Commuting to reserve might be 21 days away from home if you can't hold long call. Being senior FO in base will give you way more time at home. And I truly respect your intent to not work extra with people furloughed, otherwise it would be pretty easy to match commuting reserve Captain pay as a senior in base FO. My plan B was regional DEC, so looked at that, and they offered 1 for 1 years of 121 experience, and even some for 135, so like you said you would not start at the bottom for pay. I would be very reluctant to commute for those jobs though, with 11 days off a month. UAL upgrade is in the air, and it's a brutal pay cut for the first 2 years, but for me being in base, I expect almost the same take home including 401k and some profit sharing by year 3, based on the same amount of hours away from home compared to 12 year commuting Captain pay at NK. Your DUI is not impossible to get past, flew with a new hire Captain who had one, was in HIMS. But you definitely need to be able to explain it. Good luck.