What is Space-A Traveling?
The Space-A Travel Program allows uniformed service members, veterans and dependents the opportunity to travel on DoD aircraft seats that are surplus after all space-required seats have been taken for the mission. The flights normally are free and leave from the AMC passenger terminal at Air Force Bases around the country and abroad. Seats are limited and are competed for based on the individual’s Category and sign-up date (the earlier the better, no earlier than 60 days prior to travel date).
Categories (CATS):
CAT I: Emergency Leave Unfunded Travel
CAT II: EML (Active Duty and their accompanied dependents)
CAT III: Active Duty Ordinary Leave and accompanied dependents,, House Hunting Permissive TDY, Medal of Honor Holders, dependents of deployed service members whose sponsor is deployed 365 consecutive days or more (selected behind active duty members regardless of date/time of sign up)
CAT IV: Unaccompanied Dependents on EML or dependents whose sponsor is deployed between (and including) 120 to 364 consecutive days and DoDDS Teachers on EML During Summer
CAT V: Unaccompanied Command Sponsored and Non-Command Sponsored Dependents of Active Duty, Permissive TDY (Non house Hunting), Students
CAT VI: Retired and their accompanied Dependents, Reserve, ROTC, NUPOC, and CEC
How to get on a flight:
Determine which base you need to fly from on each end of your trip.
Sign up at EACH location where you plan to compete for seats, through email, fax or in person. Depending on your category and reasons for traveling Space-A you’ll need to provide different info. Spacea.net explains more here. Once you are added to their register, it is valid only for the next 60 days. Sometimes they get so many emails your sign-up email may bounce, so be sure to check by phone or in person to make sure they got it.
"Like" and monitor the AMC Terminal’s Facebook page where they daily post the 72 Hour flight schedule. Look for trends, to get an idea of IF and WHEN you might be able to get the flight you want. It’s frustrating you can’t plan ahead, but this is for security reasons and people have to be ready to jump when their destination comes up.
NOTE: Not all flights go direct to the listed destination! The order listed on the facebook schedule is not necessarily the destination order. For example, Guam has quite a few flights to Pearl Harbor, but they normally go to Japan first. When that flight lands in Japan it’ll be about another day before it flies again, and if there is ANYONE at a higher category, you WILL be bumped and get stuck there and possibly have to wait days or weeks more to actually make it to your destination! The competition is fierce, and there simply isn’t room for the lower categories most of the time.
72 Hour Schedule CHANGES: It can and will change without any notice at any time for ANY reason - more cargo being loaded taking up all the seats, mission changes, weather, you name it, anything, even after roll call sometimes!
Mark Yourself Present: When you see the flight you want on the 72 hour schedule, you have a 24 hr window in which to mark yourself present for the flight. There is no benefit to marking yourself present earlier, so it is most efficient to go to the front desk and mark yourself present about 40-60 minutes before the Roll Call time listed on the facebook 72 hour schedule. Be TRAVEL READY with all your stuff ready to go. Wear close-toed shoes and layers, bring your military ID and passport (optional but helpful), make sure your car is parked in the long-term parking area, and be ready.
Roll Call: There will be a screen listing everyone marked present in order by Category, then by sign up date. The people with the earliest sign-up date have highest priority. If your name is lower than the allotted number of seats available, you didn't make it on the flight.
NOTE: The Roll Call list doesn’t include the dependents for each person marked present, but they still take up seats. I once tried to get on a flight with 10 seats available, and a CAT 2 guy had 8 kids traveling with him. gahh!!
You either made it or you didn’t, either jumping up and down for your new free flight, or sulking in a pool of despair at yet another failed attempt … for lower category people it’s the latter. If you made it on you will go through the tiny security line, check your baggage (70 lbs allowed), then wait about 1 more hour for them call you.
Tips:
Spacea.net has a lot of good information so check that out. I found it to cause a bit of information overload, so I boiled things down here. Also definitely talk with the people at the terminal (even if they’re a little rude/rushed) you need answers so go and get 'em!
Be prepared to pay for a flight at any point on your trip, along with the costs of extending your hotel room, and other travel fees. If you’re a lower category and there is a higher demand, it could take you weeks to get the flight you need, so just be prepared to not have to depend on them.
