In 2009 my husband I took long vacation, we traveled from Yorktown, Virginia to his parents in Ohio, it’s about a twelve hour car ride to get to their house. We planned to spend a couple of weeks there before trying to fly ‘Space A’ to get to England to see my family for a bit.
Space Available travel, also known as ‘taking a hop’ is for active duty, retired and dependents of the US military (some restrictions apply). It allows us to fly on a plane being used by the military to get to a destination of our choice, when there is a military base with a runway you most likely can take a hop to get there. Traveling Space A is a cheaper way to travel, the only money you spend is on your meal although meals are not available on all flights. military
Although flying on a hop is cheaper and more cost effective it is very VERY important to have enough money to fly commercial and for hotels, as flying Space A can be extremely unpredictable. I am going to tell you about our experience, what we did and what we would do differently next time.
Once we arrived in Ohio, and had settled in at my in-laws we went to Wright Patterson Air Force Base to the PAX (passenger) terminal to talk to the workers there to get a schedule for the projected flights. Some PAX terminals will allow you to have a paper schedule of the whole month’s flights; this varies from base to base with as little as only one day ahead being forecasted out. Terminals also list the flights over the phone, but for security they only list a few days in advance and do not include what kind of aircraft it will be. At Wright Patterson Air Force Base we were able to get a projected flight schedule for the following week only, for us this wasn’t too helpful as we were planning on spending a couple of weeks in Ohio before flying to England. Talking to the PAX terminal workers they suggested that too get to England our best bet would either be a direct flight to Mildenhall, which happens about once a week, or to get to another East Coast base and fly from there.
To be able to fly on Space A you must sign up for each airport you want to fly out of. It is best to sign up as early as possible because one of the things that determines you getting a seat on a busy flight is the date you signed up for travel. To sign up for travel you can visit takeahop.org. Active duty military members can only sign up once their leave has started.
So we were signed up in all the right places for all the possible bases that we may need to fly out of, for us that was most of the upper East coast including BWI (Baltimore International) which has a regular flight to Europe. We signed up in quite a few of the European Air Force Bases too, so where ever we ended up we would be able to keep flying to get to our destination of England.
As it happened we found a flight on a Monday that would take us to Ramstein, Germany via Andrews AFB from Ramstein we would either try for a flight to Mildenhall or take the train to Frankfurt and fly using Ryan Air to get to England as it is a very cheap commercial airline that operates only in Europe ((very basic – no frills travelling)). It is very important to have back up plans when flying Space A as flights can be diverted canceled or re-scheduled.
Our plane would be a C5, one of the biggest planes made, it can fit 6 busses in the cargo area and has 78 backwards facing seats for PAX. The Monday morning of the flight we arrived very early at the PAX terminal so we could check in for the flight. A couple of other families turned up too, we dressed warm with layers as suggested by the gentleman who worked at the terminal, flights will either be very cold or very hot, we had been told.
Our names were called, bags were checked, and ear plugs handed out. We boarded a mini-van and headed out to our plane. On the plane we received a safety brief and were sat comfortable in the seats. The seats were wider, had more leg room and reclined more than commercial planes. We sat on the plane waiting for the final checks and the doors to be closed, and we sat, and sat some more, First of all there seemed to be a problem with the Air Conditioning and then something with the wings. We sat and sat while the figured out the problem and then after a couple of hours we were informed that the plane needed some minor repairs to the flaps so we were all taken off the plane.
Back in the PAX terminal we ordered pizza to be delivered to the base for our dinner while they fixed the plane. At 1900, seven hours after checking in the plane was to be determined ‘hard broke’ so we would not be flying today. Now since this first experience with a C5 we have learnt C5’s are great planes once in the air, but if they sit for any length of time they are likely to encounter problems.
There were two other men who had been on our attempted flight to Ramstein; they were PCS’ing to their new Army bases. So between them and us we came up with a plan. There was a Patriot Express flight scheduled the next evening out of Baltimore International Airport that was stopping in Ramstein. So a few quick calls to USAA and we worked out a car rental, USAA has great discounts for many things, it halved the cost of our rental which was great. We decided to meet the two other gentlemen at Wright Patterson AFB billeting the following day at 0730, so we could make the 7 hour drive to Baltimore International.
We arrived at Baltimore Airport just in time. We went to the desk so we could be marked as present. We were asked to have a seat and wait to see if our names would be called. Space A has a priority list; this list makes sure that the mission comes first. The list is broken in to categories. See here
There was a lot of people wanting to get this flight to Ramstein, it was a rotator flight, so the aircraft was a commercial plane set aside for military and Space A travelers. We sat and watched uniformed Army Soldiers check in to the flight, they were going to be on the Ramstein flight and then going on to a not so nice place. Soon our names were called and we were boarding the plane to Ramstein, the plane was full with no empty seats. There were lots of young children so the earplugs that we had been given on the previous day came in handy for this overnight flight. Taking the rotator cost $35.00 each, that fee paid for our meal, the flight was very no frills, with small seats cramped leg room and a very warm temperature in the cabin.
