It definitely depends on how long you believe you will be downgraded. If you live in base and never call in sick you can recoup your 300 hours of PTO in about 4 years.

The other part of the equation is if you are already sitting on 300+ hours you will be forced to start selling back in about 2.5 years.

so again if you think you will be downgraded more than 2.5 years you should sell.