Life in the military isn't always easy or fun, but it isn't always hard and horrible either! There are some fun perks. One of those perks is: Space A Travel. I had always heard of it growing up on an Army base and my husband had mentioned it a few times since we've been married, but for some reason it really stressed me out and I didn't think it would be something I'd like to do. Well, then my husband started to tell me about a military resort in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany and he started to show me all of the things you can do around the resort and I was hooked. I will write more about the resort in another post, but suffice it to say I really wanted to go. We looked into flying commercially and figured out that for a family of 5 people it would cost a little more than $6000. Not. Happening. So, we decided to look into Space A. In the end, Space A cost us $260 round trip. The entire trip including lodging, gifts, travel, food, and anything and everything else cost less than it would have cost us to fly to Germany commercially. It was awesome. You do have to pay a relatively small amount to fly Space A. It was $85 or so to fly there and $175 or so to fly back. You have to pay for customs fees. I think it is different if you are on a rotator plane. We were able to fly on 747s both ways, so you do pay a fee because they serve you meals and drinks and what not.
So, how did we do it?! I've had several friends on facebook ask me about it, because I think it's one of those things that people think about, but don't actually take advantage of, especially when you have young kids. The key to Space A is flexibility and planning. We have 3 kids, ages 6, 4 and 1 and I'm not that fun and flexible, so we couldn't really say, "Well, we get there when we get there!" or just backpack around. We needed hotels, rental cars and plans. Summertime is the busiest time for Space A travel and it can be difficult to get on a flight.
If you live close to a Space A terminal you can go to the terminal at the beginning of the month and they should have a calendar for the month with tenative dates and times for flights. You should also go on Facebook and "like" all of the Space A terminals in your area, because they post their schedules 72 hours in advance. Watch their facebook page for trends. They post slides after flights depart to report how many seats were taken and the sign up time for the last passenger that got onto the flights.
If you are flying with the active duty member you can only sign up once they are on leave. You are then Category 3. Most summer space a seats are occupied by Category 3. Luckily, my husband was able to be approved for 30 days of leave. He wasn't planning on using all 30 days, but it is better to have them just in case.
You sign up by emailing each Space A terminal you are willing to fly out of. There are 4 within a 3 hour radius of our home so we signed up at all of those locations. You should also sign up for the return flight at that same time. Sign up as SOON as the active duty member is on leave, but check the leave papers! We signed up at midnight on the day his leave started, only to find out later that his leave didn't start until 8 am. Luckily, he was able to get his leave papers amended to start at midnight. A few hours really do make a big difference in sign up times. We used the app "Take a Hop" and it made the email sign up a little easier. You just input all of your information ahead of time and as soon as they are on leave you hit send and it formats the email and makes sure you have all of the required information.
After you sign up, I would suggest that you wait a few days before trying to get on a flight. We waited 5 days and still didn't get on until the 3rd flight out. Not making it on a flight can be discouraging, so it is sometimes better to let your name sit on the list for a few days and let the people before you clear out before you try to get on a flight.
On the calendar and on the facebook page they will have a "roll call" time listed. All members of your family who are traveling must be there, "travel ready" at the time of roll call, which means, you have to have all of your bags ready to go and you cannot leave the terminal after they call you. So, you have to have any rental cars returned and you must be checked out of your hotels. You must be checked in before roll call. To check in you have to have the leave papers, passports, IDs and a copy of the sign up email with you. You have to be checked in before roll call, but not all members of your party have to be there to check in. They close down check ins at roll call and they don't always have a record of your email so you have to have that with you. Make sure that they mark in the correct sign up time, more on that when I talk about the return flight.
We wanted to fly out on a Monday or Tuesday so he went on leave the previous Wednesday. When we showed up for our flights on Monday there were 40 seats on the first flight and we almost got on, but they were short 3 seats for us, so we would have had to fly separately, which is not a good idea, because then I would have been bumped down to Category 5. We thought for sure that we would get on the Monday evening flight since there were more than 100 seats available, but unfortunately a lot more people showed up and there were many more duty passengers who have first priority and are considered Space Required. Luckily, we live 15 minutes from the airport. It is harder if you live a little ways from the airport, because you either have to make the trek home or find a hotel last minute. I did see that some people just slept at the airport, but again with kids that's not exactly practical.
