Some frequent travelers commute to work by air weekly. Well, one woman in Malaysia takes that to the next level, and commutes to work by air daily.
Continue reading: Wow: AirAsia Super Commuter Flies To Work Every Day
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Many years ago I had a commute between London, Accra and Johannesburg that basically meant 5 overnight night flights a week for a few months. It was horrendous, even in Business Class. My health suffered for a long time afterwards. Granted, a short haul commute like that is more doable but the stress and hassle factor is not something I would subject myself to willingly again.
I remember a story from a year ago. While not as extreme, it's somewhat relatable:
https://www.boredpanda.com/student-takes-a-flight-to-college-every-week-to-save-rent/
In the old days , early 90‘s a lot of people commuted daily between Boston and New York. Apple Express, Trump shuttle, Eastern shuttle Pan Am, had at some point 8 dollar one way tickets. Did myself sometimes for 4 days a week and then remote work at 9600 bds. Planes were full of daily commuters.
I can't imagine doing this week after week. With a family she's probably getting 5-6 hours a sleep a night. Unless you're one of the rare people that can do with 4-6 hours of sleep not good for long term health.
Her office being literally at the destination airport makes this halfway reasonable.
Anybody with kids is lucky to sleep 5-6 hours a night, even with a fully remote job. There are too many childless incel losers in the comments preceding mine.
Hi Ben,
Sorry not related, but would you please report and confirm about the Lifemiles devaluation? Some of the routings increased up to 208% !!!! Almost every route increased 25~70%.
Not unheard of. In the 1990s, a friend of my Dad's commuted from Helsinki to Stockholm, daily. On paid tickets. His job was not airline-related in any way.
First off, an individual's carbon footprint doesn't matter, particularly segmented out for commercial aviation. This is a scam that has been sold by countries and companies to pass off guilt onto the consumer, when manufacturing, military, and even private aviation all put your C02 contribution to shame. You're right to point out that the seat being empty otherwise means a very minor difference in fuel burn of a massive aircraft and an extra 45kg on board. I personally don't see how 5am-7:30pm including commute time is a sustainable schedule, but if she really gets much from that 1-2 hours per night before bed and never seeing her kids before school, so be it.
I think it speaks to how demanding it is to be a working mom that prayer and listening to music on an airplane is her "me time."
Also the commute from KL city to KLIA is not the easiest / fastest commute either.
Anybody with kids??? Maybe until they're like 5. If your kid needs you in the middle of the night that often when they're near middle school age they're developmentally way behind
Sure, every parent needs "me" time but, "me" time 10x per week (10 flights) on AirAsia? ..no Thanks! I'd rather spend my alone time completing my last 2 cycles of REM sleep. If she had worked remotely during COVID, then "surely", she can work from home at least 2-3 day per week now....No?
I took nine flights on AirAsia late last year when I traveled in SE Asia for five weeks.
I never flew domestic or foreign budget airlines before and I will avoid it like plague.
Two positive outcomes: No loss of baggage and no air crash. They were all 90% full
capacity but they had sick fliers and naughty kids on every flight. I noticed eight flights
had no western fliers aboard and that was a warning sign. Penang is a beautiful island and it had developed a lot since I was there three decades ago.
Family time is most important to her, however with getting home at 19:30 then waking up at 0400 the next day, it doesn't sound like there is a lot of that going on.
There's also some other financial aspects that aren't addressed, like what about the round trip commuting costs between her home and Penang airport?
Also if she lived in Kuala Lumpur, she could likely bring her lunch from home, which would save some money on having to eat out everyday.
Mrs Kaur has two children, but I'll wager she also has a couple of maids, a cook, a gardener, and a driver. It's very common; and relatively inexpensive; for upper middle-class Malaysian families to have a fully staffed household. Her husband probably owns a business (or businesses) in Penang, which is why she commutes to KL every day. If she can make it work, good on her, but yeah... They're wealthy, and have a lot of paid help.
1000s of Europeans commute to work and back every day by train, leaving home and getting back at similar hours. Airports are slightly less fun than a train station, but her life isn’t really extreme.
If you're at an airport, you have to go through security (assuming you've checked in online), queue for boarding, taxi out for take-off, possibly go through turbulence, land, and taxi.
On a train, you just hop on within minutes of departure and have a seat until you reach your destination.
As much as I love airports and watch planes go by, it's a stressful environment, and you really have to pack your patience dealing with people compared to a train.
