Originally Posted by tennisguru

You can break your initial new hire 2 year seat lock after 1 year under 3 circumstances:

1. If as you mentioned a new category opens (you might be able to do this in under a year as well, not sure)
2. You can change fleets if the base you want to bid to does not have your fleet based there (You're NYC 220, and want ATL, you can bid anything in ATL after 1 year)
3. You can change fleets even if your new base offers your current fleet but you don't have the seniority to hold your fleet. So if you're NYC7ER and you want SEA, but you can't hold SEA7ER, you can be awarded SEA73N or 220.