Adler and FDXLAG, thank you, that definitely helps me understand your system better, though to be honest, I don't think I correctly posed the question that I was curious about based on your responses involving pay/compensation/required lay-over rest for this system, etc. (though it's definitely interesting intel).

What I should have asked was: Do the scheduled dh's affect the number of scheduled days off per month compared to a guy who doesn't have to do any commuting at all?

If you have to be in position 8-12 hours or whatever prior to your operating leg, my reading of this is that you are losing days off/time off at home just the same as a typical pax carrier guy would who is commuting in for his trip, but the upside with the FX system is that you're not sweating it out hoping for a free seat on board your commuting flight.

Am I in the ballpark now?

I've been in the airline biz for about a decade now, but I've only just started flying for the airlines, and I live in base, so the in's and out's of commuting in general are purely academic to me. I swear I'm not actually mildly retarded. Thanks for indulging my curiosity.