The next day we saw on Facebook that the Tuesday flight only had 10 tentative seats and the roll call wasn't until 10:30 pm, which meant we wouldn't be flying out until past 1 in the morning. We hesitated, but felt good about trying again. Always try for a flight, because you never know if more seats will open up! We went and set our kids up with all of their devices and their nap mats and two of the three slept for a bit in the airport. It ended up that 40 seats were available. They will do an initial roll call and then they will say that there are still a number of duty passengers who haven't shown up. They usually have about a 10 - 20% no show rate, so more seats usually open up. They do another roll call an hour later. If you are within the next 20 people or so on the list then stick around. We didn't make the first roll call or the second. We made the third roll call about 15 - 20 minutes after the second roll call. Luckily the man working at the counter told me to stick around after the second roll call since we were the next name on the list, because we made it! They ended up having 60+ seats available even though it started out as 10 tentative. We flew on a 747 and there were plenty of extra seats so for the 5 of us we had 7 seats. They served breakfast and lunch and the flight attendants were very friendly and helpful.
We stayed in Germany for 2 weeks, so by the time we left we had been on the sign up list for 21 days. There were 3 flights going out of Ramstein the day we wanted to leave. We did not get called for the first 2 flights that had 20 seats on each of them, so we thought we would for sure be called for the flight to BWI that had 117 seats available. However, after they had called 60 people I started to get a little nervous that we weren't even on the roll call monitor yet, so I checked a list and noticed that they were calling people who had signed up on July 1st. We had signed up on June 18th. So, I sent my husband back to the counter and one of the servicemen working there said that the person who had checked us in had gotten the sign up time wrong, but that it shouldn't make a big deal, well after some nagging to get him to check again it turned out that he had recorded our sign up time as being July 18th, which hadn't even passed yet. So, had we not nagged we would not have gotten on the flight. We actually should have gotten on one of the earlier flights. So, make sure they have the correct sign up time in their system! Luckily, they hadn't given away all of their seats yet so we were able to get on their flight. If not there would have been one very angry mother of 3 boys stomping around their terminal. :) The flight was great and the kids all did really well, again there were extra seats so we had 6 seats for the 5 of us. We were pretty lucky in that the day we wanted to fly out there were 3 flights available.
The other big question I've gotten is how do you plan for lodging and transportation if you don't know when you're going to get there. We made our reservation for a hotel for Friday in Stuttgart and for the resort to start on Saturday and started trying to fly out on Monday. Just keep in mind when you can cancel things without having to pay a fee. Most places give you at least 3 days.
We made plans just in case we got there right away. We didn't want to make reservations for Tuesday through Thursday because we wouldn't have been able to cancel without a fee. So, we had a list of hotels and things we wanted to do if we had the extra days. When we found out Tuesday night that we had made a flight my husband quickly pulled out his phone and booked two nights at a hotel. So, we were good with lodging. We had made reservations for a rental car to start on Friday, but unfortunately you can't make last minute changes to your reservation online. So, we ended up checking with them when we got to Ramstein, but they didn't have any cars and most rental car companies on the base only rent cars to people stationed there on the base. So, we ended up using the train and taxis for 2 days, which was an adventure with 3 kids and 5 bags, but was do-able.
There is an Air Force Inn on the base at Ramstein, but it fills up fast! For the return flight we wanted to stay at the Air Force Inn, because it's right there across the street from the terminal, they have family apartments, and we were going to have to return our car there at the terminal. To book a room at the Air Force Inn you have to make it one night at a time and no more than 3 days prior to the day you want to stay. So, starting 3 days before the first day we were going to try to go home we called every morning to make a reservation. They didn't have rooms right away, but we called throughout the day and were able to reserve the rooms. You do have to check out each morning, because you have to be checked out in order to get on a flight. After the first night, we checked out and made sure we had rooms for the next two nights just in case. They put a hold on the room, but do not store your credit card information so as long as you check in by 6 pm you have a room, but if you get on a flight there is no cancellation fee. We ended up not needing those extra few nights. Also, as a note, my husband is in the Navy so when we saw the different facilities and amenities on the Air Force Base..I was impressed to say the least. If you do have to wait for a day or two in Ramstein, there is a huge shopping area, commissary and PX right across from the terminal.
I think I covered everything! I know some of the information is specific to Germany, but it is a popular hub for a lot of European Space A travel and I couldn't find a lot of detailed information on blogs before we left. All in all, I think Space A worked out great, because we had contingency plans and mostly because my husband had a good chunk of leave so that we weren't stressed about when we left or when we returned and we had some time to let our names sit on the sign up lists. You do have to be flexible and have to be well prepared to entertain your kids. There isn't much in the waiting area at BWI, but the terminal in Ramstein, Germany has a play area, lounge chairs and places to eat.
I will post later about the things we took that helped entertain the kids and make them more comfortable.
Don't be intimidated by Space A! It's fun, exciting, a little stressful, but the price is right! If you have any other questions let me know. Whew! Thanks for hanging in there until the end of this long post!
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