Originally Posted by gloopy

I'd go for whatever gives you the best QOL the fastest as well as gets you based (in anything) where you want to be based.

I'd rank international flying because you have family over seas absolute, dead last. Not even on the chart.

Over all QOL is far more important. Unless your family is in CDG or AMS (or maybe LHR) it will be a very, very, very long time before you're senior enough to regularly fly to see them on a layover, the vast majority of which are 24 hours with 2 sleep cycles etc. Its far better to get more days off and more control of your schedule and go to visit them on your days off.

To put it in perspective, if you can get a halfway decent narrowbody line with 16-17 days a month off, that's 30-50 more days a year off than a bottom international reserve schedule.

YMMV