sandrich

Haven't seen any topics discussing this. Obviously this varies depending on the location, airline, and seniority, but how far would you consider to be too far to live from your domicile (non commuters). For example, I live 40 minutes east of JFK and LGA on Long Island. This 40 minute commute can easily be 2.5 hours on a busy day, as with anywhere in the New York area, which would make reserve quite difficult. I'm in the process of advancing in my aviation career, and should I go to the regionals, NY is usually a junior base at some regionals. So how far would any of you be willing to live from a domicile without having to commute?

rickair7777

Well a typical single leg commute might be a 2-3 hour flight, plus an hour to get to the airport and get checked. Also add 2-3 hours to allow for a backup flight so commuting by air can easily take 6 hours.

If you drive, anything less than six hours might be OK except that...

- You have to pay for gas (this could be huge obviously)
- You can't snooze on the way

Also depends on what kind of schedule you hold, if you're doing three long trips a month you could easily do a 2-hour drive. But if it's ready reserve every day or locals, that gets tough.

As a long-term deal I think three hours would be my absolute max driving, and then only if it was three trips a month. Shorter trips or a lot of ready reserve, I'd be looking for closer to an hour. I'd also be a lot more tolerant of open highway driving rather than stop-and-go traffic.

You can't take a train?

Also since reserve call out is going to 1-2 hours, you will need to be closer on reserve days.

sandrich

Yea theres plenty of trains on the island. I dont think NY would be a problem for me. Just seeing what everyone's personal preferences are. Thanks for the insight.

Spooledup

I was a line holder based in JFK with a regional and I live down near PHL. It was a 3 hour drive for me and I bid early reports to avoid the traffic. I would have to get up at 0300, hit the road by 0330 and make it to JFK by 0630 for a 0730 show. No traffic at that hour all the way into the airport to speak of. I set a personal limit of 3 hours when we were looking for a house. Taxes played a big part of choosing where to live.

If I had an afternoon report, I would leave myself 6 hours between when I left the house and report time. One time I made it in with 3 minutes to spare because of a closed section of the NJ Turnpike.

The upside of this miserable commute is that I only had to do it once a week and you can't beat being able to finish a trip and walk out to your car and just drive home. No hotels if you miss the last flight, no trying to catch a few hours in the crew lounge before the first flight out in the AM.

Now, I commute from my house near PHL to SFO. I leave the house at 0330, drive 2 hours to IAD, park free in employee parking, commute on my own airline to SFO and head out to the crash pad because I had to leave myself options if I didn't make it on the first choice of flights. Total time door-to-door: 11 hours.

When I finish the trip I'm on now, I'll get in too late to catch a red eye home. I'll head to the crash pad and get a few hours sleep, take the first flight out at 0700 and I'll make it home around 1900 due to the 3 hour time change and traffic in the Washington area -- all on my first day off.

I can't tell you how much I wish I had a 3 hour drive to JFK now.