Question for DFW NJ based pilots

[Flyingdude]

I am starting indoc with NetJets soon and I will be DFW based. My question concerns parking at DFW. I know that DAL has been a base, and many use an FBO for parking at DAL.

However, in DFW only one very small FBO exsists and I doubt that anyone parks there. I know that DFW is a new base with NJ, however, I was looking for any input as to what you guys do for parking. I have always parked in the employee parking with a pass supplied by by airlines. I don't know if I can buy a yearly parking pass, since I am not employed with one of the airlines any longer. Any ideas from you guys would be appreciated.

 

[TristarsForever]

I park at Park Air Xpress, across from the Sheraton at Esters and 114. They give us a 50% discount, just tell them you're with NJ at checkout. It costs about $42 for the week but there is a frequent parker program and to me, it's worth it for the direct flight home I can't get through DAL.

 

[theskyking]

I just drive 15 minutes past DFW and park at Signature at Love. You don't hit much traffic if you are on 183 and take Spur 482 at Texas Stadium. It drops you right onto Northwest Highway.

90% of the time I airline out of DFW so I just arrange a sedan to get me back and forth. They'll be waiting for you at the curb and have you at your car within 20 minutes all on the company's dime. Easy enough routine for me not to spend the extra $80-100 a month to park at DFW.

 

[kevin_p]

I'm not sure if it would be worth it to you, but just be aware that if you choose DAL as your base, then there is a higher chance of overtime on day one and an after midnight on your last day. They usually will send you over to DFW and that adds an hour onto the beginning and end of each tour.

For example, this week, I had a 1005 flight out of DFW. They had me show at DAL at 705 for a cab/sedan over to DFW. If I had been based at DFW, I would've had an 805 show. Since my show was before 800, then I got an hour of overtime at the beginning of the day. Also, my day ended up being 10.5 hours. Since I started before 800, then OT started again at 9 hours of duty, therefore I got 2.5 hours of overtime (one hour at the beginning and 1.5 hours at the end) that I wouldn't have gotten if I had started at DFW. That's over $100 just to drive to DAL to start my tour. I would say this happens at least ever other tour.

Also, my only after midnight in the last few months was due to a delayed flight into DFW. They had me scheduled for a 13:40 duty day (including the cab over to DAL at the end) and my flight was half an hour late. When I got to DFW, the one hour they allow to get to DAL would have put me over 14, so I chose to get a hotel at DFW and collect my $1000 for the after midnight. If I had been based at DFW, I would've missed out on that money.

Once again, it may not be worth your time to mess with it, but if you look at the extra OT, after midnights, and free parking, you can end up quite a bit ahead financially by using DAL as a base.

 

[felixpuppy]

I am starting indoc with NetJets soon and I will be DFW based. My question concerns parking at DFW. I know that DAL has been a base, and many use an FBO for parking at DAL.


When is your classdate?

 

[hammer2]

I just drive 15 minutes past DFW and park at Signature at Love. You don't hit much traffic if you are on 183 and take Spur 482 at Texas Stadium. It drops you right onto Northwest Highway.

90% of the time I airline out of DFW so I just arrange a sedan to get me back and forth. They'll be waiting for you at the curb and have you at your car within 20 minutes all on the company's dime. Easy enough routine for me not to spend the extra $80-100 a month to park at DFW.

15 minutes?????

 

[Flyingdude]

My class date is July 7th, one week from today.

 

[DAS at 10/250]

Congrats FlyingDude!!

I switched from DFW to DAL for all the reasons stated above.

 

[gordon24]

15 mins? Uhh, not at rush hour.

6.5 years here. All but the last 3 months spent at DAL. In all that time, I've had ONE instance of an after-midnight due to the DFW-DAL one hour taxi. Thats ONE time in 6 years.

OT before 8? Does that happen to you every tour or just the one you were speaking about?

Not trying to argue. I could care less about you using DAL and me using DFW. For me, it's the difference between an half-hour drive and a hour to hour and a half drive. I just don't want some new-hire to expect extended days and overtime out the azz because he uses DAL over DFW.

 

[theskyking]

15 minutes?????

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=...96.942329&sspn=0.135828,0.300751&ie=UTF8&z=12

Sorry, I'll change it to 18 minutes to match Google.

 

[soccer.1860]

tristars are you G.O.

 

[Blueridgeflyer]

I use Fastrack at DFW. The have implemented a very generous discount for NJA. Its about $6/day or $42 for the tour. They also have a nice owner loyalty program that will enalble at least a couple of weeks gratis in a calender year. In Dallas, it is always good to have covered parking IMHO.

I finally reached elite status w/ AA in early June, which was a factor in me switching bases from DAL. With American's new silly bag fee people are hoarding overhead space & boarding in Group 1 is really helpful.

 

[cheyflyer]

Why doesnt your company provide parking for you at your base?.... just wondering.

 

[theskyking]

We had it with our 5 domiciles. It wasn't negotiated in our current contract with 100 available crew bases and a significant raise for junior pilots.

 

[kevin_p]

They did until about 6 months ago. It wasn't included in this contract probably because there were a few cases of abuse where guys were spending several hundred dollars a month using valet parking or the $30/day terminal parking. Instead of trying to come up with rules to prevent guys from being stupid, our union leadership gave away the parking reimbursement and figured we could use part of our 45% pay raise to pay for parking.

Also, the majority of our bases have FBOs that allow us to park there for free.

 

[Dr Pepper]

What hotel do we stay at around DFW? I have not overnighted there yet. Does our number 1 hotel allow any parking perks?

 

[Just Peachy]

DFW vs DAL

They did until about 6 months ago. It wasn't included in this contract probably because there were a few cases of abuse where guys were spending several hundred dollars a month using valet parking or the $30/day terminal parking. Instead of trying to come up with rules to prevent guys from being stupid, our union leadership gave away the parking reimbursement and figured we could use part of our 45% pay raise to pay for parking.

Also, the majority of our bases have FBOs that allow us to park there for free.

The company was just as stupid, because 90 to 95% of my flying is out of DFW but yet Im based at DAL. This means the company has to PAY for a cab both ways when they airline me out of DFW and give me an extra 3 hours to be able to do it.

In the old contract, the company used to send me direct to DFW to start my tour. Now, most of the time, I drive by DFW, get to Love, get a cab, turn around and go back to DFW to wait my 2 hours for my flight....

So for a tour, thats about 100 bucks in cabs and about 5 hours of lost productivity that the company sucks up.

Yeah, they were real smart with that deal.

However, when the Wright Amendment goes away, I suspect I will be flying mostly out of DAL on SouthWest, but I may be retired by then anyway...

 

[FR8FO]

I park at Park Air Express on the corner of 114 and Esters. All covered 24 hrs, $5.50/day

 

[Mach92]

I still park at the main terminal :smash:

 

[jtf]

The only hotel I've stayed at around DFW on overnights for NJA has been the Hilton Garden Inn. I have no idea if they have any discounted parking rates. I fly into DAL a lot, but even though we have a lot of flights there compared to most other airports, it is still almost impossible to schedule many people who live there to actually start or end a trip there since there really aren't all that many flights overall going through any one place. I live in CMH and even with all the mx work done here, I still airline in and out about 85% of the time.