I'm retired from ASA (aka as ExpressJet) and I commuted out of BHM. Never had a problem but the flights are full most of the time, especially the morning flights. You can always try for the JS. I've had courteous DAL pilots take the FA JS so that I could take the cockpit JS. Delta pilots out of BHM great guys, so return the favor some day. From BHM the drive is just 2 hours so use that for a backup if you can't get on.

Schedules change constantly but when there are XJT flights so you can reserve the JS.

Can't say enough about the helpful gate agents in BHM either. Great folks and they try their best to get you on. Good luck! Oh yeah, btw commuting sucks.