- Don’t Space-A during peak travel seasons: end of March - July, Holidays, etc. Risking the hassle of getting stuck somewhere behind a huge list of people also trying to Space-A is just not worth it.
- The fact is, Space-A flights are intended for active duty service members. Dependents and veterans have the opportunity to get on, but since demand is so high and seats are often limited, the chance of a lower Category (4-6) person getting on the flight they want is relatively low. Don't get too disappointed if you don't make it, and be prepared to wait.
What the Flight is Like:
Cold: Wear long pants and bring layers. You can always use a layer as a neck pillow or cushion.
REALLY Loud: They provide ear plugs that help, but it’s still really loud and you can’t hold a conversation with the person next to you (unless yelling into their ear and using sign language.)
Cramped (depending on the aircraft): Most aircrafts have jumpseats (netting hanging from a pole, so you can’t really sit up straight or lie back, you just kind of hunch into the seat (lol). Once the flight is up people can move around and lie on the floor though, some people even bring sleeping bags!
No passenger windows, dim.
They also provide the option to purchase a box lunch (at most locations) and have a free cooler of water on board, but I would advise bringing your own healthy food (carrot sticks, cucumbers, quinoa berry bars, etc), especially if it’s a longer flight.
- Basically, pretend you are a crate for 8 hours, and be grateful they let you on!! :D
My First Space-A Travel Experience!
On certain navy deployments, a spouse can potentially visit their sailor while he/she is on liberty at a port, or take off leave time at an allowed port. My husband knew he would be in port at Guam Naval Base for 2 consecutive weekends, and asked me to travel out to visit him. I work virtually so I could still work during the week, and with getting a Space-A flight we were hoping to keep the costs low. He requested leave for Thursday, allowing us to have a 3.5 day weekend (ship pulled in later). Guam is one day ahead of the rest of America, so if I left on Tuesday I would arrive on Wednesday. I was monitoring the AMC Terminal flights, and while they usually have Guam flights each day, they were pretty hit or miss that week. On Sunday the 72 hours were posted for the week, and it showed 3 Guam flights on Monday, none on Tuesday, and about 1 on Wednesday. I decided to shoot for the earliest Monday flight (6am) and hopefully get on one of them. The terminal that morning was REALLY crowded, but thankfully I found some other wives from the ship who were also traveling out for the weekend so I sat with them. There were only about 6 seats released for the 6am flight, and I didn’t make it on. There were 30 seats released for the 7am flight, and by the grace of God I got the very last seat on the list!! There was one woman in front of me who didn’t show up at the roll call, and another who was bringing 2 kids so she would need 3 seats, and there was only 1 left. Looking back I was extremely lucky that I got on that flight!!
When we finally arrived in Andersen AFB Guam, I got a rental car through National at the terminal, then headed over to Andersen AFB Inn to try and get a room for that Tuesday and Wednesday night before driving to the Navy base to meet hubs. They only take Space-A walk-ins, and thankfully I was given a cheap room in the barracks basically, with a shared bathroom (tiny shower), and almost non-existent air conditioning (Guam is ridiculously hot and humid - it was rough). The Navy Gateway Inn & Suites was 10 MILLION TIMES BETTER than the Andersen Inn!! For only $20 more a night we got a living room area, kitchenette with an oven and separate bedroom!!! I even made fresh sweet potato fries and could cook that whole week!
Fast forward through a wonderful week re-connecting with husband…
We were monitoring the 72-hr schedule for the Andersen AMC Terminal, hoping I could get a direct flight (NOT going to Japan first) on Monday. There were none scheduled for Monday, and one scheduled Sunday at 8:45pm. The rental car place closes at 6pm so I would have to drive up early to return the car in time. We cut our time short on Sunday, I dropped him off at the ship, then drove the hour drive by myself to the air force base. I got to the AMC counter just grateful I didn’t get lost on the way (no cell phone service or gps in Guam! ;P ) and the guy said the flight “zeroed out”, meaning more cargo came in allowing zero passenger seats, and he posted it 50 minutes ago. I was stunned!! I’m already emotional from leaving my husband again, and counting SO desperately on this flight to work out, thinking there’s not that many people in Guam anyway, and just like that it slips through my fingers and I’m stranded by myself with all my luggage in this dingy, muggy, sad air force base. I decide to extend the rental car so I can still drive to get a hotel room (spending more money each day AHH! D; ), get a hotel room for the night, and aim for the next soonest flight, 11:40am on Tuesday.
