I been searching for an answer for a week or so now from AW, reddit, and Google in general. As an E-6 active duty member, what BAH will I receive while during OCS and Flight School? Technically, from what I have read, I will be TDY from my last command to my ultimate command (fleet command). Once at the ultimate command, I will do my claim for my GTCC. This whole process will be a headache already with the GTCC but if I can keep my current BAH the whole time then it would be worth it.
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BAH for priors during flight school
- Thread starter Jacksa71
- Start date
Bill427
Temporary Corpus Christi resident
You'll always get BAH for wherever your dependents are located, and the amount won't change due to OCS, in fact at OCS you'll also get DLA due to separation from your family.. Admin should handle this stuff when you check-in to each command along the way, and each time they'll ask "who's married/kids/prior" and give you some extra stuff to fill out nbd.
BUT you gotta stay on top of admin and verify in MyPay you're actually gained/getting proper BAH for your dependents' actual location- I had both of those issues in P-Cola but annoyed admin til they did their jobs. I'm sure you know how paperwork sometimes gets lost...
Also don't fucking touch your GTCC if you can avoid it, its an absolute nightmare. Just keep all relevant receipts and make travel claims as you go.
source: me. am prior e6. went ocs. have family.
BUT you gotta stay on top of admin and verify in MyPay you're actually gained/getting proper BAH for your dependents' actual location- I had both of those issues in P-Cola but annoyed admin til they did their jobs. I'm sure you know how paperwork sometimes gets lost...
Also don't fucking touch your GTCC if you can avoid it, its an absolute nightmare. Just keep all relevant receipts and make travel claims as you go.
source: me. am prior e6. went ocs. have family.
JoeBob1788
Well-Known Member
You will be TDY to OCS, but PCS to flight school. You’ll get BAH from where your family is for OCS, and then Pensacola as that is your ultimate duty station.
The exact answer I was looking for, Thank you.
At least for PCS reasons, it’s become a requirement for O-4s to use the GTCC.I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s required for everyone down the road. I would highly recommend at least getting a lesson or educating yourself on the rules for using the GTCC, since it’s leagues better than getting a loan for normal expenditures.
I honestly have no idea why DoD insists on the GTCC as opposed to some kind of expense account. You've already obligated the funds when you cut orders. The per diem rates and other entitlements for TAD or PCS don't change. Why do we have to do this credit card bullshit as opposed to just providing documentation and getting reimbursed (or the company paying for the expenses up front) like literally every private business in the fucking country? I get that folks are worried about Sailors blowing through an advance if you give it to them, but if they're that irresponsible, aren't they also the ones getting hammered for going to the boom-boom room on their GTCC already?
Edit: the one time in my career I got a funded interview with Microsoft (spoiler alert: I didn't get the job), I didn't have to file a damn travel claim or use a Microsoft credit card in the process, even though they picked up my hotel room at the Westin in Bellevue. Where I'm sure some NRC Ops drone would have been bitching about how I should have been staying at the Red Lion.
Edit: the one time in my career I got a funded interview with Microsoft (spoiler alert: I didn't get the job), I didn't have to file a damn travel claim or use a Microsoft credit card in the process, even though they picked up my hotel room at the Westin in Bellevue. Where I'm sure some NRC Ops drone would have been bitching about how I should have been staying at the Red Lion.
@nittany03 I don't know if you were around during the initial GTCC rollout back around 2004(?). I was, and I was a squadron PERSO so I got to deal with all of that fun stuff. My impression is it's one of those "good idea, shit execution" deals the Nav is so good at.
The goal was to avoid sailors, especially junior E's, having to absorb large hotel bills on their personal credit when TAD'ed for extended periods of time. Advance per diem sounds good in theory except when orders change and now you're having to claw back cash you already handed out...AM3 Smitty done already spent that in the champagne room, bruh.
So it wasn't the dumbest idea, except then 1) take an already-tottering admin process for claims liquidation and make it even more overworked and less efficient, so that 2) the sailor winds up having to put room charges on his personal cards anyway because his GTCC is maxed out and 3) you can't request to increase the limit or put it in Mission-Critical status until you've maxed it out and the process takes weeks if not months, and by the way, 4) you make the card part of the sailor's credit report anyway. But we want everyone to use the same payment scheme to make it processing easier, so...make GTCC use mandatory!
The goal was to avoid sailors, especially junior E's, having to absorb large hotel bills on their personal credit when TAD'ed for extended periods of time. Advance per diem sounds good in theory except when orders change and now you're having to claw back cash you already handed out...AM3 Smitty done already spent that in the champagne room, bruh.
So it wasn't the dumbest idea, except then 1) take an already-tottering admin process for claims liquidation and make it even more overworked and less efficient, so that 2) the sailor winds up having to put room charges on his personal cards anyway because his GTCC is maxed out and 3) you can't request to increase the limit or put it in Mission-Critical status until you've maxed it out and the process takes weeks if not months, and by the way, 4) you make the card part of the sailor's credit report anyway. But we want everyone to use the same payment scheme to make it processing easier, so...make GTCC use mandatory!
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You are supposed to go into a mission critical status when traveling which should reduce the pain in the ass of having a non closed balance in the short term.
A major part of the problem is that it takes so god damn long to get reimbursed and they make you jump through 99 hoops to get even the simplest of checks in the mail. Every non deployment voucher I’ve submitted has taken far too long and I’ve been challenged weeks after submitting asking about benign things.
You are supposed to go into a mission critical status when traveling which should reduce the pain in the ass of having a non closed balance in the short term.
I’d have to double check the JTR but I’m pretty sure it’s required for everyone to use during PCS.
That said, I’ve had a GTCC approaching 20 years and the only thing I use it for is plane tickets booked inside DTS. Everything else is on my personal card and I’ve never heard a peep from admin (and now finance).
Exactly. What are they going to do, kick you out? I did the same thing my entire time, although I'd occassionally get a "Tsk, tsk" from one of the Wing admin ladies I worked across the hall from, but she totally understood why I didn't want to use it and would promptly liquidate my claim.
Yeah, good luck with that in SELRES land. Thou shalt use the GTCC for everything you put on your travel claim or Big NRC will threaten to not pay. It's never been worth challenging them on.
They can threaten but they have to pay. It’s an obligation they have to zero out otherwise it’s a failure on their audits.
The work around is to send the entire voucher payment to your GTCC. DTS doesn’t verify you actually use your GTCC, it just verifies where the payment is going (you choose Gov CC or personal for each expense). Once it’s paid out you then request a refund of the overage from Citi, which takes 3-5 days to hit your bank account.
How else is that IS2 with bad credit going to afford trips to the strip club and casino?
WhiskeyWarhead
Member
Such a big help, thank you! Going from E6 AF to USN OCS in feb and trying to figure out how thats going to work. Thats without even mention my wife is Air National Guard on active orders.... Going to be a weird problem to solve.