I put down the availability date based on the earliest I could retire minus PTDY and Leave as mentioned above (1 May). Then once I had two interviews in Jan (but no definite class dates), I would send AFPC a retirement eligibility request every month for a late summer/early fall retirement and never execute it (it would expire after 2 weeks). That way I was prepared to submit official retirement paperwork at a moments notice without having to wait for AFPC to review my eligibility. Despite these efforts, I still guessed a month off (requested 1 Oct retirement with earliest available of 20 June and got the call for a 2 June class a few weeks after submitting my official request). I then submitted a request to change my retirement to 1 Sep and it only took about 10 days to get that approved from AFPC. I attended indoc using normal leave, returned on a Friday and signed out on terminal leave and ended up selling about 15 days of leave back. I finish my airline sim course on Monday and will have my retirement ceremony next week--using mil leave from airline to guarantee 3 days off. Then I sit reserve in Aug and should hold a line in Sept. Summer has been a blur but can't complain with 3 months of double dipping.