Portland, OR

[Dave Benjamin]

I don't do the PDX-SEA commute but I occasionally non-rev to spend a day in SEA. It can be a tough commute but if you allow yourself extra time to drive if the flights don't work out then it's not too bad. Last time I did it QX started cancelling flights and an AS FO that was also trying to get up to SEA offered me a ride in his car. Not sure if I would have made it up there otherwise. Still a 3 hour driving commute is better than practically any commute that involves non-revving.

If I was offered a job at AS I'd probably move up to SEA. Some of the outlying areas aren't too much more than real estate down here and you only have to drive to the airport once a week typically. Plus the sailing in SEA rocks compared to messing around on the Columbia.

 

[AK737FO]

Welcome to HeII

MSMB,
I offer you a bit of advice before you make a costly mistake. Do you love your family? Do you want to be home with them more than 11 days a month? Do you like the idea of driving several hours per work day at todays fuel prices and on your New Hire pay? There is really only one answer to the above questions - Live in (or darn near) your base!

I have many friends in PDX who fly for Alaska and commute to SEA. Some of them are senior and get pretty good schedules. They still have to drive to SEA most of the time which sucks up time, money and vehicle wear and tear. QX is just to much of an unknown now - they have found that it is usually not worth the effort, just get in the car and drive.

The other batch of friends are living in PDX and on reserve in SEA. These guys are "livin the dream"! They are converted from R (4 hour call) to A (2 hour call) about 99% of the time because we are very short staffed in SEA. This has been going on for about 6 to 7 years, so don't count on it getting better any time soon. So these guys get to "position" themselves so they are two hours away from the jet on their reserve days. That means getting up at 0400 (start of a zone), kissing the wife goodbye, getting in the car and driving about an hour north to some little town where you will spend the next 12 hours sitting in your car, walking through the park, drinking coffee till you pee blood, find all the "wy-fy" hot spots in town to waste time on the web, and so on, until it is about 1600, 3 hours till the end of your zone - then you can drive home.

But wait, there's more! What if you get the vampire zone as a new hire? On call from 1500 to 0600. That means you get to kiss the wife and kids goodbye at about 2 in the afternoon each day, mount your trusty commuter car and burn some gas as you drive your way to the above mentioned town. Of course now you get to spend the night sitting in your car, (there is no way you can afford a MOTEL on what you will earn your first year here) until about 0400 - at which time it is safe to drive back home without fear of a getting called out. How long can you do that schedule before you loose your mind due to lack of sleep? How long till the wife and kids get tired of Dad being gone 20 nights a month?

I am not kidding you here. There are guys on reserve in PDX who do this every day. They actually want a trip, they want to fly as much as possible so they don't have to do this game. The real sad thing is that they put themselves through this by their own choosing. Granted, our reserve system stinks (in SEA) but if you lived in your base a two hour call is really nothing to get worked up about - unless you happen to get called out right in the middle of SEA rush hour.

I have no idea what LAX reserve is like. ANC reserve is WONDERFUL and can actually go "senior" some months. We fly 10 to 20 hours a month, we do not get "converted" from R to A (maybe once a month). It is a completely different airline up here. Commuting from PDX or SEA to ANC is not a good idea though - way to much of your time wasted flying up and down the coast, cost of ANC crash pad, car, the list goes on... Live in your base!

Good luck to you, I wish you the best, and "welcome aboard"
AK737FO

 

[flx757]

That is most excellent advice from someone who knows (and I will echo all of it, from someone who has done both the commute and seen how much of a toll it takes on your life, and who has lived in base and experienced how great life can be because of it. You cannot put a dollar figure on that...)

 

[mach none]

I moved almost two years ago and have been wondering why it took us so long to figure this out. Living in base is wonderful...provided you are not in Newark.

You may want to wait until you finish training before you contemplate any more stress like moving. Also, we should be entering a period of growth or at least some movement due to retirements. You should be able to get SEA within the year.

I can say that commuting sucks. The planes are full. Factor in WX, cancellations and next thing you know, you are driving, calling in sick (risky on probation) or driving. Get through training, give it sometime. Talk to the guys on the line, than make your decision.

