Delta is interviewing/hiring mil guys posting early and late summer availability dates.

For my own job search I've found linkedin very valuable in networking. By clicking on "follow" the company you can then see who you know and who they know at these companies. This has resulted in lots of emails and phone calls to old sq mbrs and several letters of rec during my last 8 months of networking. I usually can find a few reserve/guard mbrs at my current base as well to track down and ask questions which usually leads to someone else I knew 10 yrs ago. When an airline opens their app window, I am already prepped with several contacts since I've found it can take as long as 2 months to get a letter of recommend into the system by the time you send resume, send a draft and then follow up.

One of our pilots just got approved for palace chase--not sure exactly but seems like it took at least 3 months to get final approval.

As for retirement--AFPC site says you need to provide at min 120 days from first day of terminal leave/permissive TDY. The site implies that if you don't, they can't guarantee you orders in time.