Flying Space A
Space A or Space Available is an available seat on board a mission bound military flight. It is a privilege given to all active duty, their dependents and retired military members once the duty passengers and cargo have been accommodated.
The Categories that determine your order of selection for Space A flights are:
Category 1 Emergency leave
Category 2 Environmental Morale Leave (EML)
Category 3 Ordinary leave
Category 4 Unaccompanied dependents on EML
Category 5 Permissive Temporary Duty and students
Category 6 Retirees
I am only going to talk about being a Category 3 as that is all I have experienced so far as a family of 5.
I am not an expert on Space A flying but we have successfully utilized this privilege for two amazing vacations. The first one was when we lived in Florida; we drove to Charleston, parked our car in long-term parking, flew to Dover Delaware, took a 2 hr taxi to McGuire AFB New Jersey and flew into Shannon Ireland where we spent two weeks vacation. We then commercial flew to Frankfurt Germany where we took a shuttle to Rammstein and spent three days in Rammstein before flying back to Charleston.
The second vacation was from Joint Base Lewis McChord Washington to Hickman Hawaii where we spent 5 days then flew to Anderson Guam where we spent two weeks before flying back to Hawaii waiting two days to catch our flight to Fairchild Washington. We had to overnight Greyhound bus it back to Seattle and get a city bus and a taxi back to McChord to where our car was parked!!
When flying Space A you must have a different mentality than when you just book a regular vacation. Flying Space A requires that you have oodles of patience and flexibility, because it never works out how you think it will and that is what it’s all about. It is not about getting to the destination it is about the experiences along the journey to the destination.
The Golden Rule of Space A is to have the funds available to get your family home on a commercial flight if you are unable to fly home via Space A. If you have the funds then you can use some of those funds to offset the cost of hotels, taxis and rental cars which are inevitable once you are on the adventure.
So how does Space A work?
You need to familiarize yourself with all things Space A – this blog is a basic overview of the whole thing but reading about it and seeing the questions from other Space A’ers will better help you in understanding all the ins and outs of Space A that I don’t cover here.
I recommend you liking ‘Space A Travelers of USA – Forum for DOD qualified’ FB page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/325711150854371/
You need to read as much as you can under the ‘pinned post’ on the the above Facebook page. It explains everything and I found it immensely helpful.
In one of the posts there is a link to a map of all the airports that have Space A flights flying out of them.
What is your closest terminal?
You then have to go to all the Facebook pages of those airports – passenger terminals – and like them and follow their flights schedule. For this blog I will use our local Joint Base Lewis-McChord Passenger Terminal. You can type in the name of the terminal and “Passenger” or ‘AMC’ and it will most likely find it.
https://www.facebook.com/mcchordpt/
Most terminals only post flights up to 72 hours in advance so you can monitor the flights and see patterns, frequently, number of seats, destinations.
There are a few terminals that post their schedule a few weeks out, but those are few and far between. There are also Patriot Express flights. Patriot Express flights are government contracted commercial flights with a set schedule and set seat number posted monthly.
The 72 Hour Flight Schedule will show the roll call time, the destination, and the number of seats available for all flights in the next 72 hours.
Seats numbers are: F firm, T tentative, SP seats pending or TBD to be determined.
All this information is subject to change at anytime! And we mean at ANY TIME. We went to bed with a flight on the schedule and woke up and it was gone….. plan B kicked into effect.
The 24 Hour Roll Call shows you all the information regarding all the flights that recently took off.
The date, the destination, the number of seats released, the number of seats taken, lowest category accepted, how many passengers competed. This information is great when planning your space a fight.
So you have followed the pages and you have decided to give Space A a shot……. What is the next step?
It’s very simply!!! As soon as the Active Duty goes on leave they submit an email to all the AMC terminals to let them know that they will be utilizing the terminal at some point in the next 60 days. This is most easily done with the ‘Take-A-Hop’ App. You will need to keep a copy of your email as this is your SIGN UP DATE and this becomes very important once you start competing for flights which I will explain later!
If you have any dependents 10 or older they will need a dependent ID
If you are traveling abroad all travelers will need a current passport.
The Active Duty member will need a copy of their signed leave paperwork with their end of leave date included.
Now you head to the terminal, about an hour before the Roll Call time that is stated on the 72 hour flight schedule for the flight that you want to compete for. You have all the paperwork, all ID’s, all passports ready. You have your bags packed. I believe the limit is 1 70 lb bag per person but some flights have weight restrictions that they will state on their schedule.
