How to Fly Military Space Available (& How it Went for Us in 2023)
Today I am going to tell you exactly how to fly military space available, with the most updated information.
We have been a military family for over twenty years, but we had always shied away from this method of transportation. For starters, we thought it was only for overseas travel. It turns out that is not true.
If you are like us, you may be nervous to try flying space available. “Being flexible” can be scary.
As it turns out, flying military space available was a fairly easy process.
We finally tried it out this year, to fly to Italy and back, and we are here to share with you all that we learned.
If you are active duty military or a retired service member, you are eligible for this service. Dependents can also fly with them, but non-dependent family members and friends may not use this service.
For a complete description of who can fly military space a, see this official page.
I asked Alan to help me make a video with all the basic facts and the exact process he went through to do this.
If you’d rather just read the facts, we got ya covered there too. Scroll on down for all the websites and beginner information.
This is the website you need for EVERYTHING Space-A related:
Here are the steps for how to find and enroll in your flight!
#1. Sign out on leave, and have your leave form ready. You will be using it for everything.
You cannot even register for space available flights until you are on leave.
#2. Visit this site: amc.af.mil
Everything you need both in the country and OCONUS is found on this website.
#3. Time to do some preliminary research on what flights are coming up.
I mean really you will probably do this step long before you sign out on leave.
On the amc.af.mil website, follow the links on the “catch a ride” section. That will take you here. On this page they have a list of all the different terminals with military flights.
Then you can click on the individual terminals, and it will take you to their webpages. From there, look for their 30 day or 72 hour projections, whichever you would like to see.
That will give you a list of who is currently flying out to where. It will also tell you how many seats they expect to have available and time for roll call.
#4. You will see the phrase roll call mentioned. What is this roll call?
You need to check in with the desk by roll call to submit for a seat. Roll call is when they call out the names of those on standby who are receiving a seat. For our flights, we already had our tickets before roll call.
#5. Register to fly Space-Available with all the terminals you might use here on this easy form for all of those terminals at this webpage.
That is the most important step!
Please note, you have to be officially on leave before you are allowed to register for travel. Priority is given to those who have been on leave the longest.
#6. Print out your email confirmations that you get from that sign up form.
These will have the date on them that you signed up and it serves as a receipt, so print it out.
#7. Check on the flights you are interested in as your departure date draws near.
Last minute changes do happen sometimes. Changes are sometimes posted online.
#8. The day before your flight, call the terminal for an update on that flight.
You can ask any questions you have. For example, you can ask what kind of airplane it is and what time the flight is actually scheduled to leave.
On the day you fly:
Arrive an hour before roll call with your printed email confirmation and your leave form, passport, and military ID in hand.
Expect to be waiting at the airport all day long. You will probably get checked in fairly quickly. But then it takes a few hours before the airplane actually boards. Make sure you have plenty to read and snack on.
The airports we flew in and out of did not have any restaurants and very little snacks available.
If you are flying with children, make sure you have some way to entertain them. You often even have time (once you have checked in and have your tickets) to leave the airport for food or a walk and come back.
Alan and I did a lot of walking around while waiting. We also sat and scrolled on our phones, but small children will not put up with that. Make sure you have a deck of UNO cards and something that plays movies handy.
I was so impressed that each of our overseas flights fed us three times!! They had many beverage options too!
In closing, we hope you get a chance to try out flying military space available!
Saving a few thousand dollars was extremely satisfying to us!! It made the slightly longer waiting times and the risk of being bumped worth it. Thankfully, we had no mishaps on our first two trips. We highly recommend it to all military and retired families!!
Feel free to ask any questions you have below, and we will do our best to answer.
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