flatlander

This is strongly affected by the company culture and what sort of job you have. If the company culture is more oriented towards results and independent working style then it's better. If it's a strongly regimented company with a culture of presenteeism and strict working time then it will be worse.

What sort of job are you doing? Is it one with more independent work (researcher, sales lead generation, programmer) or group work with colleagues (project management, assistant, etc)? If you can work more independently, that's better.

Being able to work at home some days will benefit you greatly - try to get that.

Taking a guess, because they're Swedish, you'll be expected to show up on time but not to work late, which is better than some places.

It will become very wearing; hopefully your partner is the sort who is happy to do most things without you, otherwise there's going to be a lot of domestic strain.

I reckon in a couple of years you will either want to relocate to Stockholm or find another job. Make sure either of those is possible when the time comes.

dnajockey

Enjoy it but don't plan on it lasting for ever...

I work in London, my wife in Paris. We spend every weekend together, my employer is happy for me to work off-site in Paris so I do a thursday night / monday morning trip.

The problem is that it never quite works out ... I travel for work sometimes, my wife also so I only really end up in Paris once a month. It's ok but it won't work for ever.

Good luck

domestic

I've been commuting LON - EDI for 2 years now, frequently doing 2 returns a week.

It's not to be taken lightly - indeed I wouldn't recommend it for longer than a year. Having lounge access undoubtedly helps but only a little as you'll refine your travel routine to spend as little time at the airport as possible. (I tend to use LCY anyway). As others have said, some flexibility on your employer's part will be important (I tend to stick to 2 nights away at most and find this to be just about bearable).

It is also much easier in summer than winter.

Good luck!

matthandy

If you have the choice, don't do it. I quit my job because I was having to travel to MUC every week. 3.45am start on a Monday, returning at 11pm on the Thursday, and that's only if everything worked out as it should, which it frequently didn't. There were times when I arrived at Heathrow to be told that my taxi was two hours away. If you have an early start bear in mind that the evening before is ruined too.

It's not fun at all.

JamieT

I did EDI-LON weekly for 5 years. I found I did get into a routine (and it cured me of my inability to sleep the night before an early flight!) but it was still tiring at times. The biggest issue I found was struggling to compress my home life into the limited time I was at home, as someone else mentioned.

Gave it up 3 years ago; I travel perhaps a couple of times a month for 1-2 days at most now and to different destinations. I miss lounge access when I am on BA but that's it, they don't fly direct to 2 of my 3 destinations and I'd rather take shorter direct flights.

orbitmic

Many people do it but it can indeed be a tiring, frustrating, and expensive experience depending on the circumstances. Would you be able to take long weekends (e.g. are you allowed to work from home one or two days a week for instance) or just bog standard Friday evening-Sunday evening?

I would personally recommend flying every other weekend at most, preferably making them long ones if you have any flexibility in your work organisation.

Also, bear in mind that travel comes with incidents, notably in the winter when bad weather can easily mean long delays and cancellations at LHR. Be prepared to either allow some safety in your timings or have to explain awkward situations to your employer.

Finally, for frequent commute, you shouldn't just jump on BA but rather compare to SK (from LHR) or DY (from LGW) as price differences can add up very quickly and timetables be unequal

Cerebrito

That's pretty much what I did. Although, with everything else I had to do, searching for places on airbnb became a real chore very quickly (some weeks it seemed like I was searching for an hour every night after work). It took me about 4 months to find somewhere I liked that was available on an ongoing basis.

More than anything else, the lounge access became something to look forward too. Only x flights now till I make Silver (or IB Gold) and get lounge access. Once I had lounge access, it's novelty worn off very quickly. I use the lounge every week in Paris, but only because in Paris you need to pad the commute to the airport quite a bit to be safe.

