SDF perspective:
That really depends on how one commutes. If they can just catch a ups tail into base fairly easily then they will bid trips that work with that. Usually this means something that starts and ends sometime between Tuesday am thru sat am. And by am I mean flights coming into the sort around midnight and leaving around 3-5am. Not too hard getting lines with some of these on them, once you can hold a line. Getting them consistently for every commute AND having a good line composition obviously goes senior in most fleets. You can trade around with opentime to get more commutable trips too.

However, if the commuter takes the pax carriers to work and/or has to 2 leg it, he/she might opt for lines that offer CML deadheads to alleviate the pain. You can get lines with some CmLs on them being fairly junior, fleet depending, but to get the good ones where you have commercials for every commute, you’d have to be fairly senior for that and it usually occurs in week on week off night sort lines. Most often the lines like this only have 1 CML per trip.

To give you an idea of seniority progression, those hired in 2014 & early 2015 are sitting around the top third to top quarter in every fleet in SDF on the FO side (and pretty similar throughout the rest of the system AFAIK). I’ve found that I can start getting close to what I want, play with conflict bidding, and hold summer vacations (whole month off option) at this seniority level. I think life starts getting really good when you break the top 15%.

All that being said, at least for me, I don’t necessarily bid for specific line types. I do start with getting rid of stuff I don’t like or refuse to do: reserve, turns, etc. Then I filter for needed days off and see what’s left over, what’s commutable, sorting it all accordingly. If the options are slim I might look into snaking some of the trips that work from the line types I don’t like or sacrifice a day or two from my pref’d days off to build up my list. Usually by this point I have enough line choices to be safe (fleet seniority number plus a few) but when I didn’t I would just keep going down adding in more and more sacrifices. The guys that do bid for specific line types usually do so more for the flying type than the commutability; some guys love sort flying, others the 2 week on/off schedule. For the bidding, I’m referring to our line sorting software - we don’t have pbs here.

Hope this info helps…

 

good info. If you have time would you one giving an example of what a 74/md week long pairing might be. Would it be fly one place rest for 24-36 hours and go to another place repeat? I’m assuming the 74 gets at least more time in hotel versus the light twins.

 

good info. If you have time would you one giving an example of what a 74/md week long pairing might be. Would it be fly one place rest for 24-36 hours and go to another place repeat? I’m assuming the 74 gets at least more time in hotel versus the light twins.

 

Here’s some examples that works for both planes:

-3am (L) SDF - HNL
22 hr l/o
-SDF - Asia (HKG, ICN, TPE)
20-48 l/o
-Asia turn (ICN PVG ICN)
18 hr l/o
-Asia ANC
22 hr l/o
-ANC SDF finish around midnight.

Eastbound example ANC based (74):

-ANC SDF
24 l/o
-SDF DXB
30hr
-DXB CGN
22hr l/o
-CGN HKG
24hr l/o
-HKG ANC

Here’s more of a domestic example:

- 4pm SDF ONT
30hr l/o
- ONT HNL
48hr l/o
- HNL KOA ONT
18hr l/o
- ONT SDF

Domestic fleet with commercials:

-Sunday am CML SDF EWR
36hr l/o
-EWR SDF sort* SDF MKE (M)
14hr l/o
-MKE SDF ATL (T)
13hr l/o
-ATL SDF PHL (W)
14 hr l/o
-PHL SDF PHL (Th)
12 he l/o
- PHL SDF EWR (F)
10 hr l/o
CML EWR SDF Saturday night.

* These flights you show up around 8 pm, fly to SDF, sit the sort for 1-3hrs (use sleep rooms), fly back out around 4 am then layover during the day. Rinse and repeat all week. This is domestic night sort flying. The bus and 76D often have 2 legs into or out of the sort as well as west coast legs for a real kick in the nuts. The example above is about as good as it gets.

I made these up but they’re pretty accurate to give you a good idea.

 

74 gets extended into days off quite often. Something to consider as well.

 

Also varying degrees of locked in your room in all of the Asia flying for now. Taipei and Shenzhen are absolutely miserable, and so of course tend to be the longest layovers. You think it's no big deal until you're on day 4 breathing in the black mold in Shenzhen or eating the prison slop in Taipei.

Don't get me wrong, it's still not a bad gig, but check the glamor at the door.

 

Yes, it helps a lot. Thank you very much for the detailed response to that portion of my question.

For the Tuesday through Saturday example, that’s four nights. With average lines at 11 to 13 days, does that mean you do that three times a bid period?

It sounds like can take awhile to get what you want (like any airline). How variable are the schedules when junior?

Thanks again

 

For the weeknight examples (T-Sa), I was referring to trips that start in that window and end in the same window the following week. So you’re looking at 6, 8, 10, and 12 day trips like this. You do get some 4-5 day pairings too. Turn lines (locals, out and backs) follow this pattern giving you 3/4 weeks of work blocks. All in all, yes, for the MD and 74 in SDF you’re looking at a large number of lines that require 3 commutes in a pay period and this is a major reason a lot of guys choose to commute to ANC when they could just 1 leg it into SDF. The key at UPS to a good life if you don’t live in domicile is to have an easy commute.

I’d say junior lines are highly variable, especially now with COVID factoring and shaking things up. One popular platitude is that the only difference between a junior CM and a senior CM’s schedule is that the senior one gets the days off he wants. Acknowledging the oversimplification, it still holds some truth that we are all kind of flying the same thing, at least on the whale.

 

Sorry, my questions are intermixed here on the thread with feltf4’s. He was asking about 74/MD11. I was asking about 767/300 but I didn’t specify since my original post had multiple questions.

Thank regardless. Been doing a ton of reading here on UPS.

 

Just wanted to clarify, a bid period = 2 pay periods. A PP is 4 weeks, a bid period is 8 weeks/56days. So 3 commutes a PP is what I was referring to. These don’t necessarily go junior either. I’m around the top third and have bid these purposely twice in the last few bid periods. But I also have an easy commute. Also, 1/3 trips is usually a small 2-3 day “stuffer” trip which I’ll often trade for something that flows with the other 2 trips bringing my commutes back down to 2. Or, I’ll trade I to something with more credit making the commute more worthwhile. Others use BV days to cover these (banked vacation days) or a sick call.