What is the Amtrak Act? I have never heard of this.

 

[Buckaroo]

You'll still find a few intolerant rednecks around here so you might feel right at home.

There's also a lot of Bedwetting Liberal A$$holes, so you must feel right at home.

 

[Dave Benjamin]

There's also a lot of Bedwetting Liberal A$$holes, so you must feel right at home.

Actually we refer to them as well educated progressives. I do feel right at home around here. My neighbors are professional people that don't make stupid statements like trying to categorize the entire population of a diverse metropolitan area as "hippies and dope smoking tree huggers." In fact one of my neighbors has a degree in forestry and works for a wood products company. I'll ask him how much dope he smoked while hugging trees today. I've got engineers living on either side of me. I'll check to see how much dope them smoked today and if they hugged any trees. Probably negative on the trees because it's wet and windy right now. Not the best weather for tree hugging because the moss gets all over your shirt.

Our area is noted for abundant parks, recreation, scenic beauty, and novel land use/planning. I'm about 1.5 hours from Timberline Ski Resort which is getting a bunch of snow right now and about 1.75 hours from some gorgeous beaches. Newer homes in the neighborhood are about 600K which is chump change for those "hippies and dope smoking tree huggers" so I guess there will be even more of them to contend with.

The one thing we lack is folks like Buckaroo. I just don't talk to many folks that sound like him. But I can always turn on the Springer show I guess....

 

[Dan Roman]

Dave that was a good post. I just had a PDX layover and it looks like snow at Timberline all week. I'm based in Hawaii and wouldn't trade it for anything, but PDX is one of my favorite layovers. We have time for snowboarding and a visit to Powells on our layovers. Oregon is an awesome place and Bend is a favorite family vacation spot thanks to Mt Batchelor. If I couldn't live in Hawaii I could definetly live in Oregon (or Vancouver for the tax break and apparently it has good schools).

 

[Dave Benjamin]

Bend is getting really popular these days, especially with the folks moving up from California. Prices are getting out of sight. That another nice thing about Portland. You're not that far from Central Oregon which like everything else east of the Cascades, is quite different. I was out at Smith Rocks this summer and had a blast. What a gorgeous place. We did a long weekend camping on the Icicle River near Leavenworth, WA and really enjoyed that area. Looks like the Alps.

From my house I'm just a short walk from a nice stretch of river that looks like something up in Alaska. You can kayak or fish and spot bald eagles. Feels like you're out in the country.

Being based in Hawaii sounds pretty sweet. Summer here is great but it sure would be nice in the islands the rest of the year with a couple of winter trips to the Cascades thrown in just to remind you what snow and ice looks like.

 

[fokkers&beer]

PDX is a nice place to live. The commute to SEA can be a rough one however. I have talked to many Alaska pilots about there commute. They sometimes have to make the drive. If one Horizon flights cancel, all hell has broke loose between the two cities. On a Thursday night, a flight cancels, and even with the option of sitting up front it can be a three to four hour wait, then no dice on the commute. If you are lucky enough to be based in SEA, live somewhere up there.
The weathere is about the same, wet. The real estate market is a little cheaper, but not really that much. And not commuting is the sweetest plumb of all.

 

[K-Mart]

Actually we refer to them as well educated progressives. I do feel right at home around here. My neighbors are professional people that don't make stupid statements like trying to categorize the entire population of a diverse metropolitan area as "hippies and dope smoking tree huggers." In fact one of my neighbors has a degree in forestry and works for a wood products company. I'll ask him how much dope he smoked while hugging trees today. I've got engineers living on either side of me. I'll check to see how much dope them smoked today and if they hugged any trees. Probably negative on the trees because it's wet and windy right now. Not the best weather for tree hugging because the moss gets all over your shirt.

Our area is noted for abundant parks, recreation, scenic beauty, and novel land use/planning. I'm about 1.5 hours from Timberline Ski Resort which is getting a bunch of snow right now and about 1.75 hours from some gorgeous beaches. Newer homes in the neighborhood are about 600K which is chump change for those "hippies and dope smoking tree huggers" so I guess there will be even more of them to contend with.

