G'day Mr Cavok,
I joined BA in Dec 06 and am a commuter. (Sounds like an AA intro
) Initially you will get blind lines, which means the rostering department gives you a roster, but you can express preferences, such as blocks of 3+ days off. For my training I rented a room close to Heathrow which I still have, it's definitely handy to have a little home away from home, especially on shorthaul, where you do spend around 6-9 nights per month in London. These nights are mainly due to the early starts the next day. Anyway, for me as a commuter the most important thing is blocks of days off, so that is what I ask for. As a result I generally get trips of anywhere from 3-6 days, earlies is the norm. My roster has been fairly commutable so far but as mentioned, you are a resident neither in the UK, nor where you live, since you spend so much time at work, or travelling. I don't have staff travel yet, but getting your roster well in advance means you can usually book fairly cheap tickets. That said, I don't bother going home if I have two days off due to the cost of travel, and the time it takes me to get home (min 5 hours) Once staff travel kicks in I aim to travel to an airport which is only 15 min from home (Eindhoven), and has cheaper (staff travel) fares than Amsterdam. I currently spend about 8 days at home per month. Hopefully this will change when staff travel kicks in, or when I transfer to longhaul.
Unfortunately it's not as easy as having a job where you're home every night but the job is very satisfying and that makes up for it for me anyway.
Keep in mind I have only been flying for a few months and my experiences may vary from other newbies.