Any airline pilots here? (Seattle: how much, home, transfer to)

[urpilotfriend]

Hey all, just curious if there are any airline pilots on the boards who live in Seattle and commute.

Seattle has been on the top of my list of cities I want to live in. In doing so would cause me to commute to work, (ie. Salt Lake City, Chicago, Denver, to name a few).

Well if anyone is, let me know!

[alive85]

Depends on who you work for and how much you want to be home. My husband is a pilot that commutes to Chicago from Texas. He has a two leg commute and sits reserve. It's not pretty. He is home about 11 days a month. That explains why I am on city data forum on New years eve feeling sorry for myself. Good luck!

[impatient Pete]

My wife is an FA and I can echo the sentiments of the above poster re: commuting and a reserve schedule. We moved here in August but she is still based in SFO. She (we) have put in for a transfer to SEA. Seattle is a pretty senior base (as far as her airline) and so if and when she does get her transfer, she will move to the back of the bid line.

I don't know what kind of options you have for ID90's and the like, but having choices like Southwest, Alaska, and UA helps get you out of here when you need to get somewhere.

HTH

Pete

[Ambassador]

I'm a Commercial pilot and live in Seattle. As the above posters have said, commuting on reserve can be the ninth circle of hell...especially if it is a long commute. When I was hired by my first regional I lived in Dallas and commuted to Chicago. That was a one leg trip which cut down on the hassle but was still tricky.

Once you are holding a line commuting to anywhere isn't so bad..again living at least within the same time zone as your base will make life much easier. I commuted out of Seattle to LAX for a while and that was easy. Of course I was holding a line and knew my schedule a month in advance.

Now I am at a new company and based out of Seattle. I work a 7 on 7 off schedule which gives me a greater quality of life and more time at home to enjoy the beautiful Seattle scenery and great city life!

My advice if you are still on reserve would be to hold off on moving to Seattle...unless your base is PDX. If you are holding a line then commuting is very much possible, expecially to those west coast bases you mentioned.

Who do you fly for? Skywest? Great Lakes?

Good luck!

[Olivenhain]

Early-retired AA Captain here. Unless you have an extremely compelling reason to commute; don't. It only takes time from your life, as well as your family's life. In fact, I can't think of any reason compelling enough to commute. (Been there, done lot's of it...) I suggest finding a base with your airline that you can live within a couple hours drive, and leave it at that. Long term, far less stress & far more time at home.