crabbing

a few years back, my spouse took our preschool-aged kids to atlanta, while i continued to live and work in LA. i made an arrangement with my employer that i would work for 10 days straight, followed by 4 or 5 day "weekends" that i spent in atlanta. i would never, ever, recommend this to anyone who has young kids. my children hated it, and i think i aged 5 years during those 10 months.

sure, i learned exactly when delta updated its fares to know the best time to book, i benefitted immensely because airtran competed with delta directly to keep my costs down, i made gold on delta in just a couple of months, i knew when to plan my trips to (usually) avoid the crush of elites and get upgraded on almost every flight, and i trained my body to fall asleep instantly upon buckling my seatbelt.

but the psychological and physical costs really take their toll. because of the 3hour time difference, i was never in sync with the rest of my family, my extended weekends weren't real weekends so i ended up working an effective 6-7 days a week, and there was no way to deal with my kids crying when i had to go back to LA. i don't even want to think about what might have happened if there had been any sort of emergency.

jrl767

+1 to these as well

most of the time at Travis I was in the VOQ on base ... the bedroom had its own door and tv, and the bathroom had a door to the bedroom and another to the living area, so the arrangement was tolerable for one or two nights with wife and 8-year-old; when I got orders for a three-month tour of active duty in Dayton I requested an amendment to the "Use of Govt quarters required" provision to allow me to rent a 2-bedroom apartment (I just had to show a cost comparison), and extended the lease as soon I knew the set of orders with the same language for the next 90 days was in the system; in the DC area I took a 1-bedroom apt at an Oakwood complex (which was on the Govt-approved lodgings list) for the first 120 days of that tour, and then rented a room in a friend's house for another couple months before my family actually moved from Seattle

I was able to complete Air War College while a "Class B bachelor" ... which would have been far more challenging to do at home

as I said earlier, and as others have echoed, this choreography indeed put a lot of stress on our family dynamic ... but it wasn't open-ended, we spoke on the phone at least two or three times a week, and we didn't go more than four or five weeks without seeing each other for a couple days or more, either at home in Seattle or in other locales

ricvaflyer

Thanks all for the feedback. Lots of dynamics at play here and appreciate everyone's insight.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I will be doing a weekly commute one way or another -- it'll just either be a short 45 minute flight (M-F) or a much longer one (but probably a shorter work week or extended periods home). There's some financial/career reasons to bear the longer, more painful one but not sure they necessarily outweigh all the negatives -- will have to consider them in more detail.

One factor that someone brought up that makes it even more difficult is the lack of direct service, so would likely just drive to DC to avoid having to connect. Not the end of the world as you can take a 4 pm flight back and arrive in DC early enough (west coast time wise) to still make that drive...but I can't see how that doesn't wear on you after a few weeks and the time zones will wreck havoc on your weekends. It's also nice, now, in the case of emergencies, being able to get home relatively quickly and in the case of cancelled flights, being able to drive. All things to consider.

jrl767

you would have dealt with it, just like you would have dealt with it had it happened while you were at work in the local area

I left DAY midafternoon on 29 Sep (orders ended 30 Sep with the fiscal year, and I had a day of leave to use; plan was to cut new orders with a report date ~8 Oct) and arrived SEA around dinnertime to find no one to collect me ... about half an hour later I was paged to the ticket counter to take a phone call, and learned that my wife and son had been in an auto accident on the way to the airport

I took the shuttle van home, called her parents, and drove to the hospital ... an elderly driver had turned across two lanes of oncoming traffic directly in front of them; the car (1988 Civic, no air bags) was totaled; my wife had a cracked kneecap from impact with the underside of the dash, and my son had some minor bruises and abrasions from the seat belt on his chest and shoulder, but they were both released by about 730pm

the next morning I called my boss in Dayton to explain the situation, and he agreed to let me delay my return date by a week, by which time my wife was off crutches (for the most part) and able to drive the Grand Cherokee that we got to replace the Civic ... yes that was an additional week that I didn't get paid, but there was no way that I was going to go 2000 miles away any sooner than I absolutely had to under those circumstances

drewdawg199

I will be transferring to a position in my company's Los Angeles office soon and will be flying back to NJ about every 2 weeks for the weekend or 3 day weekend.

