Commute (fly) To Work?

[Lwadz88]

Quick question. I know that airline employees often get free flights. If you got a corporate position at Delta headquarters can you fly in to work everyday? I was thinking about making a career change and looking into airline employment but I can't physically move for a few years. However, I do live next to two regional airports with direct jumper flights to Atlanta.

At first I thought it was a crazy idea, but then I realized that with the efficacy of modern air travel it may not be. Its probably more of an issue how your potential employer would feel about you living further away than actual logistics. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[jimntx]

I'm basing this response on how it is done at American where I work. I would guess that the rules and procedures are pretty much the same for DL or any other major airline.

1. You would need to think about how you are going to handle your probationary period--which would be 6 months to a year depending on the job. Generally, travel benefits are not available until you complete probation. Buying a round-trip ticket every day can get expensive. For that matter, if you got a crash pad in Atlanta and just flew home on weekends, it could still get expensive. Most airports with only regional jet service (rj) don't have to reduce their fares that much because the demand for service more than likely outweighs the availability of seats.

2. Which brings up the issue of employee non-revenue flying is, as we say in the airline business, NRSA--Non-Revenue Space Available with the emphasis on Space Available. Any revenue passenger goes ahead of you in getting a seat on the airplane whether their ticket was purchased 6 weeks or 6 minutes ago. For that matter certain categories of non-rev travel would go ahead of you--don't ask. It's complicated.

Most major airlines take the position that if your job assignment is in Boise, Idaho, it is your decision to live elsewhere. Therefore it is your responsibility, not theirs, to get yourself to work each and every day you are scheduled to work. "The flight got oversold at the last minute" gets no sympathy from your supervisor or whoever is responsible for keeping track of attendance.

I live in Dallas and I commuted to St. Louis for 6 years (My other options were commuting to New York City or Washington, D.C. No thank you.). Though I never had a missed day due to commuting, there were many times when it was only at the last minute that I got a seat on the plane. It was nerve-wracking, and I jumped at the first opportunity to transfer back to DFW.

Do you really want to put yourself through that kind of experience?

 

[Lwadz88]

Thanks. Maybe thr better question is do airlines have any office type posistions (not flight attendant or pilot or gate agent) at locations other than thier headquarters? Im thinking like a regional office or something. CLT CAE CLS AGS area. Thanks!

 

[Lwadz88]

I don't know airlines just seem kind of like the iron curtain to me. Delta has about 80k employees according to wiki but only 900 or so aircraft. If you assume 6 person crews thats only 5400 people actually flying. Where do the other 75k work? All in Atlanta?

 

[jimntx]

Thanks. Maybe thr better question is do airlines have any office type posistions (not flight attendant or pilot or gate agent) at locations other than thier headquarters? Im thinking like a regional office or something. CLT CAE CLS AGS area. Thanks!

That is another caveat that occured to me after posting my first response.

Airlines (and particularly, American) are outsourcing more and more jobs that used to be done by company employees. And, in a lot of cases, NO workers at outline stations are employees anymore. They are all contract workers who have no airline benefits and no job protection if the company decides to lay them off.
I know of no office type positions at outlying stations. So much is accomplished with computers now, there is no need for support staff at every location.

 

[Lwadz88]

Ok, well I do appreciate the help. Looks like moving to a HQ hub is the only way you can work for an airline unless you have wings.

 

[jimntx]

I don't know airlines just seem kind of like the iron curtain to me. Delta has about 80k employees according to wiki but only 900 or so aircraft. If you assume 6 person crews thats only 5400 people actually flying. Where do the other 75k work? All in Atlanta?

That is 5400 at any one time, assuming that all 900 a/c are in the air at the same time (highly unlikely). But, there are many more pilots and f/as than are not in the air at any one time. Every day, some of those 5400 are going to be sick, or have a death in the family, or have a family emergency. There must be reserve standbys to go and fill in for those who need to be off. The pilot situation is even more restrictive than the f/as because they have Federally-mandated rest periods and minimum rest between flights.

An example. American has over 900 a/c, and over 100,000 employees. DFW f/a base alone has 5600 flight attendants in that one base, and there f/a bases all over the United States, some as small as 200 f/as. Your formula 80,000 employees - ((2 pilots+ 4 f/as) x 900) = 75000 office staff is inaccurate.

 

[Kev3188]

DL has mainline customer service & maintenance employees in CLT, and a large baggage service call center facility in AGS.

Commuting in daily is not realistic, even to ATL...

 

[Lwadz88]

Ok folks thanks for the help. Looks like a resounding NO. I'm going to start another thread asking about the types of jobs available at airlines. Thanks!