Planes trains..., and buses?

I know a lot of people look at the airline industry and being an airline pilot with a certain romance. Well, I guess it might still have a little, but really it seems it has lost it's shine.
I won't go into a lot of of details on that right now, but one thing I will talk about right now is commuting. I'll take a short diversion from my 4 day trip.

Commuting is what a pilot (or flight attendant) does when they live in a different state or city than the state/city they work in.
I'm based in dallas DFW. I live in San Antonio tx. I have to fly to work. Normally it is not an issue. Today it was. For July our parent company decided to reduce the number of flights due to "lack of crew". That's another story, for another time. Well today we're 280 seat shorter then normal. Sat on a normal day is usually very full. Take away that number of seats and you really compound the problem. Customer service at it's finest.

I realized early on that there was going to be a possible problem getting on the flight I wanted, so I decided to go in two flights earlier. That allows me 5 flights to get to work. I arrive to the airport, get through security and walk to the gate. Then I see another pilot out of the corner of my eye walking towards me. "are you Tim" he ask. "I'm sorry I seen your name on the list but I had to come in early to get to work", nice since he was not on the list. Great! Now the Jumpseat is taken. That was my only chance.
Each airplane has a Jumpseat. It's an extra seat in the cockpit. Only pilots, or in some cases FAA can sit on it.
I already know that the next flight has two more pilot jumpseaters. The md89 only has 1 Jumpseat. So now I know I won't catch a flight for at least the next 3 flights.
My options are getting limited. Southwest has a plane leaving soon, but unfortunately it's going to Dallas love field. Sounds great, except the city of Dallas has NO transportation between these two major airports! My options are a shuttle between the two at $25 (do you know how much a regional pilot makes? This is a little old, but you'll get the point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RayMaswju1A&feature=youtube_gdata_player). Or public transportation with MULTIPLE transfers and stops.
From love field, you take the #39 bus to the first train stop. Go upstairs take the train downtown (away) from Dfw. Get off at victory station, wait 30 min for the next train back to centerpoint station. Get off and take two more bus' to Dfw. 2 1/2 hours later you arrive.
Yes, I should have paid the $25. I arrived at Dfw at 3pm. My sign in was 310pm. I had just enough time to grab my jeppessen update, throw it in my case and get to the plane to start my day.
I do have to say Thank You to southwest airlines! For giving me a seat(out back even, not the Jumpseat) and treating me so well! That was the best part of the whole day! It's amazing what a little customer service will do for a company. One of the few if not the only airline that has always been profitable. The funny thing they are always called the "low cost" airline. Prior to me getting into the airline industry, I rarely flew southwest. Because they were never cheaper! I guess people will pay a little more for a good product.

The rest of the day went pretty well. No other issues. No visit from the FAA who have been out frequently lately.

Now back to the romance of flying thing. I'm sure it still exist. I never imagined working at a regional would be the same as a major airline pilot flying to some exotic foreign location. It has it's moments. Watching the sun rise or set from 37,000'. a perfectly smooth air early departure where it is so smooth you can barely tell your moving.

I've mentioned my friend Rand before, who writes the blog "a life aloft". His flying and writing is inspirational. He does help keep the aviation romance alive.