SilverFlyer said:
This is my first post and I know my question shows my ignorance, but I'm curious about how domiciles work. I'm hoping to land a regional job in the near future and I'm sure I'll be living in one. Is this an apartment that the airline pays for? Can you live there when you are off duty? Do lots of pilots share the space or is it somewhere that you can keep your belongings?
Hoo boy. Where to start? Well, SIUdude summed it up well.
If you search the archives, you'll find that MANY regional pilots advise living in your domicile city. On the other hand, many pilots commute from where they live to and from their domicile. Many pilots do this happily, others consider it the biggest pain in the A#^ on Earth. A lot depends on the airline. Some have commuter friendly schedules, others are less commuter friendly. In addition, some airlines have commuter clauses in their contracts that make commuting easier (and less likely to get you fired if you miss your show time). Pilots that commute often rely on "crashpads" or apartments used by multiple pilots, sometimes in dormitory style, that they use when they need to fly in the day before their first scheduled trip.
It also depends which cities you would be commuting between. Are there are a lot of flights between the cities? How many are your airline? (makes commuting easier).
Best suggestion: brew yourself a big pot of coffee, and start diving through the archives of this message board. Read read read until your eyeballs fall out. You will learn a ton of stuff about everything -- what life is like at each of the regionals in terms of interviews, hiring, training, life on the line, and overall QOL (quality of life). Seriously, invest about 10-20 hours in researching on this board and it'll be the best investment you could ever make (hope you have broadband!).
Good luck in your career!