Originally Posted by
twind
Great discussion on base and reserve strategy. I have learned a lot. One last question would be if while on reserve you live a 2-3 hours hours away, how many actual days per month are you on duty so you have to stick close by, and how many days off.? Just approximately. I live 200 miles from several bases, but in one base have family and friends that might let me turn a room into crash pad ??
You are given 11 days off on reserve... there are various ways to game the system to increase that or steal days during the blend. Suffice it to say that you are only going to have 11-12 days off while on reserve and not much more than that for Rd 2. You also don't have much schedule flexibility on either; some would argue that reserve give more flexibility, and depending on your situation reserve can be better than Rd 2. Shacking up with friends will save you crashpad rent which is somewhere in the 200-300 range. With the exception of that -- being equidistant from bases I would bid the most junior and take the benefits of relative seniority.
Obviously I'm a bid for seniority type, different people have different priorities. That's the cool thing about PSA's system; if you don't like it change your bid and a few months later your new wish comes true -- as long as you are senior enough to hold it.