Married Airline Pilots Say Free Travel Is a Major Perk, Yet Often Feels Like Long Distance

A chance meeting between trips

Bell and Hoare’s schedules overlapped only briefly when they met for coffee before separate flights. They can spend five days together at home, then go a week without seeing one another.

Hoare began in aviation as a JetBlue flight attendant in 2016 and later trained as a pilot in Massachusetts, where Bell was an instructor. Bell said his interest in flying began when he was a toddler.

They married in 2025 at the New England Air Museum in Connecticut, near Bradley International Airport outside Hartford. Both love their work, but describe their home life as shifting between distance and constant togetherness.

Planning around unpredictable schedules

Each month, they reserve time for birthdays, holidays, and family events while bidding for trips. Work can still fill the days between those occasions, and delays, cancellations, or weather may prevent them from getting home.

The couple tries to avoid the relationship strains they have heard about from other pilots, including broken promises and financial pressure. Bell said they respond to mistakes by communicating more, including talking through schedules at airport coffee shops.

Trips beyond the cockpit

This spring, they spent 12 days in the Faroe Islands, hiking and staying in a camper van. In summer, they traveled through southern Italy and hiked in the Dolomites.

Their delayed honeymoon took them to Tanzania, where they climbed Mount Kilimanjaro on the Machame route with nine other hikers and a support crew of guides, porters, and cooks. Summit night involved eight hours of steep hiking in darkness at 14 degrees Fahrenheit and nearly 19,000 feet. They reached the top on their first wedding anniversary; Hoare said she preferred doing the adventure while they were at their physical peak.