Actually pretty reasonable considering she gets an airline discount. Similarly, JR in Japan also has employees that live 1-2 hours away from Tokyo by bullet train and commute to work everyday using the Shinkansen. I suppose this is similar but aviation instead.
"Nicer" western places closer to $650 ... (pool jacuzzi Gym front desk staff )
Working on the move now
Sounds like living the dream to me. Too bad she probably isn't earning miles...
Not to be a party pooper, Ben. But this story isn't exactly hot stuff. I know folks who commute between Brisbane - Sydney daily. That's a FAR longer distance than PEN-KUL. And I also know someone who commuted CNS-POM daily for 2 years! That's an international route!
Decades ago a DJ had a morning show in Chicago and evening in Dallas. He did the ORD-DFW r/t 5X per week.
Many of my coworkers (management consultants) do much worse. Like 2-3 cities in Latam in a week, from Monday to Thursdays. Some examples: from Santiago to Sao Paolo, then Guatemala and then Ecuador, back to Santiago. Or Buenos Aires to Bogotá, Lima and Santiago… most of those are 5-6 hours flights in single aisle aircraft, if they are lucky premium economy in Latam (similar to business in Europe), worse case in Avianca… add to the equation 12-15 hours a day working, especially if you are about to make partner
Not sure if better to commute 5x a week like this story…
Yes; coincidentally, the cost and the journey time is almost the same as the KLIA Express! (50 RM, 30 mins).
I had period where I'd commuted Copenhagen to Stockholm, taking the 06:20 or 07:00 flight, and back again around 18:00. It was not uncommon, you got recognise your fellow passengers and their patterns, know who you'd probably meet on what days, feel "annoyed" if they took "your chair" in the lounge or "your seat" on the plane. And same from them. All in good nature of course.
While it makes a good media story, the lady's way of working is not particularly unusual. A lot of people prefer to fly Monday and Friday, but I guess it depends whether the company will foot the hotel or double house hold bill.
There are undoubtedly people in Hawaii that commute by plane. I've personally known of at least one, though I think he had a short work week - a doctor. I've also heard many stories of people in the construction industry doing daily plane commutes for several month projects.
The fact that she needs to commute from Butterworth to the main island of Penang daily shows that her affluence might not be among the upper echelons. Truly rich Penangites live on the island itself.
I think you would be surprised how common this is within the industry.After 30 years I retired from Southwest Airlines in 2019. Over that period I personally knew-
1. The Station Manager in San Diego commuted from Phoenix to SAN - Then later that same Station Manager commuted from PHX to OAK.
2. A Cargo Operations Manager commuted from LAX to OAK and another Cargo Operations Manager from AUS to Houston/HOU
3. A Marketing District Manager commuted from LAX to OAK
4. A coworker commuted from Chicago-MDW to STL.
All of the were daily over several years and off the top of my head.
Sean
Interesting story, but not uncommon as commentators have noted. Good for her that it's a short hop flight.
I communicated for a while between NYC-LON a few times a week. I would have loved just staying in LON, but I just got tired of hotel rooms, even the very best.
I'd take the first evening departure to LHR (so the earliest arrival, of course), and the last return flight the next evening. Go to the NY area office the next day and repeat. Like the person in the blog post, I also worked for an airline at the time, but my role provided free travel offered by all airlines in their nicest cabin for business or leisure travel...so was often on our main competitor given their frequency on the route (definitely never advertised that!!!)
Doubt it. Household help is cheap but not that cheap. Even above the T15 level.
Her mortgage is only 1k RM a month. Doubt her household is balling like that. If she wants the appearance of being busy a business owner can get her a job somewhere in Penang easily...
A few years ago I met a baggage handler supervisor for Southwest who lived in San Bernardino, CA, and daily commuted to work the ramp in Sacramento. Sometimes he'd spend the night up there, working a late shift one day and early shift the next, before flying home.
I could give her a few suggestions on how to manage her work life balance a bit better. Doubt that there’s much quality time with her kids despite what she says.
However knowing how Asian families operate, the pursuit of money would override what westerners would deem to be an acceptable amount of time spent with your kids.thats why it’s not unacceptable for one of the breadwinners to actually live in another country and go home a few times a year, I know families that do that. I guess putting food on the table takes on a different meaning in Asia where its hands to mouth for many and no social welfare net.
Screw your suggestions you condescending pig. And Asian kids score higher academically than 'western' kids, so try explaining that, you fool.