Picking up and Moving

embraer07 · March 26th, 2007, 18:46

Hey everybody, I have a question to those of you that have been there and done that.

Lets say you live in one city, then after being hired by an airline you choose to move to another city to either live at your base or just to be closer to it.

How much time do you have between when you find out your hired to when you have to report for work for things like finding an apartment/house, moving... etc?

In other words, how much time do you have from when you receive the "your hired" message to when you have to report for training, and how much time do you have from the end of training to the first day of IOE?

How did those of you who moved after being hired do it?

I am planning on applying to Skywest sometime in the near future. If hired I would be moving from Dallas to either Seattle or Portland and commuting to whichever base I am assigned. So I was curious as to how much time I would have to find a place to live and move out there with my wife.

Thanks!

Bandit_Driver · March 28th, 2007, 00:03

Good luck with the job hunt. Every airline is different. You can have a couple days to a couple weeks from the job offer letter until training starts. The same goes for training sequence. I have seen it where guys go from ground to sim to IOE with only a day or two off in the middle and I have seen guys get a month or more off before or after sim.

It is just one of those things you are going to have to play by ear.

embraer07 · March 28th, 2007, 01:48

Thanks Bandit.

I just can't imagine how some guys manage to move from their current home to a new one after being hired by an airline all in the space of a couple of weeks.

Because as far as I know, most airlines won't even assign you a base until near the end of training...or at the end of training.

So then you have to hustle out to your base city, or a city relatively close, and hunt down a decent apartment/house, hire some movers and possibly a car shipping company, all the while you have IOE coming up in a few weeks.

For those who have done that... .how did you do it? How much time did you have to plan your move?

Thanks for the information

eastbayk · March 28th, 2007, 10:01

Hopefully this will be helpful.

Last year we moved from San Francisco to Jacksonville, FL. We did a ton of research on the internet to find apartments in our price and location range, moving trucks, jobs, preschools and the like. That kind of stuff is easy to knock out from any location, on weekends, whenever. The best deal for us by far was with Penske trucks for a long distance move. You can start getting quotes from moving companies any time, just tell them you don't know when you are moving yet. The quote shouldn't change that much over a few months. Consider using one of those "you pack it" shipping container places. You can pack your stuff up and have it held in your new city until you find a new place to live.

Then we flew to Jax for 3 days, looked at tons of apartments (and for us, preschools and jobs), signed a lease and looked around town a lot. We put something like 400 miles on the rental car in town in 3 days.

We finished up the lease and other paperwork via fax, took 2 days off pack/prep and spent 5 days driving coast to coast. Another 2 days unloading and we were done.

Things that can help make the move smoother-
1) use the internet. Find other people on JC that already live where are moving and ask about their apartments. Research apts prior to visiting so you can have it narrowed down. Use a site like Craigslist to find people to help you load/unload your truck (some people will do anything for $30 and some beer).
2) Use a fax machine to take care of any details- leases, requesting records, ect.
3)There is no rule that you can't head out there first and your wife stay behind and take care of details and finish up. You can stay in a long term hotel place for a few weeks if you have to be there ASAP and then spend off time finding a place to live. Once you find a place, you can get the ball rolling.
4)If you know you are going to be moving, start packing early. Each weekend go through a different room in your place and pack up stuff that you won't need until you move again- photos/winter clothes/books. Do this a few times as the move gets closer. Then when it comes time to move, you will only have to pack the bare essentials and it will be much easier.

Good luck!

kim

ready2fly · March 28th, 2007, 16:44

We got three moving days after training when I got hired on with American Eagle. My wife flew out while I was in training and we looked at houses and found one we really liked, made an offer, and closed the week after I finished IOE.

We moved to DFW from TPA to be close to my base while on reserve (note: A year after hire and I'm still on reserve - it was the BEST decision we made in that regard).

Best of luck!

Stan