Smooth at FL450

As someone who drives to OAK…I agree. It’s awful. Go to LAX 😉

KVGT CFI

They just mash the blocks into a big block, with a RON option. Having been on reserve the last few months, this may net you one less duty period, two at most, every couple month, maybe. He’ll have no bid power to create overlap. Maybe if he got lucky with trading, but not something I’d base my decision on.

RJSAviator76

Eeyore is planning on being a plug for the next decade and a half... No way he advances up the seniority list and off the bottom. 😜

ZapBrannigan

Only 993 bypassers to come down on top of me. So, yeah. Glad you finally figured it out. 😉

hoover

The difference between oak and lax is 250 numbers. 150 to Las, 160 to Den. With the amount of planned upgrades I'd wait the extra few months and get Las or den. Once you get one of those its 500 numbers to dal. That might be only 6 months of commuting.
wouldnt even think about LAX and then you could avoid the ETOPS lock altogether.

ZapBrannigan

Right. All good suggestions. Unless there’s a merger. Or age 67. Or a recession induced furlough. Or the Max is grounded. Or Hard 8 burns down in a tragic hickory fire.

Seriously though, I will very likely follow your advice. Just batting around the idea.

Smooth at FL450

Age 67 won’t happen quickly, and it could prolong your commute for 2 years if that’s where you are when the music stops. I’d avoid…😉

flensr

I spent about a year commuting to weekend PM reserve. I *usually* would commute in the morning of my first day, first available company flight even if I could gamble and take a later flight that had no room for delays or cancels before the start of my RAP. I figured while on probation I'd rather lose an hour or two of sleep than have to explain to the chief pilot exactly how my failed commute plan was legal and protected under the commuter policy. Yes you can often use the commuter policy to get a couple more hrs of sleep but as a probie I didn't want to talk to the chiefs even if I was protected.

If I was already assigned a trip I'd hang out in the crew lounge and rest in the lcrew ounge nap room until report time. If I wasn't assigned a trip, I'd hang out at least until my RAP started and then early afternoon go check into my hotel. Facetime with the kids when they got home from school after checking in to the hotel. On the last day if I had a trip, I'd almost always finish up and get released after the last available commute flight home. Because I was an FO living cheap and getting a hotel for 4 hrs rest seemed wasteful, I'd list JS on the very first flight home (5-6am) and again sleep in the crew lounge. Bring comfortable commuting clothes appropriate for whatever airline you're jumping on.

Those strategies maximized my at-home time, usually losing at worst 1 day at home per reserve block. The tradeoff was of course my use of the crew rest facility to catch some sleep at the start and end of the trip. If you can doze/sleep in a recliner, it's not bad. If you have a bad back or whatever, you may end up spending the money to get a room even if it's just 4 hrs sleep before the first available flight home the next day.

I also tried to bring food, and then the money I didn't spend on food sitting reserve was used to take the fam out to dinner when I got home. That felt nice, family appreciated it I think.

I initially was commuting to LAS but it turned out that not only was I very slightly more senior in PHX, commuting in that first morning to LAS was a great way to get bumped and miss the flight. Friday morning originators to PHX had more room for commuters than Fri morn originators to LAS. So I bid and got PHX and stayed there until I could get where I wanted.

ZapBrannigan

Great info. That was just what I was looking for. Thanks!

RJSAviator76

We both know this is a big conspiracy to get you to upgrade and have them all upgrade to keep you on the bottom. No one in their right mind bypasses, right?

And if Hard 8 burns down, don't worry, they have other locations... or we can hit up a Brazilian steakhouse instead.