A day in the life of.....

[JettBoii]

Commuting is a huge waste of time and it is an expense! You will have to fork over around 250$ a month for a (decent) crashpad and the money to keep food in it. That may not sound like much as you read this but it will be considering the ridiculous amount of money you will be making if you decide to take a regional job. The actual amount of time I spend in the plane for the commute to ATL is 2 hours; of course that time is subject to change as we all know. Here is where the waste of time comes into play. Lets say that you have a 09:40 duty in and the flight you want to catch to your domicile leaves at 05:30 and arrives at 08:50; that means you have to get up at 03:45 to get to the airport in time to make it down to the gate to get onboard. If you have a nice long five leg day that finishes late that evening you will be toast before half the day is even over. Sure you could commute up the night before and get plenty of rest but it is time that you are spending for your job that you are not getting paid for plus it is time away from home. There are many different combinations to how you would work a commute but they all add up to one thing; wasted time. I also enjoy planning my commute flight home based upon my "planned" arrival time only to watch it push back from the gate while I am sitting on ramp 4 waiting on a parking spot. This results in me waiting around the airport for another 3-4 hours (sometimes less-sometimes more) for my next flight home. You will also be on reserve for awhile; commuting on reserve is for the devil. Someguys don't mind it albeit they have a very short commute but it just stinks all the way around. Do yourself a favor and stay at your currrent job unless you can find a regional position that has a domicile in your city of residence. And no...I would rather eat glass than move to Atlanta. Another person's opinion on commuting.

 

[SkyBoy1981]

I commute 3.5 hours each week halfway across the US. I don't have a crashpad, never have, and I have never missed a trip nor have I ever spent a night in the crewroom. I will admit, however, that I did not commute while on reserve. Again, if you get on with a decent airline that has a solid commuter clause in their contract then commuting isn't the end of the world.

If you're looking to go somewhere that you'll be on reserve for a long period of time then commuting is probably not a good idea.

 

[CubanSmoker]

Every corporate job is not a bed of roses either. I don't want to work 6-7 days a week even if it is another 20k a year.

Bingo,
I left a much better paying corporate gig for Mesaba and even with the crap that's going on here, my quality of life is TONS better than it ever was in corporate. Of course, every corporation is different, but never knowing when you would be gone or home, 3 day trips turning in to 15 straight, getting the call at 10pm at home and finding out you were rented out to a company tomorrow and your flight to the other side of the country leaves at 5:45am. Oh, and we don't know when your trip will end so you "might want to pack for a week or so." No thanks.

I love showing up for a trip (yes I commute out the night before often), flying your butt off and then going home and (aside from missing your commute home) know you will be off for X number of days. Need a day off and you're scheduled to fly? Trip trade or drop it, come up with some random 24 hour flu. At least you won't have to explain to your boss when you call in sick for a trip that 1) you just got home from urgent care with a 101.5 degree fever and 2)that you don't think it'll be down by tomorrow morning's departure and then have him argue with you that if you took the trip, you'd have a few days sitting in BFE to feel better!

My company sucked. Rant over. You need to talk to a lot of people away from this board so get a real picture of life at a particular regional. Don't listen to much of what these 1000 hour SJS wonder boys say because they haven't seen both sides. It's easy to say your grass is greener if you're not big enough to see over the fence.

Cheers