I'm a Delta new hire, starting indoc on Jan 7th. My background is all military, so I don't understand most of the airline world yet. I'm trying to figure out how I'll bid at indoc (if there's a choice) or on the Feb AE I keep seeing in posts.

As I read all these threads I see a lot of "reserve sucks" -type comments. I'm trying to understand the whole story of why. I'm sure someone out there is having a coronary right now because it should be obvious, but it's not to me.

I'm an AF reservist and will live near that job, so I'll be a commuter. Is being away from home on reserve and flying irregularly much worse than being away from home and holding less-than-ideal, low-seniority lines? When you factor in the pay scales and the possible cooler trip factor of the bigger jets, sitting reserve for a while doesn't seem that heinous (except the sitting around the crashpad part).

Where am I wrong?