The one thing we lack is folks like Buckaroo. I just don't talk to many folks that sound like him. But I can always turn on the Springer show I guess....

Amen!

 

[Dave Benjamin]

PDX is a nice place to live. The commute to SEA can be a rough one however. I have talked to many Alaska pilots about there commute. They sometimes have to make the drive. If one Horizon flights cancel, all hell has broke loose between the two cities. On a Thursday night, a flight cancels, and even with the option of sitting up front it can be a three to four hour wait, then no dice on the commute. If you are lucky enough to be based in SEA, live somewhere up there.
The weathere is about the same, wet. The real estate market is a little cheaper, but not really that much. And not commuting is the sweetest plumb of all.

Agreed. I'd live in SEA if my paycheck said Alaska Airlines on it. SEA is more crowded and expensive but not commuting and all the great attractions of Puget Sound, the Olympic Peninsula, San Juan Islands, Mt Rainier, Mt. Baker, British Columbia would make it worthwhile.

 

[Corona]

Actually we refer to them as well educated progressives. I do feel right at home around here. My neighbors are professional people that don't make stupid statements like trying to categorize the entire population of a diverse metropolitan area as "hippies and dope smoking tree huggers." In fact one of my neighbors has a degree in forestry and works for a wood products company. I'll ask him how much dope he smoked while hugging trees today. I've got engineers living on either side of me. I'll check to see how much dope them smoked today and if they hugged any trees. Probably negative on the trees because it's wet and windy right now. Not the best weather for tree hugging because the moss gets all over your shirt.

Our area is noted for abundant parks, recreation, scenic beauty, and novel land use/planning. I'm about 1.5 hours from Timberline Ski Resort which is getting a bunch of snow right now and about 1.75 hours from some gorgeous beaches. Newer homes in the neighborhood are about 600K which is chump change for those "hippies and dope smoking tree huggers" so I guess there will be even more of them to contend with.

The one thing we lack is folks like Buckaroo. I just don't talk to many folks that sound like him. But I can always turn on the Springer show I guess....

LOL! Great post! I'm going to one of our great parks by the Willamette River tomorrow and hug a big, mossy, wet tree! Buckaroo must be lost across the 8th dimension, or wherever.

C

 

[flypdx]

Actually we refer to them as well educated progressives. I do feel right at home around here. My neighbors are professional people that don't make stupid statements like trying to categorize the entire population of a diverse metropolitan area as "hippies and dope smoking tree huggers." In fact one of my neighbors has a degree in forestry and works for a wood products company. I'll ask him how much dope he smoked while hugging trees today. I've got engineers living on either side of me. I'll check to see how much dope them smoked today and if they hugged any trees. Probably negative on the trees because it's wet and windy right now. Not the best weather for tree hugging because the moss gets all over your shirt.

Our area is noted for abundant parks, recreation, scenic beauty, and novel land use/planning. I'm about 1.5 hours from Timberline Ski Resort which is getting a bunch of snow right now and about 1.75 hours from some gorgeous beaches. Newer homes in the neighborhood are about 600K which is chump change for those "hippies and dope smoking tree huggers" so I guess there will be even more of them to contend with.

The one thing we lack is folks like Buckaroo. I just don't talk to many folks that sound like him. But I can always turn on the Springer show I guess....

Nicely put, Dave.

 

[Rhino]

december class?

If you are in the December class, you may as well move to Los Angeles. That's where you'll be sitting reserve for the next year. Seattle base may be reduced in the upcoming bid with growth projected in Anchorage and LAX. No MD slots in the Dec class and you can't bid until you're done with training...late Feb/early March.

If you don't like Seattle's wet weather, you'll really like Portland. It rains more south of the Columbia River than it does in Seattle.

Welcome to Alaska Airlines!

 

[turbodriver]

Try the Vancouver/Camas area, it's right across the river from Oregon. Better schools, 15 minutes from PDX, and no income tax. Oregon has an income tax of about 9.1% but no sales tax. Live in Washington- no income tax, shop in Oregon- no sales tax. Best of both worlds.

I'm in that same boat. The tax break rocks. Highly recommended.