Nine hours after boarding the flight to Ramstein we touched down into Germany, we disembarked at the Air Force base and went through the German customs. Next we had to work out exactly how we would get to England our vacation destination.
We walked through the terminal to the departure area, we looked at the scheduled flights and saw that Mildenhall was going to be departing in 20 minutes, we raced to the information desk, had our names signed up for the flight, went to the check in area where we were whizzed through. We were even taken to the head of the customs line so we would make our flight. We got to the boarding gate and took a seat, we waited and we waited, after a long while of waiting we were once again told our flight would be delayed, there was a fault with the plane that needed to be fixed. So we went back to the main lobby of the terminal, used the USO provided internet to inform our families we were safe and to let them know our approximate plans. While waiting we also found out about how to get to Frankfurt and take one of the cheap Ryan Air flights to London, as we knew that this flight to Mildenhall was the only one scheduled for four days.
Finally we were called and we boarded a KC135 which is a plane that is used to refuel other aircraft in mid air. The flight was expected to be about 40 minutes. Once boarded we were briefed how to use the oxygen canisters in case of an emergency, there were no drop down masks like on commercial planes on this flight. I slept most of the time, but my husband talked the Boom operator and was able to go down and see how the equipment worked. I know he had fun doing that.
Less than an hour later we touched down in my home country. We were finally in England, We had been trying to get there for the past 3 days and we were exhausted. We came off the plane and the official from Mildenhall asked if we had our entire luggage, little did we know that this question would be the start of something that would be the start of countless phone calls to Ramstein and no luggage for 7 days.
When leaving Ramstein the Airman who had taken us to the plane failed to give us our luggage to take on bored, and not knowing any better we hadn’t given our luggage a second thought, after all we had checked it in at the terminal and previously our bags had been put on the aircrafts for us. So after the plane was triple checked it was determined that our bags were not in England with us. We were driven to the PAX terminal.
When arriving at Mildenhall depending on your reason for travel and your military status you may have to wait while your passport is faxed to a main immigration office. Luckily my husband and I did not have to wait for this reason. The kind and helpful civilians at Mildenhall called Ramstien to find out about our bags, after some umming and awwing and some denial that our bags were even at Ramstien (a worrying moment for us) our bags were found and were promised to be on the next flight out, which was going to be in 24 hours
After calling my parents and explain what had happened we walked to billeting. Mildenhall is easy to navigate around, and everything you need is within a ten minute walking distance. Thankfully billeting had rooms available and we were able to check in immediately. We left our carryon luggage in our room and walked to the shoppette and the small BX, we were hoping to pick up a few supplies to last us through the next few days while we waited for our bags. The BX on Mildenhall is very limited with what it sells, the only clothes it sells are t-shirts with England and Mildenhall written on them, they are expensive too as they are considered tourist items. My husband started to talk to someone who was very kind enough to offer us a ride to Lakenheath. Lakenheath is a five minute car ride from Mildenhall and has a full Commissary and clothing BX. We left our carryon luggage in our room and walked to the shoppette and the small BX, we were hoping to pick up a few supplies to last us through the next few days while we waited for our bags. The BX on Mildenhall is very limited with what it sells, the only clothes it sells are t-shirts with England and Mildenhall written on them, they are expensive too as they are considered tourist items. My husband started to talk to someone who was very kind enough to offer us a ride to Lakenheath. Lakenheath is a five minute car ride from Mildenhall and has a full Commissary and a big BX, it was there that we were able to pick up some basics, toothbrushes toothpaste, a couple of cheap t-shirts and pants… From there we took a taxi back to Mildenhall and had a nice long sleep.
We rented a car and while we waited for our bags, we met up with old friends and saw my Grandmother who lives an hour east of Mildenhall. We waited in Mildenhall for our bags to arrive, Ramstien kept promising to have them on the next flight over, we waited until Saturday, three days after arriving before we gave up and drove down to my parent’s house, they live near the south coast about 40 minutes north of Portsmouth. Ramstein promised Mildenhall that our bags would be fedex’d to my parents address and would arrive on Sunday or Monday.
As it turned out our bags did not arrive on Sunday or Monday, Monday was a holiday for the states so no one was working and it ended up being impossible to get hold of anyone to help us. Tuesday we finally spoke to someone who could see our bags, and we asked them not to fedex them to us but instead put them on the flight that was leaving on Wednesday night and we would drive back to Mildenhall, which was a three hour drive to get them once they were there. So a week and one day after landing without our bags we finally had our clothes and were able to enjoy our vacation.
Part two to follow soon.
