Two legger

I've had a lot of vacation recently. I spent a week in Paris at the start of the month and spent a week at home this week.

The day after my vacation ended I had 4 days of reserve. I am getting more senior (15 below me!) and was able to get an easy 4 day trip. I just had to commute to base.

Normally travelling on weekends is easy. The weekday flights are full of business travelers. Well with the booming travel industry today was hard.

I didn't have to report to my base until 3:50 PM. In order to get there I had to leave my house at 7:30 AM.

My first commute attempt via a direct flight was a bust due to a mainline jump seater. The next flight was a bust due to a coworker getting the jump seat (jump seat procedures vary by airline....thus is complex). At this point it was 10:05 AM. I had a back up two leg commute which I didn't want to take....but it was my only viable option.

As luck would have it the two leg option left just a few gates down. It seems several non-revs were using this route as the standby list was quite long. I was given an exit row seat along with several other crew members.

Up and away we went. Quick 90 minute flight.

Leg two was leaving at the gate next to my arrival gate. The flight originally had 35 open seats. It was down to 13 as revenue passengers were being routed through here as well. I was number 14 on the list.

The last seat left was the most upright, thinly padded seat on the airplane...the flight deck jump seat. It happened to be on the same aircraft I currently fly.

I settled in and was thankful it was just an hour and ten minute flight.

Once in I had lunch and took a moment to type this up.

The trip is a 1-2-2-1. It was originally 3-2-2-1 but another pilot sliced the first two legs off and flew them as overtime.

Speaking of overtime I made an effective $222 an hour this week.

On one of my vacation days I picked up 7 hours and 30 minutes worth of flying. It was a little nutty as I left home at 5:20 AM, commuted up on a 6:50 AM flight, flew 3 legs, deadheaded back to base, then commuted home on a 10:30 PM flight. I pulled into my garage at 12:45 AM. It will be great when I am paid for it. I made as much in one day as I used to get in 15 days as a First Officer.

Time to go be a Captain.