Tuesday slowly rolls around, I mark myself present the day before just in case, show up within an hour, and the 11:40am flight is CANCELLED. The only other one is going through Japan that day, but I know better than to go for that when they suggest it since that’s a sure way to get stuck there. I am already SO sick of being in Guam on this dingy base just waiting to leave. I decide to shoot for the next flight, Wednesday at 5:40am. My parents are visiting for the weekend, so I really can’t be spending the whole week here, and so far EVERYTHING posted on the facebook schedule is “zeroing out”, getting cancelled or falling through. I return the rental car on Tuesday, and contact the MWR ITT ticket office for discounts or rates on a commercial flight, as a backup plan in case the Wednesday flight doesn’t work out. The prices are really expensive, but at this point I am just desperate to leave Guam.
Wednesday at 3:30am I wake up, check for the hundredth time that the 5:40am flight is still on the schedule, pack up, then haul all my stuff about a mile from the barracks to the terminal in the dark warm moistness that is Guam (yuck!) The terminal is packed, and I just hope all these people are here for a different flight! I wait in line at the front desk again to make sure I’m marked present on their list, and they say I’m #11, and there are only 10 seats available. STATE OF SHOCK again! I had been praying so desperately to get on, and this was my last shot! I didn’t want to spend boatloads of money on leaving someplace I never even wanted to “vacation” to! I sit down to think/develop a plan. No plan developed. I go back up to ask again where I am on the list, and this guy says I’m now at #28 with 10 seats available. There were lots of kids/families, and most people were probably traveling for spring break. I practically beg with the guy saying I won’t take up much room, I don’t even need a seat I’ll sit on a crate or smush into a corner I just need to get on this flight! He smiles and says roll call will be in about 30 minutes. Defeated walk back to my duffle bag in a state of frizzy/sweaty hopelessness to develop a plan. I figure the 2 flights tomorrow are probably going to turn out the same way, with a bunch of CAT 2 and 3 people with families showing up last minute.
I officially give up on Space-A, and decide to spend and arm and a leg on a commercial flight to get the heck out of there as soon as possible! Since my phone doesn’t work in Guam, I used their phone to call the MWR office when they finally opened at 10am, the lady gave the discounted rate for a flight leaving that afternoon, going through Tokyo, I order it over the phone, and that’s it! The next hurdle was getting to the airport 30 minutes away. There is only 1 shuttle service that has base access, and their phone line was not working! It would take forever to walk to the front gate to meet a normal taxi. Thankfully a very nice lady also waiting at the terminal offered to give me a ride to the airport. She’s an Air Force wife living on Guam, and was definitely a God-send as I was getting so beat down from road block after road block that week. She was very encouraging on the ride and shared some cool stories about what other military families / spouses were doing, so maybe being a mil-spouse isn’t so marriage-draining after all? She drops me off at the TINY, empty, Guam airport, where I yet again wait, work on my projects online, and wait more for the flight. At least this time I know that what I am waiting for will not fall through! I paid for it, it will be a pampering experience to have comfy seats and even movies without relentless noise, and I am happy about it! I have an hour layover in Tokyo, where I am literally the only person who is not asian, and everyone looks at me funny (I realize I look horrible and don’t care.) The flight went well, and after 4 long days of being stranded at the Andersen AMC terminal waiting for a flight, I finally made it back! :)
***
In my humble opinion, it’s really not worth traveling the 8+ hrs to Guam. That is of course, unless you haven’t seen your husband in more than 5 months and you are both getting desperate. The beaches and natural scenery are beautiful, but the lack of things to do, abundance of abandoned buildings/businesses, numerous bars/strip clubs, pot holes, snakes (there are “snake cages” every few yards on the fences of the bases, WITH snakes caught in them, gross!), huge spiders (that did come in my hotel room at night, that I killed), and dinginess, isn’t so appealing after a while. … just my personal opinion from 1 trip and I don’t mean to offend anyone who loves Guam!
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