Nothing is guaranteed.

If your primary concern is the base you get, you shouldn't be an airline pilot! Bases come and go all the time. No one thought CLT would close. Most people, if they are going to fail, it's going to be in the sim. The sim flies like Microsoft flight sim, as in, place the attitude indicator on a certain point, it will do the same thing every time. If you doubt your sim abilities, go play flight sim for about 10 hours flying ifr, doing maneuvers without the use of autopilot. It really helps. And as others said, not everyone can do this job.

How many people do you guys think are going to get bumped from the bottom of the DFW FO list when they actually close CLT?

Leave
 

I've met pilots who have taken leave for military as well as personal and family health issues, but what about educational or philanthropic stuff? Say, a month for some volunteer trip, or three months for an educational program? In the contract it says that this is at the discretion of the company, but have you ever heard of anyone doing it? I'm interested in three months unpaid leave for an educational thing, and don't want to quit my job. Believe it or not, I like it here!

Let me know how it goes. I want to do the same thing for a year.

Captains I've flown with have mentioned people doing it when I ask, but others say not a chance. Not sure who to believe.

Hard to say. DFW will become Mesa's largest base, as Clt is now. That said, Mesa has hired a LOT of PHX locals in recent months who will likely want to stay there.

What about IAD? Hard to hold out training?

No, it is the most junior base and after training most people have to go there. No one wants to go to IAD hahaha.

No. Just getting fmla is a pain in the ass