I live in SYD and spent 5 years in my last job commuting between either SYD-MEL or SYD-BNE week after week. I worked on long term projects as a consultant, so had to commute to wherever the project was located. The shortest period of commuting was about 3-4 months and the longest lasted about 2 years. I'm in my 20's right now. It was fun at first but the novelty of travel soon wore off very quickly. Plus i got sick of getting up at 4am to catch the 6:30 flight every Monday morning.
Tips:
* Talk to your loved ones. Make sure they are understanding and agree to you taking a new job interstate. Your family is more important than any amount of money, FF, SC you earn. This will DEFINITELY test your relationship (sadly, I am now single due to the amount of travel I did in the past).
* Get a leased apartment if possible. It'll feel more like a second home. You will be able to cook your own food as you will get sick of eating out all the time. Also being able to leave your clothes, goods and other luggage behind on weekends is a godsend compared to having to having to lug a suitcase every flight. Bring a small carry-on bag so you can rotate clothes or other small items as required.
* If you have to stay in short stay accommodation, choose serviced apartments over a hotel accommodation. Sure the room service, 24hr bar, pool, gym and other amenities are nice but you will soon feel very cramped in a 20 square metre room after a while. You can usually negotiate cheaper weekly rates in a serviced apartment instead of paying daily rates by foregoing cleaning to about once a week. Sign up to hotel rewards programs (eg Accor A/Club, IHG PriorityClub) or rebate online travel agencies (hotelclub reward dollars, starthere.com.au also gives 4-5% cashback on bookings from hotels.com and expedia.com.au)
* Make sure your accommodation is at least as good as or better than the standard of your own home.
* Work 4 days a week SYD, 1 day a week MEL - you are right on the money here. That one extra day back home will keep you from going insane.
* Review your mobile phone plan so you can call your loved ones cheaply or for next to nothing. You MUST to maintain constant and open communications if you want to make a long distance relationship work. Or you could always use work telephone facilities.
* Purchase a wireless internet dongle - it's much cheaper than using inhouse broadband. But if you are going to rent a place to yourself it might be better to install a fixed-line service.
* You should be entitled to LAHFA (Living Away From Home Allowance). This will make rent and food a lot cheaper as it will come out of your pre-tax salary. Please note the government will soon be stripping this benefit but this change is targeted towards people who migrated here from overseas. As an Australian resident, as long as you maintain a house back in MEL (ie by proving you still pay a mortgage or pay rent), you should still be entitled to LAHFA. If not, then you should be able to claim a daily travel allowance as per the Tax Office permitted amounts that will cover breakfast, lunch, dinner and incidentals as well as speficied amount for accommodation based on the city you are working in. This will equate to a HUGE tax deduction at end of year
* I'm assuming flights between SYD-MEL are coming out of your own pocket. So book flights early and take advantage of sale fares to secure cheaper flights. Mon mornings and Fri evenings are typically busy commuting hours so flights around these times are usually more expensive.
* Consider paying for flexible fares. You may decide at last minute sometimes you might want to stay for the weekend or that meeting on Friday afternoon may run overtime. Having flexible fares you will be able to move your flights without incurring a significant penalty. I used to buy cheap restricted fares on the flight out (as I was always on the same flight) but flexible fares on the way home (as I had meetings that ran overtime or there was traffic on the way to the airport).
* If you prefer to buy cheap restricted fares to minimise your expenses, than maybe keep one or two flexible fares in the "bank". That is, book the flexible flight out in future and bring them forward only when you need them. With all the flights you do you will be bound to miss a flight or two eventually and more than likely going to forfeit the fare. It's easier (and less of a hit to your hip pocket) to use a flexi fare up your sleep than it is to buy a new fare at the airport service desk.
* The JQ Starter fare with Plus bundle is a good balance between price and flexibility. It gives you partial flexibility for an extra $17 per flight SYD-MEL and you will still earn QFF points and SC.
* You will find that employers will probably make you stay back late because you have "no family to go home to". Don't fall for this excuse. Try to leave the office at reasonable hours or you will burn yourself out.
* You will probably find that your entire social network will be your work network. Use them. Sure you'll get sick of seeing your colleagues all the time but its better than drinking yourself silly in your hotel alone. Better yet, make new friends. When it comes time to settling back home in MEL at least you know you will have friends to call up for free accommodation when you need to come up to visit SYD ;-)
* Sign up to recreation club, sports club or some sort of activity. You will not have access to your usual things that relax you, so find something to keep you busy in your hours away from the office. This may be an opportunity to do something that you have always wanted to do, but never gotten around to doing.
* Fly your partner or family up to SYD once in a while. It would mean one less return flight for you.
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* Take the time to explore SYD. Its a great city and even after living here for 7 years (even though 5 of those included travel interstate), I'm still finding lots of great new things each week.
* Enjoy the FF points and SC you will accumulate and all the perks that come with higher status. After all, thats why were are on here!
Hopefully you will make the right choice.
Cheers,
ncairns
PS. This is my first post so be gentle.