thinking you were referring to permanent residency / green card in which case you’d be correct. However, we have a couple of guys on green cards here. I remember a captain complaining about a time that he had to wait after arriving in PHL(?) because the green card holding FO had to go to the terminal to get cleared into the US.

The only potential m snag getting visas with a non US PP is how the company UPS uses for the visa process deals with non US PPs.