I’ve always wanted to travel, but I’ve never wanted to spend a lot of money doing it.
Through the military’s space-available travel program, I’ve had the chance to see Asia on a shoestring budget, fly to Tokyo from Seattle for a friend’s wedding, and zip over to Crete from Naples, Italy, for free to spend a day dining and shopping before returning home late that afternoon.
When Space-A works right, it’s the best bargain travel program out there. But when you don’t plan right, depending on Space-A for a ride to a specific place by a specific date could leave you paying for a full-cost airline ticket.
“If we have seats available, you go,” said Senior Airman Michael Bell, a passenger service representative at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. “If not, you wait until the next one comes around.”
That “A” means “available,” not “absolutely,” as I found out sitting in South Korea on a Saturday morning in 1991 trying to get back to my base in Hawaii for work on Monday. A typhoon snarled air traffic and I had to find a way around the tie-up to make it back without buying a commercial airline ticket.
The “A” also means whatever’s available for aircraft. During my three-week tour of Asia, I flew everything from a six-seat, twin-engined Army VIP flight from South Korea to Atsugi, Japan, to a C-5 Galaxy from Guam to Okinawa and a few other types of aircraft in between.
More recently, I’ve flown a chartered 747 round trip between Seattle and Tokyo and a Gulfstream from Naples to Crete and back.
During those three weeks that constituted my first Space-A experience, I managed to fly from Hawaii to Guam, on to Okinawa via the Philippines, up to Tokyo, back to Guam to catch a flight to Korea, then to Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan, and (though not Space-A) a train trip to Yokota Air Base for my (Space-A) return flight to Hawaii.
I did it all for $40 — at the time travelers were charged $10 for all flights in one direction, and since I zigzagged around I ended up paying $40. But if I did that same trip today, because of a change in policy it wouldn’t cost anything.
There are charges, however, for certain flights into the United States, Bell said.
For military-chartered commercial airliners, there’s a $26.10 tax to the States and if you catch a charter from the United States, you’ll pay $14.
Another concern travelers need to have about flying Space-A is that their scheduled flight may not leave during daylight hours, as I learned after sleeping through a 2 a.m. Space-A roll call in Guam for a flight to Korea.
Plus, since flights may leave and arrive at any hour of the day or night, there is the possibility that you might end up sleeping on the terminal floor somewhere.
I’ve slept under rows of chairs in Japan, on a soldier’s barracks room floor in South Korea, and on a recliner in a USO in Guam. The latter was one of the most comfortable nights I had on that trip — so comfortable that it was the night I slept through roll call for a flight I wanted.
Lodging may be available at the Space-A locations, but it may not be near the terminal, may be full when you get there, or, as happened with me a couple of times, you may just be too darned tired to care about finding lodging.
But for those who have more time to burn than money, and aren’t afraid of a challenge, flying Space-A is an economical way to see the world.
