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Thought this might be helpful for some. I know a couple of questions come up every now and then on this board, so here is my experience...
Stationed at Tinker AFB, my goal was to get my family (Wife and 2 kids ages 6 months and 2 years old) over to Hamburg, Germany for 2 weeks to visit my father-in-law.
1st Leg: After calling multiple bases in CONUS for trips that were going overseas, we found that the closest place to get where we wanted to go was to McConnell AFB (Wichita, KS). They had 10 seats available to fly to Mildenhall (England). So, we drove 2.5 hours to get there about an hour before the "roll call" started. The way space-a travel works is that everybody is given a priority code (Emergency Leave-Category I, Regular Leave-Category III, Dependents Unaccompanied-Category V). When they start roll call they give seats to passengers based on this priority. If more than 1 party has the same priority, they base it on when you first signed up for space-a travel (BTW, you have to be on leave before you are allowed to sign up). Anyway, we were able to get seats and I found out that the plane was a KC-135. All of the seats had been removed and passengers were to sit on the benches that ran than the length of the plane on both sides. The crew's mission was to transport people over to the sandbox for deployment after a layover in England. The crew was very nice. I was very surprised at how much my wife enjoyed it. She got to lay down and sleep in the cots in the back with mydaughter, while I layed down on the bench with my son in his car seat.
2nd Leg: Our next mission was to get from Mildenhall to Germany. We learned that there was a flight going to Ramstein 2-3 days later. Instead of waiting, my father-in-law had some frequent flyer miles to spare, so he flew us from Heathrow (London) to Hamburg. However, if we didn't want to wait there were other options. For example, Ryan Air (Very similar to Southwest Airlines, except cheaper) flies all over Europe for discount prices. Mildenhall/Lankenheath have shuttles that take you to Heathrow/Gatwick/Stansted Airports for free, which was very nice. So, we stayed at a TLF at Mildenhall and then took the free shuttle to Healthrow Airport.
3rd Leg: After spending a week and a half in Hamburg, it was time to come home. My wife and I decided that the hard part was going to be getting over to the States, so we weren;t going to be picky and wait for Mildenhall to fly back to McConnell. So, we rented a car and drove from Hamburg to Ramstein (about a 4.5 hour drive on the Autobahn which was freaking nuts and scary). Ramstein had a flight that went to BWI. However, this was a commercial flight, so we were subject to some minor charges. Altogether, the taxes and fees for my family of 4 cost $104.00. The plane was a DC-10, with over 100 seats available and flight attendant service. There were 3 in-flight movies and 2 dinner services, in addition to the snacks and drinks served. It seemed like the civilian staff was very attentative (I fly often and I would say that this was probably the friendliest and most helpful staff I have ever encountered). We did not mind flying into BWI because, we both have family and friends there and we still had time before my leave ended.
4th Leg: Our final mission was to get back home to Tinker AFB, but to pick up our car along the way if there were no flights to McConnell AFB. Of course, all flights to McConnell were cancelled (Just my luck, right?). However, Andrews AFB had multiple flights going out to the midwest, so we jumped on one going to Lincoln, NE. The airframe was another KC-135, but still had 12 seats intact. The first thing the boom operator says to us (before we get on the plane) was "I assume you live in Lincoln because why else would anybody be going there". LOL, no actually we are renting a car there and driving to Wichita and then to OKC. Their mission was to fly back to Lincoln after being TDY in DC and they were Air National Guard. The crew was extremely helpful. Before we left Andrews, they personally called ahead to the rental companies to find out what time they closed and when we landed in Lincoln they drove us to the airport to rent the car. They helped us load all of the bags and install the car seats.
Overall Impression: My wife made the comment that she loved Space-A travel, but if you are a Type-A personality (Like most docs, incidentally) you will be very stressed out. You need to be flexible and always think ahead. All of the different crews that we flew with were extremely nice and helpful. Can't really say enough good things about them to do any kind of justice. Total cost of travel was: Gas $100, Rental Cars $250, and Tickets to Andrews $100 coming to a total of about $450. Compared to plane tickets would have cost at least $2000 for round trip tickets to Hamburg.
