The other thing to note is that we get 2 weeks leave in summer and winter and a weeks Duty Free each season (to make up for Bank holidays). You can opt to work in the DFW. Most people can get therefore a week off every other month. What you used to be able to do easily, but can sometimes be achieved, is to make the week off bigger by bidding appropriately.
We can still sector swap on trips to make your's shorter or longer and this is a computer transaction that will happen if legal.
I used to think that a full line was about 15/16/17 days of work and about 12 nights away on the 777. And at the moment we have about 52 destinations.