Don't sell it back. You'll get more if you just use the leave and get paid by Uncle Sugar while in training. If you sell it back, IIRC you lose allowances, BAQ and flight pay for those days.

Not always true. If you have a hard exit date, but no follow-on job to double dip, you may be better of working then selling the leave instead of sitting at home for the same pay and not selling it back.

Any guesses if the new AE will impact new hire assignments for next weeks class? I saw they have 30 NYC 717 vacancies. Wondering if they will drop a bunch on the next class (or will they wait until after the AE bid closes)?

Don't quote me, but pretty sure they have to wait for the bid to close. In other words, if a current seniority list pilot wants it, they have to be able to bid for it, then unbid slots can go to future new hires.

Any idea which NYC airport will see the majority of the 717 pairings? I assume LGA? Although I've seen EWR-ATL is exclusively 717 presently. Could that be a way to flow NYC 717 crews into the ATL system?

Scooter E6...first off, congrats on maxing out every last day possible to have such a long terminal leave. I'm sure it's been difficult not being able to take leave for over a year. I've been doing the same thing, but my retirement date falls on 1 Jun 15, so the most days that I can get is 115, leading to a terminal start day of 6 Feb 15. I do have a question regarding this though. Do you have to set a terminal start date with AFPC and/or your commander? Or can you just work past your planned terminal start date if you don't have a class yet, and then sell back what you don't use?

LGA sounds about right. The 717 is a perfect fit for the BOS shuttle

The only date you set with AFPC is retirement, and it is fairly set in stone. When you start leave is completely between you and your commander and can change as often as he will allow.

True on leave. But you can put in for retirement changes. It's pretty painless. Not saying it'll get approved, but you can put it in.

Wollac,
Depending on your unit and command, they have a lot of flexibility. I have known guys to take an even earlier class date, in your case you put 6 Feb 15 as an availability date. Say you accepted a class date with an airline for 6 Jan 15. You could take permissive LV first (cause you can't sell permissive) go to airline class on a combo of permissive and personal. Finish your class and if you have 7 days between class and IOE, go work a few days at your unit. Then when you start flying airline trips, work a day or two here or there at your unit, just to make your leave zero out by your retirement date (it helps to work a Friday or a Monday and save a weekend of leave (one day of work for 3 days of leave saved)). If you have days left, you could STILL sell a few back at the end. It all depends on your squadrons flexibility. If you gave 20 years of your life, I think your Sqd CC could help a brother out!

Then you just double dipped for almost 6 months! Could be a life saver on year one pay.

Cheers,
Humboldt