I will be living in an apartment in LA and working downtown. The apartment could be closer to LAX or BUR, could be anywhere (I will have a car)

Do any airlines allow/offer some form of multi-trip ticket? I would like to purchase like 10-20 round trips between LAX>EWR and/or BUR>JFK.

It seems like my only nonstop EWR options are UA or VX.

My first thoughts are get PreCheck and a lounge membership.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

jrl767

I think you'd have to set the time machine back to ~1980

looking at mid- to late Apr, both United (LAX <--> EWR) and JetBlue (BUR <--> JFK) are running ~$380-$410 for Mon morning out Thurs redeye return trips

gfunkdave

http://www.aairpass.com/

Not the most economical thing, though...

KoKoBuddy

I did west coast to Florida for almost 2 years. Red-eye Sunday night, flew back Thursday afternoon.

I was always tired and wouldn't recommend doing it to anyone. No matter what anyone says, travel like that wears you down. Switching back and forth between 3 hour time zones wears you down. If you have the job of a lifetime and it's the only way to make it happen, I suppose it's worth it. But if it's just a promotion or a $20K raise or something....don't do it.

mmff

This. 1000 times this.

rob0225

I didn't do bi-coastal but I did SDF-ATL-CSG and back for about 15 months. They were only 2 short hop flights but the weekly grind beats you down.

I would leave on Sunday afternoon and return on Friday evening, getting about a day and half at home each week.

chrisl137

The most important thing in LA is to minimize your daily drive commute time, and don't ever commute *through* DTLA (in or out is ok). Based on my observation of express lane congestion, it's easier into DTLA in the morning from the north (and horrific from the south). If you can take a train, even better. It's also quite reasonable to bicycle in DTLA these days. If you choose to drive, sigalert.com is your new best friend and you should study surface street bailouts. Don't let anyone convince you that you should do anything that puts you on the 405 every day, and don't commute over a pass (where bailouts are limited). An expresslanes transponder is worth it just for the LAX drive if you're coming out of DTLA- it buys you the lefthand transition onto the 105.

Unless you're stuck on indirect flights, don't bother with the lounge membership. One of those "You know you're an Angeleno if..." things is that nobody knows the physical distance between any two points, but can tell you the drive time to within 3 minutes for any time of day. It's true. I have one of the gnarlier commutes to LAX (just north of Pasadena, through downtown) and temporarily have a daily commute to just south of LAX. It's very predictable and consistent (and unpleasant-- I've pretty much told work that I'm done with it in the next few months. It's so bad that they'll reimburse hotel if I want to stay down there instead of driving home). I've been doing LAX-IAD RT a little under once a month on average for a couple years (and did a lot of flying ~10 years ago, too), and never had time to use my club passes that came with the CC.

I primarily fly UA, and I've never felt like I needed precheck (and indeed, with the new terminal layout it sounds like there's not even real precheck for the next couple years). The terminal 6 regular checkpoint is often as fast or faster than the old UA premier checkpoint, and is probably faster than the new premier checkpoint at peak times. Check the thread in the UA forum. Terminals 6-7-8 are connected airside if you don't mind walking.

If you're in DTLA you can probably work it so both airports are convenient. I *love* BUR, but it doesn't have nonstops for my transcons. You can walk from long term parking there faster than taking the bus, and the place is tiny. Best airport evar.

If you live in DTLA or can get to union station directly on the train, the Flyaway Bus is one of the best ways to/from LAX. The buses usually run slightly more frequently than advertised and the drivers have a great view and talk to each other, so they'll modify their routes to avoid traffic.

AmyY1110

Hi! I am going to be doing very frequent, every other week commutes NJ-LA, I just wanted to see how long have you been doing this and if you have tips on saving time and money?

Scots_Al

Until lockdown I commuted from the west coast (GLA) to east coast (EDI) and back by train every day. I’m not missing my 1h45 each way commute.

PV_Premier

When my ex-wife and I were engaged she was working in HPN area and I was living in SMF. One or the other of us flew it every 3rd-4th weekend for about 14 months. Especially since we ended up getting divorced anyways, I would say it was more trouble than it was worth. With that said, I racked up enough FF miles to go round trip to NZ in J three times, so that was good.

lhrsfo

Had a colleague some years ago when working in the City who flew to NYC 3 weekends in 4 to see his girlfriend. He’d arrive back in the office on Monday hot off the redeye and was completely useless all Monday and fairly useless on Tuesday also.