Presently we owe the company 17 days a month. That aren't that many 17 day lines in the bid package. I try to do all my work in one 17 day chunk and I mark the bid to tell scheduling that. What happens now is scheduling adds R days to a 12 or 14 day line to bring it up to 17. I got a 14 day line for Sept. The company added three R days at the beginning of the line. (Don't get me started on how stupid I think that is. If the company uses me then I lose out on what little control I had on my bid till chaos theory kicks in. And now they have to cover my awarded line with other reserve folks.) So back to your question, yes the hard 17 day seems to be relaxing. They are going to call your awarded days your "footprint" and everything is supposed to happen in those days.

There are going to be 4 guaranteed days off a year that you can use to say "Don't extend me this month." And there are going to be some reserve lines and hybrid hard/reserve lines that I haven't read through yet and I can't say what happens with them.

Per Diem is 2.40 an hour from first report time at your base till you're released at your base. I'm getting 700-800 a month, how much you bring home is a matter of where you layover and how much you drink.