'andad

At age 54 I commuted Lon to Holland for 3 years, out last flight Sun, back last flight Fri (and by last flight I mean watching Concorde leave LHR for NY at 8 pm, arriving in my Hague flat at midnight, and getting home on Friday between 11 and midnight). To save (my) money I ended up using Rotterdam which meant a CityFlyer ATR, so often a rough flight at low altitude during the winter. With mid-week business trips to other places I averaged 130 BA legs per year, plus others with KLM. This was followed by 2 years of Mon-Fri commuting to Newcastle, and then 4 years Mon-Fri to Aberdeen. I survived, so did my marriage, and so can you.
The musts are :-
Lounge access to handle the delays.
A flat, not a hotel. This keeps you busy in the evening, cooking, washing ironing etc, otherwise it's drinking too much in a bar & watching rubbish TV from a hotel bed.
A wife that understands it's necesssary for the job, not your choice.
A wife that has, or developes, other interests. Mine didn't mope at home but took on courses on woodwork, table tennis, Italian, Yoga & went to the theatre a lot. The most difficult part, is that when the commute ends after 9 years away, the home re-entry is very difficult. You can't just waltz in expecting dinner, she will have got to like her other interests & will be (still is) keen on them.
The weekends are tough, the little jobs you would easily do in the evenings, all have to be done at the weekend but under a time-constaint, and it will rain when you try to go out, or have to cut the grass before your flight.
But, you may get Lifetime Gold & a lot of Avios, just in time for BA to de-value them, if you can find redemption availability that is ! I used to think BA were a bit special to fly with, I now fly a lot less and don't look forward to it.

1010101

Some of my old bosses in London used to commute from Southern France via Nice. In by Monday lunchtime and leave early on a Friday afternoon. They loved it, but all had nice apartments in central London to go to and a sense of a settled life in the city.

I do a sort of half-commute to Singapore once a month or more, and i found the way to make it bearable is to get yourself a routine. Same hotel, same route to work, same restaurant every night etc. In other words, do the things you would do if you lived there.

secretplantofightinflation

I would never do it. I value time with my wife and kids far too much.

paul4040

I think I would be the same as you.

Some of us enjoy flying - or at least I do anyway. When I have to do it for work though, it's much less fun and quite a drag. Holing yourself up in the computer area of the Flounge and travelling in a shirt and tie isn't my idea of fun.

Ziz

I've asked them for 3 days there, 2 days working from the UK. My job will be very independent so I'm hoping they agree to that. Unfortunately this isn't a case of taking the job over another one - this is my only offer and I'm not currently employed.

ETA: The job is for max 2 years. My thought is to try this for the first year to see how I like the job and city and then move there full time for the 2nd year.

henkybaby

Same here... Tried AMS - TLS for a few weeks, then decided this was going to kill me, rented a house, packed up my car and moved there.

I find a 2 hr commute by car too much, so maybe I am not really normal, but it seems most people here agree. It breaks your life in two.

And like 'andad said: going away is tough but coming back is much, much tougher, especially if you have been away for a long time. I have returned 'home' after being mostly abroad for 6 or 7 years and although it is home, it feels completely different.

BAAZ

Definitely go for silver (won't take long to get those 50 flights if you go weekly). If you live in Oxford you need to add a margin for traffic delays in getting to the airport, so you'll always arrive early enough to have breakfast in the lounge (and at LHR it isn't bad - porridge in winter etc).

It's a pain commuting from the UK to the rest of Europe rather than vice versa because of the time difference which acts against you. I commuted to Paris (on the Eurostar but the overall timings are similar) for three years and once you get used to the early Monday morning start you'll be fine. Key is to agree at least one day a week working in the UK. If you can agree two, then that's only two nights away which is even better.

Never ever agree to fly out Sunday evening - that wrecks your weekend. Instead, accept that on the two (or three) nights you are in Stockholm you'll be working late into the evening to compensate for the late arrival in the office.

Make sure you can arrange accommodation where you can keep clothes etc while you're not there. Then you don't need to travel with anything more than you would go to work with in the UK. Airbnb will include cleaning services and most cleaners will also iron your shirts for you if you pay them a bit more - that saves a lot of hassle as well.

Good luck!

nobbyclark

Been commuting like this for nearly 15 years! Yes, it wears thin and is tiring, especially if you have a door-to-door commute of nearly 10 hours at each end of the week, as I often do. Also doesn't help when companies like BA tinker with their frequent flyer scheme to make it less attractive to frequent flyers.

But you do get into the routine of it and if you can work from home on a Monday or Friday, it makes the whole thing more bearable.

You will not be alone.