Here is the website that is extremely helpful if you are considering Space-A travel and let me know if anybody has any questions.
www.spacea.net
Stationed at Tinker AFB, my goal was to get my family (Wife and 2 kids ages 6 months and 2 years old) over to Hamburg, Germany for 2 weeks to visit my father-in-law.
1st Leg: After calling multiple bases in CONUS for trips that were going overseas, we found that the closest place to get where we wanted to go was to McConnell AFB (Wichita, KS). They had 10 seats available to fly to Mildenhall (England). So, we drove 2.5 hours to get there about an hour before the "roll call" started. The way space-a travel works is that everybody is given a priority code (Emergency Leave-Category I, Regular Leave-Category III, Dependents Unaccompanied-Category V). When they start roll call they give seats to passengers based on this priority. If more than 1 party has the same priority, they base it on when you first signed up for space-a travel (BTW, you have to be on leave before you are allowed to sign up). Anyway, we were able to get seats and I found out that the plane was a KC-135. All of the seats had been removed and passengers were to sit on the benches that ran than the length of the plane on both sides. The crew's mission was to transport people over to the sandbox for deployment after a layover in England. The crew was very nice. I was very surprised at how much my wife enjoyed it. She got to lay down and sleep in the cots in the back with mydaughter, while I layed down on the bench with my son in his car seat.
2nd Leg: Our next mission was to get from Mildenhall to Germany. We learned that there was a flight going to Ramstein 2-3 days later. Instead of waiting, my father-in-law had some frequent flyer miles to spare, so he flew us from Heathrow (London) to Hamburg. However, if we didn't want to wait there were other options. For example, Ryan Air (Very similar to Southwest Airlines, except cheaper) flies all over Europe for discount prices. Mildenhall/Lankenheath have shuttles that take you to Heathrow/Gatwick/Stansted Airports for free, which was very nice. So, we stayed at a TLF at Mildenhall and then took the free shuttle to Healthrow Airport.
3rd Leg: After spending a week and a half in Hamburg, it was time to come home. My wife and I decided that the hard part was going to be getting over to the States, so we weren;t going to be picky and wait for Mildenhall to fly back to McConnell. So, we rented a car and drove from Hamburg to Ramstein (about a 4.5 hour drive on the Autobahn which was freaking nuts and scary). Ramstein had a flight that went to BWI. However, this was a commercial flight, so we were subject to some minor charges. Altogether, the taxes and fees for my family of 4 cost $104.00. The plane was a DC-10, with over 100 seats available and flight attendant service. There were 3 in-flight movies and 2 dinner services, in addition to the snacks and drinks served. It seemed like the civilian staff was very attentative (I fly often and I would say that this was probably the friendliest and most helpful staff I have ever encountered). We did not mind flying into BWI because, we both have family and friends there and we still had time before my leave ended.
4th Leg: Our final mission was to get back home to Tinker AFB, but to pick up our car along the way if there were no flights to McConnell AFB. Of course, all flights to McConnell were cancelled (Just my luck, right?). However, Andrews AFB had multiple flights going out to the midwest, so we jumped on one going to Lincoln, NE. The airframe was another KC-135, but still had 12 seats intact. The first thing the boom operator says to us (before we get on the plane) was "I assume you live in Lincoln because why else would anybody be going there". LOL, no actually we are renting a car there and driving to Wichita and then to OKC. Their mission was to fly back to Lincoln after being TDY in DC and they were Air National Guard. The crew was extremely helpful. Before we left Andrews, they personally called ahead to the rental companies to find out what time they closed and when we landed in Lincoln they drove us to the airport to rent the car. They helped us load all of the bags and install the car seats.
Overall Impression: My wife made the comment that she loved Space-A travel, but if you are a Type-A personality (Like most docs, incidentally) you will be very stressed out. You need to be flexible and always think ahead. All of the different crews that we flew with were extremely nice and helpful. Can't really say enough good things about them to do any kind of justice. Total cost of travel was: Gas $100, Rental Cars $250, and Tickets to Andrews $100 coming to a total of about $450. Compared to plane tickets would have cost at least $2000 for round trip tickets to Hamburg.
Here is the website that is extremely helpful if you are considering Space-A travel and let me know if anybody has any questions.
www.spacea.net
