Originally Posted by mersk862

Keep in mind that it's 20 hours of paid flight time. Let's say on Day 1 of a trip, you have MSP-ATL-SAV-ATL. That's roughly 5 hours of paid flight time. However, you need to be at MSP a minimum of 60 minutes before departure for check-in (which tends to be around 75 minutes). Then you get to Atlanta and you might have a two hour sit from arrival time from MSP to departure time to SAV. Then it's an hour turn in SAV. Then it takes 15 minutes to get everyone off the plane in ATL and another 15 minutes to get to the curb.

All told, you're spending 5 hours flying and then nearly another 5 hours of not getting paid waiting for flights. Multiply this out over a 4 day trip, and it's closer to working for 40 hours, while getting paid for 20.

Hence why long international trips go rather senior - a MSP-NRT-MSP takes less than 48 hours to do (officially it's a three day trip), it's about 24 hours of flight time. Do that once a week and you are at 100 hours or so a month, little time wasted (no layovers at airports, one flight a day, etc.) and you get 4 days off a week.