Commuting Questions

[taloft]

I'm facing the prospect of interviewing at a couple regionals and am wondering about the possibility of commuting.

I understand that commuting is not very desirable, due to long absences from your home, especially when reserve is involved.

I'm wondering if commuting is even possible anymore due to the jumpseating changes.

Is it possible to commute to a regional airline job from an airport not served by that airline? Is it practical?

What regionals allow commuters and which do not? Again, does your home have to be located at one of your employer's bases?

Do majors allow jumpseating from their regional partners? What about non-partners?

I would probably only look into commuting for the first 6 to 9 months. There just seems to be so many different rules post-9/11 it's hard for someone not in the business yet to figure out what is/is not possible.

Thanks in advance.

 

[flywithruss]

I don't know of any airlines, regional or otherwise, that specifically ban commuting or require you to live in domicile. Any airline requires that you be in domicile by show time, of course, whether you're coming from across the street or across the country. Some airlines have a "commuter policy" in their contracts, which say basically that if you are listed on two different flights that would arrive at your domicile before your show time, and you still don't make your show time, you will not be penalized for missing the trip (though you are NOT pay protected as a rule). Again, some airlines have a commuter clause, others do not.

As to the jumpseat. Obviously you can jumpseat (in the cockpit or in the back) on your own regional carrier. In most cases, you also have access to the cockpit jumpseats of your regional's major airline partner(s) and possibly other regionals that also fly under that major's colors. As to offline jumpseating, this is still allowed, but you are denied access to the cockpit, so you can only ride if there's an empty passenger seat on the airplane. Some airlines allow as many jumpseaters as there are empty seats on board, while others limit the number of jumpseaters to the number of jumpseats installed on the airplane, even if there are lots of empty seats.

The choice of whether to commute or not involves many things. The worst commutes require multiple legs or traveling offline. The best commutes offer many nonstop flights per day online, and a reasonable driving distance to domicile as a last-ditch backup. It is also important to know if a certain route is "commuter-heavy" ... if there are lots of people who commute the same route you do, it may be more difficult to get jumpseats. At Continental, for example, DEN-IAH is commuter-heavy, and at Delta ORD-CVG is, I have heard. You have to look at where you live, and where you're based when you get hired, and make the best choice you can. Would you rather live where you want, or have more "free" time? Remember, when you are commuting, you are doing it with your time off.

Good luck.

R

 

[captainv]

taloft,

flywithruss makes excellent points, which i generally agree with.

however, a commute can still be fairly easy despite some of the things he mentioned.

as for me, i fly for CMR, based in CVG but i live in ATL.

i commute on DAL mainline, and it's usually a one-leg commute. plus, there's a lot of flights between ATL-CVG. those are the good points.

on the downside, the airplanes are small (MD-80s and 737-200s mostly) and there's a ton of pax/commuters going back and forth. that's the bad part.

i bid for trips that start after 2 p.m., so that i can commute up the day of my trip. there's a CMR flight that flies CVG-ATL that doesn't leave until 11:15 p.m., so i always make that one going home, plus i have the edge on the jumpseat if needed. most months, i'll fly 4 4-day trips, so i usually get 14-15 days off a month. i've only had to use the commuter clause when i was on reserve. (to me, this would be the single-biggest issue on whether to be a commuter or not. not having a commuter clause would eat up your days off) when you're on reserve, who cares if you miss your trip? you're being paid a monthly guarantee that you likely won't break, so it doesn't hurt to miss a trip. it's when you're a lineholder tat it can cost you money.... but at least you keep your job.

being a commuter really isn't all that bad. just depends on your priorities...

 

[Northern Lights]

Here's a link to another commuting pilots thread

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10756&highlight=commuting+pilots