I generally arrive at the airport (Luton in my case) about 1.5 hours before departure and use the time for a leisurely breakfast. But this morning I really couldn't be bothered and so arrived just over an hour before. Depends on how busy the airport tends to be - you'll get used to it.

easyJet let you book as many as you want on a single booking. Just about every other airline doesn't allow that and means you have to do each at a time. No such thing as unlimited-travel travelcards, though.

I'm single and live on my own, and on that basis it's acceptable. I wouldn't even consider it if I had a young family - kids are more important than anything else. But YMMV - some may find they enjoy the time with their family all the more on the other days - particularly if you have the option to work from home rather than say commuting to the big city each day.

Depends how late you'd arrive. With the timezone being +1, late can mean very late, then there isn't much in it, though having taken the 0725 easyJet LTN-GVA this morning I'm half asleep. Also depends on whether you would want the extra evening at home. Notably, the flight is 0625 in winter, and that's far, far harder - going to bed about 10:30pm (I can't sleep much earlier really) there is to me a huge difference between a start at 0330 and at 0430.

Neil

Forgot to add that I am now commuting 90 minutes each way every day – by car. Frankly I’d swap it for an arrangement like the one you are proposing in a heartbeat. But then I don’t have children and my husband is away 3 days a week himself!

You presume wrongly. In the UK I think it's only London where even near that is common, probably capping out at 2-2.5 hours really (Brighton and the likes).

The usual in the UK would be 30-45 minutes in most cases, not usually over an hour. And very long daily commutes are neither good for the environment nor for the individual's health.

Neil

Nasty, and probably quite dangerous when tired.

I would, and in fact when working at our base office do, choose a 2.5 hour cross-London train journey at twice the cost to avoid doing a 1.5 hour car commute. I made that decision after a narrowly avoided accident (avoided by the other driver's actions, would have been caused by mine) which resulted from me "autopiloting" because of the tiredness that amounts up with an early start and spending those 90 minutes trying to be attentive.

Neil

Yes, and yes. Sadly the job market is also nasty.

Even in my office in London, I'd say I'm one of the few commuting over 1h (generally 1h-1h15) - and that's for a 50-mile train/bicycle journey. Personally, I wouldn't like to do much more than that, and certainly not on a form of transport where I couldn't read for the bulk of it - life's just too short. I do realise that now's not a great time to be overly picky, however...

To the OP - only you can figure out what your time means to you.

Personally, I've done LCY-AMS for 3-day-week stints and loved it (single, good friends with my colleagues) and done LHR-OSL for 5-day-week stints (married, variable relationship with colleagues) and hated it. I wouldn't go back to that kind of travel again now I'm married, and have specifically sought out work that has the right balance of home/travel time for me now. But I can't tell you what the right balance is for you.

Another consideration - it sounds like you're paying for your flights. Realistically, if you add all that up - and accommodation too? Extra food costs if you don't have cooking facilities? - how worthwhile is the remaining salary? Make sure you do the sums properly, too - see what flight costs are at the time you'll be travelling, with the kind of advance booking you can manage.

Finally, how well do you know France? It's a very different working culture to the UK - some good and bad points - and it takes some time and mutual understanding to adapt (particularly if there's a language barrier - I don't know if there is in your case).

Thanks to everyone for your advice. It seems like it's doable for a while. My plan would be this:

fly to paris on a Monday night, Fly back on Thurs night. Yes I pay/book everything myself, flights are about £150 return. Hotels are about £70 per night. So that lifestyle would cost me about £360 + food per week. It's within budget.

Eventually I would move to Paris for a year or so, but I imagine I'll be commuting for 4-6 months.

Interesting, never thought about that. I just tried a couple of searches on Flybe and they work out the same as the other way round - but it's a handy tip!

True.

Neil

Significant? Even Richmond, lots of WV, and Baltimore are under two hours. I don't think a "significant" group of DC-workers commute further than that. In all my years of working in DC, I think the number of people I've known with a 2+ hour commute is less than 5.

I don't know how good AF are, but if they're an option it is probably better than the organisation best known as "Flymaybe", unless they have seriously improved their on-time performance.

Neil

Worth your while checking whether this is the case year-round before committing to anything; if you find a hotel you like, it's also worth trying to negotiate a discount with them given that you'll be staying with them quite a lot.

Either way... Priceline, Hotwire, and biddingfortravel/betterbidding etc are your friends.

May also be worth checking that for air fares. LTN-GVA is massively cheaper in winter than summer (because they operate so much extra capacity).

Booked one or two months in advance, I tend to get around the £50-80 mark one way in summer, but base fares £19/£29 (from/to UK due to APD) very often in winter.

Neil