Jump Seating to Bases as a New Hire

[Tonala2k]

I need to know mostly for my wife's sanity. Since dating, we've been going over best case and worst case scenarios of my career. Don't get me wrong. My wife is unbelievably supportive. She agrees that it's best for us to take the hard roads now for future payoffs. However, I think the 'best case scenarios' are sticking better in her mind then the worst cases. I want to give her a more solid picture on what to expect should I be asked to be based away from where we live now. Especially now that we are looking into buying a house.

How do regional airlines look at new hires who want to Jumpseat to work? We are only looking at airlines that are based in our home city, or cities we are willing to relocate to (based on her job) hoping that it will increase our odds of a local base, or at least make jumpseating easier. What should we expect from a future employer?

 

[imacdog]

Comair has a jumpseat policy for pilots; if you try to get on two flights that would get you to your domicile one hour before show time and can't make it, you will be forgiven. Obviously if it happens a lot then other arrangements will have to be made but it's good for when you aren't able to get to work after an honest attempt. We have CASS now so that helps our commuting pilots.

 

[stall022]

It doesn’t matter if you’re a new hire or have been at a regional for 10 years. All they care about is your there to fly your shift. Some have commuter polices but those are usually limited to once per year with a lot of stipulations.

Live where you want to live. A lot of people on this board have probably had a base downsized, closed or have been displaced at some point in their career. I have been displaced 3 times in 7 years so I continue to live where I want and just deal with commuting.

 

[Tonala2k]

Thanks for the help. That was the image I've been getting, but as our little family of progresses instabilities are less and less welcome. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Smacktard]

Thanks for the help. That was the image I've been getting, but as our little family of progresses instabilities are less and less welcome. Thanks for the heads up.

Be very wary of the pool boy if he's coming out to your house more than once a week while you're away on trips.

 

[SBD]

2k I was in a similar situation that you are in right now. We just bought a house and I was looking for an easy commute or being able to be based in my home city. We live in Orlando and there are some airlines that are based here but the one's that are somewhat decent are very senior and then there is Freedom(Mesa). I didn't want to work for them so I choose a different airline. Bases are always changing. Choose one city to live in and make best of the situation. You can't get up and move everytime that you change a base. I'm fairly new to the airlines and so far it hasn't been too bad as far as commuting. Hope this helps.

 

[upndsky]

Commuting can be a royal pain in the a$$, and I commute. But I wouldn't have it any other way for several reasons:

1. I have family where I live and our bases (EWR, CLE, IAH) just aren't appealing to me.

2. At the commuter level, you work for a vendor, which means that mainline customers, and therefore bases, can come and go. Look at Air Wisconsin. For years they flew for United and had bases in most of United's hubs. Suddenly, the plug is pulled and now they're flying for USAirways based in PHL and Washington. So a whole bunch of pilots who were living in base suddenly became commuters by default. I'm curious what the DEN-PHL commute is like. How about CHQ. They seem to open and close bases regularly. Imagine the guy/gal who bought a house in FLL recently. That person is now commuting from an area where loads are often full. Even at ExpressJet, where I work, there used to be small ATR bases in the northeast. Those eventually closed. Plus, it looks like we'll have to add at least one new base to house the 69 airplanes that are being pulled from the Continental system but that we are keeping. Finally, think of all the ASA guys who thought they had it made in DFW, until Delta pulled the plug on that base.

If you can manage to live in base, great. Otherwise, live where you want to live or move to a place where you'll enjoy the QOL and the commute isn't too tough. In other words, stay away from places like Florida, Vegas and Souther Cal as they tend to have a lot of commuters.

 

[Dave Benjamin]

Commuting sucks. If you are limited to certain cities you may find more satisfaction in the corporate or fractional sectors. I've had a base downsized and done the commuting thing. If the base I'm in right now were to close I'd have bumping rights at some other domiciles that I could live with. If I was forced to choose between commuting long term and finding something else to do I'd probably fly corporate or just get out of flying entirely. It's not worth the stress, the hassle, and the wasted time spent commuting. It's a great job when you can live where you want to live and just have a short drive to work.

 

[rsspilot]

I need to know mostly for my wife's sanity. Since dating, we've been going over best case and worst case scenarios of my career. Don't get me wrong. My wife is unbelievably supportive. She agrees that it's best for us to take the hard roads now for future payoffs. However, I think the 'best case scenarios' are sticking better in her mind then the worst cases. I want to give her a more solid picture on what to expect should I be asked to be based away from where we live now. Especially now that we are looking into buying a house.

How do regional airlines look at new hires who want to Jumpseat to work? We are only looking at airlines that are based in our home city, or cities we are willing to relocate to (based on her job) hoping that it will increase our odds of a local base, or at least make jumpseating easier. What should we expect from a future employer?

Think that most dont care however for your own qol I would suggest trying to live in your base but it can be almost impossible at times.

 

[Lav Service]

Think that most dont care however for your own qol I would suggest trying to live in your base but it can be almost impossible at times.

That's just because you work for a company that many of us don't want contaminating our planes. If you worked for someone else, it would be different.