You've given me some great ideas to consider!! Thank you!

 

But also keep in mind that depending on your squadron and CC you may not get to take all that leave. I've seen many guys limited to 60 days or so based on unit manning. You stay on their books until you actually retire, so sometimes they can't even ask for a replacement until you are off the books. Some units (and jealous CCs) also hassle people about the permissive TDY.

 

Couple of more.

I retire from AF on 1 Sep and went to indoc on 2 June. Starting last Fall, I requested a retirement eligibility check from AFPC every 3-4 weeks since it takes them 2 weeks to respond yes and then you have about 2 weeks to request that date officially or it expires. I did this while I interviewed and waited for a class date (Jan-March) so that I could always put in for immediate retirement on my terms if a last minute deployment dropped. Finally in mid March I picked 1 Oct as my retirement date hoping for a July Delta class and finalized the retirement request and got my retirement orders. When Delta offered me a June class in late April, I asked AFPC to change my date to 1 Sep and it took about 10 days to get that changed/approved. Only hold up was commander had to submit in writing that he understood he would not get a backfill for approving my earlier retirement.

Depending on your rank/years of service, don't assume that selling back your leave is a bad deal. If you add your retired pay for the month to the sell back amount many times it's close to a wash. In my case if you added housing and flight pay together it was pretty much the same but you also have to consider the tax implications because your BAH is not taxed (but your retirement and leave will be).

Also, if you do the JAG brief, they will brief that you cannot use permissive TDY to start a new job. Not sure anyone would call you on this but something to think about. I went to indoc on normal leave to avoid this and signed out of the AF the day after I finished. I also had to sell back some of my leave.

AFPC site says they want min of 120 days from day of request until you sign out (start terminal or permissive) but I gave them less than 90 on the first request and about 40 days on the change to 1 Sep and never got any push back.

Having your commander on board is key to having this type of flexibility.

Overall--there are angles to be worked if you do your homework and have leadership buy in.

 

Being hassled about 2 or 3 weeks of leave over a 20 year career is EXACTLY why people want to bail. CC's that don't have the big picture will/should fail. The few good CC's I have known will make it happen FOR YOU. Take care of your people first, metrics be damned.

 

First, congrats to all the new/recent hires! I've seen a lot of discussion concerning military terminal leave and beginning work. Just so no one gets in trouble, you can double dip and work at another job while on terminal leave. However, this terminal leave start date does not and cannot include the usually granted permissive TDY and house hunting days just prior to the beginning of terminal leave. Once again congrats and welcome.

 

On permissive TDY I took the family on a (job search) vacation to Europe and the Med (to look for jobs of course). I didn't find a job. Don't get too wrapped around the axle.

 

Last year I discussed with my Skipper my plan and he supported the late July terminal date with the 1 Dec 14 retirement. With AD Navy it is not a guarantee that the Navy Personal Command will "fill" your position prior to your actual retirement, never mind your proposed terminal date. My relief is now onboard and I am excess .... I'll stay past my proposed terminal date and keep current. As Humbolt described I know a few guys that worked his program, all depends on your CoC and how bad they need you... as we all know there is a "business" to run and terminal LV is not a requirement; more of a luxury...may set your self up for a few bumps depending on your Boss.

 

For those currently on the line, if you had a choice between a 737 or 717 based in ATL as a new hire, what would you choose and why? The pay is better on the 737 the 2d year, but would a new hire be sitting reserve on the 737 substantially longer than if they were on the 717? Which would have better QOL?

 

For what it's worth, I very recently heard that guys on the 717 were holding a line after 4 months. YMMV

 

You'll sit on reserve on the 737 for a long time because its reserve staffing is around 18 or 19 percent and the fleet is growing. I think youll see senior folks bid over to it, remember the 737-900 is replacing the 757-200 so there will be some shuffling going on. The reserve staffing on the 717 is an alarming 3 percent, so you actually may get a line immediately out of training. Its such a shortstaffed category and they're still getting 30 or so more of these delivered for a total of 88. Youll fly much better trips on the 737, but you will also have a lot of 4 leg days regardless of which narrowbody fleet you go to. They just annound a new NYC 717 base a couple days ago which is a great move for the network options feeding NY.