Carry on’s are a regular carry on size. They abide by the same restrictions as regular flights, no liquids, lithium batteries, firearms. Carry on’s are sometimes weighed too. You don’t want to lose out on a flight because your luggage is overweight so I would pack very light as you will also have to transport your own luggage around from terminal to taxis to hotels to shuttles.
Luggage with wheels are a great investment!
We had 3 suitcases and all of us had our own backpacks with our blankets, inflight entertainment & snacks!
Now you simply go to the desk and mark yourself ‘Present’. They will check that all the paperwork is correct and then you wait, you watch everybody coming and going, putting their names down on the present list and you try to figure out if they are retirees, if they are category four, category two – you basically play the mind game! Well that’s what I do, it keeps me occupied!!
When the Roll Call time comes around and the terminal staff tabulate all the information from all the ‘Marked Present’ passengers and release a list in order of category 1-6, each category is in order of sign up date. They just go down the list offering a seat to those whose names are first on the list until all seats are filled. You either get a seat or you don’t, it’s that simple.
What you need to know after you get accepted for a flight?
Congratulations you have been accepted on a Space A flight to your dream destination! Once you are selected you have a seat all the way to the destination on the schedule. If you choose at check in to only go part way and get off the plane then your seat becomes available at that location. That is why the availability of seats is tentative until the flight takes off and they know how many through passengers they have and how many seats will open up!
You will be asked if you want to buy a boxed lunch for $5.75 – say yes! It’s worth is as it comes with all kinds of goodies!! They also have water onboard and most times a snack.
You will have about 1-2 hours wait after you’ve gone through security before you board the plane. I would use this time to call ahead and try book a hotel or rental car. It’s really nice knowing you have a place to stay once you land as opposed to try and figure it out once you get there.
We enjoyed visiting with lots of fellow Space A travelers and picking their brain about their experiences and recommendations. It was invaluable information that we will take with us on our next adventure.
Knowing a little bit about the terminal and it’s surrounding area before you land is key. For example – do they have taxis, do they have car rentals on base, can you walk to lodging, are there shuttles? Most of this information can be found on the free ‘Take-A-Hop’ App, the AMC Passenger Terminal Facebook page, or sometimes pamphlets at each terminal. I would highly recommend you familiarize yourself with your destination area if you haven’t been there before. Having the number of a taxi that has base access is also really important. Most terminals have pamphlets with that information for their location as well as the terminals they fly to.
Almost all Space A flights are extremely cold so pack blankets and hoodies. It is mandatory that all passengers wear closed toed shoes. Some seasoned Space A flyers bring air mattresses or sleeping pads because some flights have space for you to lay down on the floor of the cargo hold! They provide earplugs because it is extremely loud, but if you have better ones bring them.
The crews have always been great, even inviting the kids up into the cockpit or down to where the boom operator lies so they get to experience what it is like to be part of the crew.
What you need to know once you land?
Depending on how long you want to spend in that area you may want to keep an eye on the flights leaving if you want to further your adventure. Remember you have a 72 hour heads up on flights on their Flight Schedule.
The time that you land is also quite important. Because if you land in the middle of the night there may not be local transportation available, The terminal may close as soon as the last passengers are off the flight. Arrangements should be made before you take off if possible.
If you’ve had a great time and now you are ready to head home or on to a different location you need to be smart about the likelihood of being accepted onto the next flight. For example, you may not want to check out of your hotel room until you’ve been accepted for the flight and then it’s just a quick phone call to the hotel to say that you’ve checked out. You may not want to return your rental car keys until you’ve been accepted because you may need the rental car to drive in for a few more hours until the next flight or even sleep in if you can’t find a hotel which I know passengers have done!
Now you’re back at the terminal competing for your flight. This time you have a longer time since your original sign-up date this gives you a higher priority within your category. Basically the longer you are on vacation the more likely it is you catch a flight home!!
One of the big issues we came across was we were a family of five needing five seats, we were offered three seats on a flight and two on the next one, we had to decline both. Then all the other families lower in the category also declined the seats as they too needed more than three seats. That’s when the category four, five and six are approached and sometimes category six gets accepted because they need just one or two seats. So on the 24 hour Roll Call report it will show that the flight accepted category six even though lots of category threes had to decline the seats. That Roll Call information is slightly misleading in your preparation.
So there you have it, lots of information on Space A flying. Now you just need to go and try it, the world is waiting!
Please comment with any further input you may have or any questions I didn’t answer!
L