Overseas Journeys

[helo_wifey]

If a person were stationed overseas and brought his/her family with them, how easy is it to fly the family back to visit relatives? I've read that military can hitch rides in aircrafts on a space available basis. Does that cost anything? And how easy is it to catch one of those rides? Anyone have experiences similar to this sort of situation?

Being in Japan my husband has had only 2 real opportunities for taking leave since we've been here and that's at Christmas. He's been able to take a few days here or there for long weekends but he's either out or busy here at home and just can't get the time. That's something to think about.

It's easy to fly your family back to the States, there are travel agencies on/around base that offer deals for ID card holders. I've flow to FL twice from Tokyo, once for $500 and another for $800. There's always deals going around.

Space-A out here is really only good for dependents because most active duty in squadrons only get 2 weeks at holiday time (obviously this changes from squadron to squadron and there are also exceptions) which isn't enough time due to the ever changing nature of Space-A (as others have said).

The good news is dependents get 2 times a year that they can "upgrade" their category without the sponsor being present, called EML.

I've flown Space-A within Japan, but it's easy for me because I have no children and I only take 1 day pack for luggage. I've never missed a seat on a flight.

That Space-A website is good, another one is: Dirk Pepperd's Space-A Board

But I've probably given you waaay too much info now.

 

[Gatordev]

Country clearances are for official travel only. DOD Foreign Clearance Guide www.fcg.pentagon.mil (might require a .mil address to connect).

I don't remember the details, but there was some sort of NAVADMIN/message/something that stated if you're going to certain less than friendly countries (I know PI was one of them, but also could have been Indonesia), a clearance message had to be sent out, even if going on leave. I had an AMCS and an AD3 that worked for me and both had the message drafted when they went to the PI on leave to visit family.

It might have been a theater specific thing (PACOM/COMPACFLT/whatever), but it was required at the time.

 

[Dirty]

I'm curious about this point. If you are on active duty and go on leave, do you need to request permission to travel OCONUS? For example, if you wanted to take a week and travel to Thailand, you would need to receive CoC approval? Is this ever denied?

I've been on active duty before, but never traveled OCONUS during that time other then on official orders, so I haven't dealt with this before.

Thanks for any clarification anyone can provide.

Recommend Pattaya...Nowhere else on earth can you have a barber shop, watch midgets kickbox each other, drink Tiger beer and play connect 4 with, ahem, the waitresses... All in the same bar! and stay at the Hard Rock or Marriott..

 

[SnipeDude]

Another thing to ponder is how many days of leave you want to burn. Will this put you in the hole? Unless your a prior I doubt many Ensigns will have enough leave on the books to accommodate such a trip. This is assuming priors E's can even transfer our accumulated leave to the Officer ranks for I've never researched it.

Yes, your leave does transfer over but you cannot sell it back.

 

[Air Squire]

But I've probably given you waaay too much info now.

No way. You can never have too much to learn. Only too little of time to learn it. And that's not the case right now. Thank you for your insight.

 

[ea6bflyr]

Check out this site: http://spacea.info/index2.html

My family and I have traveled via Space A multiple times. All I have to say is keep your patience.

We've flown from Hawaii to CONUS and also to Australia. We traveled from Dover Delaware to Germany and then on to London and then back to CONUS. What a great time (and CHEAP). I've also flown from San Diego to Whidbey and Alameda (back in the day) to San Diego. Good luck.

-ea6bflyr