ZapBrannigan

Curious how you guys who commute to PM reserve make it work with your home life?

Reserve blocks are typically 4 days long, with 3 days off between. So let’s say you have a Fri through Mon block of PM reserve.

If you could get into domicile before your RAP starts, is it even smart? Wake up at oh-dark-thirty, to start your commute and then potentially fly until on-dark-thirty that night?

So maybe instead you commute on the last flight of the night Thursday. On reserve Fri-Mon. Finish up too late to get home, so you take the first flight home in the morning on Tuesday. Home by noon or so. Off the rest of Tuesday and Wednesday, then Thursday night you’re headed back west.

Thats a pretty rough QOL. Is that a worst case scenario or am I being too negative? How are you guys handling a commute to PM reserve?

Fivestripes

Not sure if it still applies or works in this environment but I use to bid PM reserve and select my preference as AM. They would assign me a trip that DH first day and started AM the second day. That way I could get home on day 3/4. However, with the landscape the way it is now, I’m not sure it would work out like that anymore.

e6bpilot

I used to bid PM reserve and commute in the morning. I would hit the recliner room for a nap and then hang out until my trip started. Yes, I was toast on the first day, but that's just commuting. I also had a crash pad when I was doing reserve, so if there was a long break between the commute and my start, I would head over there.

The good part of PM reserve is that once on your trip, you generally got a chance to catch up on sleep, and more often than not I would be able to make it home on the last day (commute city always had a late flight).

Commuting to reserve at SWA is miserable, which is why nobody does it any longer than they absolutely have to. For me, PMs work better with my body rhythm. I fly both sides of the divide now, and greatly prefer the PM side.

Stitches

Sounds like someone is thinking about pulling the trigger on that Captain bid…

Mozam

Zap

You have the choice to Pass or Fly. You can always change your preferences to fly from pass ( at any time ) and call asking for the trip in open time that works best for you .

ZapBrannigan

Does that work? I was under the impression that they hated us and were unlikely to entertain requests? 🤣

Crockrocket95

Commuting to PM reserve can really suck. Yeah most of the time you can get in before your RAP but then you either have to sit around all day waiting for a trip (if you don't have a crash pad) Or have a trip that has some thing like a 1930 report so you get to sit around all day .... waiting for the trip...

Commuting to AM reserve is usually a little better. Get in the night before, go to hotel, sleep. If you have an early trip, great, if nothing, then at least youre in a hotel and not in the lounge. I think I aged 20 years commuting to PM reserve. Commuting to AM reserve was much nicer. If they didn't have a trip on me, id wake up around 7-8am, eat breakfast, work out, hang out till noon, get a late checkout, and then reup the hotel around 3 or so. Repeat. But it was nice not sitting in the lounge dying. And I made it home the last day every time. Even with later reports and releases. PM reserve stuff, just feels longer.


If you commute to PM reserve, hopefully you can do LAX (if not better) at least they have redeye flights to get you back. Im assuming you can get to DFW.

Did AM/PM reserve commuting for 9 months East coast to LAX. Almost always offline commutes.

I was running PM reserve (not by choice) in LAX, id get up at 3 am, get to the airport at 430-5A, catch any nonstop flight on United/AA/Delta/AK (if I took swa it was 2 legs and 7-10 hours of travel and never could make it in before the RAP) from TPA out to LAX, get into LAX 830-930A, get breakfast, hit the chair for a bit, and then fly a dang Hawaii trip. Sometimes not landing until 0100 Hawaii time, which is 0700 east coast time. I was a zombie. Not great for QOL or Life. At the end of the trip, If I got back before 12Am, id catch a redeye back to TPA. If not, id get 4-5 hours in a hotel, sleep what I could, catch the first flights back east and still land around 4-5 PM east coast time. If I had to 2 leg it, It would be 8-10pm sometimes. Going west is usually not that hard part. Its the entire day lost coming east that destroys the commute. Add in weather, delays, etc. It gets fatiguing and sickening quite fast.

e6bpilot

I think going east to west (as in zap's case), this option would be much better. You would be more well rested for west coast AM stuff, and you are pretty much guaranteed to have at least one option to get home on the last day. I haven't used the courtyard there as a commute hotel, but everyone who I have talked to that does it loves it and says they are great to work with. Of course, now that we have been there a couple of years and travel is back, they may feel differently.

The key is getting out of Oakland ASAP. Even LA is a much better commuter station with many more flight options to get you there and back.

ZapBrannigan

Good info, thank you!

So seems like the trick is figuring out what contingency to bid that would at least allow you to avoid PM reserve and then gambling on that. Or, even more conservatively, just eliminating PM reserve entirely (probably unnecessary since I would assume the weekday stuff goes senior anyway)

Looks like there's only about ten PM full weekend reserve blocks.

Duck Sausage

Minor league question for an APC know-it-all.