Originally Posted by flydiamond

Reserve versus line holder honestly doesn't matter much for QOL especially in a small base not in FL. You may have a bit of a shorter leash but you'll prob work a whole lot less (which may be good being 1 hour away) and make just a little less, especially on 1st year pay. Time to line is unpredictable, depends how many people quit, if more aircraft make their way into the base, and if the senior FOs bid reserve. For November the #1 FO bid reserve. I'd be more concerned about the potential for involv TDY as the plug but I don't think it's too common out of ABE.

As far as time to get the base, zero spots in ABE were offered to the October 31st class. There is one ABE FO vacancy on the current vacancy whose results will be used for both the Nov 21 and Dec 5th class. I see that one spot possibly making its way to new hires, but very high chance that if it does, someone in the Nov 21 class or senior to you in the Dec 5th class gets it, in which case it will be about 2-4 months *minimum* post training for you to get your base. What if 4 people in the Nov 21 class want ABE? It's definitely playing Russian roulette...you could end up waiting 6 or 12 months. Thats how long some guys have been having to wait for IND, or TYS, or AUS, which all used to be junior bases. There are currently no training delays whatsoever, so with future vacancies running several months out you *will* commute if you don't instantly get your base, and it will be very rough especially since much of the commute time will be over spring break and summer when reserves often only get 10 days off. Run a hypothetical commute to BLI, which 3 pilots are faced with in the near future looking at the seniority list.

For reference, only 1 of 13 new hires in the last class got their base of choice (ATW) out the gate. I can't think of a time it's ever been that low. This statistic should be very concerning to anyone reading.