For those who are not aware, one of the benefits of being a retired service member is the ability to travel on military aircraft that have unused seats that are headed somewhere you might want to go. This benefit is called “Space-Available” and normally shortened to “Space-A” travel. Most of the aircraft are cargo-type airplanes and may or may not be moving military cargo or active duty passengers from one base to another. The available seats are first offered to active duty members, then families of active duty, and so on through six different categories of passengers, with retired members and their spouses being the last category to be offered seats. The retiree must travel with the spouse – no spouse can fly without being accompanied by him or her.

                Retirees are allowed to sign up for travel up to 60 days in advance and the seating for retirees is based upon the sign up date, first come – first seated. For this trip, I signed up for myself and Sue about 30 days before we wanted to try to find a flight to the San Diego, California, area to visit our daughter and her family, including the twin grandkids. There is a National Guard unit flying Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft out of Memphis which make a weekly trip to Andrews Joint Reserve Base in Washington D.C., which is the opposite direction from the way we wanted to travel, but sometimes you go east to get west. Consider commercial aircraft that operate major hubs in a large city like Atlanta that makes connections to other places. Knowing the planned schedule, I saw there were some opportunities to catch a flight to the west coast easier from an east coast “hub” base.

                We left Memphis on Friday, February 28^th, flying to Washington D.C. and then on to McGuire AFB in Trenton, N.J. We spent the night in base lodging that night and the next morning caught a flight to Travis AFB in Northern California. There were no upcoming flights to Southern California on the schedule when we arrived, but while we were waiting in the terminal a flight to Hawaii was announced that had seats available. We decided it would be more fun to wait out the schedule in Hawaii than Northern California so we boarded the Hawaii flight and four hours later walked off the plane in Paradise. We rented a car for a couple of days and visited some of our favorite Hawaiian beaches and eating places while we kept looking for a flight to Southern California to materialize but it did not, so we got back on a plane headed back to the Northern California base we left two days earlier. The next day a flight to March AFB in Riverside, California, opened up seats and we took the hour and a half flight down there. I had reserved a one-way Hertz rental car which we picked up after landing and 70 miles and an hour later we were at my daughter’s house.

                After two weeks of visiting with them we were ready to head back home. A flight was scheduled out of North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego so we drove down there only to find the flight was cancelled sometime while we were enroute. We quickly switched to Plan-B and drove back to March AFB and got a room in their lodging for the night. The next morning we got up and boarded a flight back to Andrews in Washington D.C. About an hour after we arrived we switched planes for a flight to Charleston, S.C. and got there a little before midnight. We spent the night in base lodging again and the next morning caught a flight to Jackson, Mississippi, to swap planes and then on the same afternoon flew back to Memphis, where we had left our car. An hour later we were home safe and sound.

                For those who hate traveling, this sounds like a nightmare. For us, being retired, going someplace is not just a trip, it is an adventure. We flew on three different types of military aircraft, a C-17, a KC-10, and a gigantic C-5. Yes I know it would have been faster and much less complicated to book round trip commercial aircraft tickets. When I checked, it would have cost us over $1,100 to make the visit on commercial flights and would not have included a side trip to Hawaii that we thoroughly enjoyed. The trip via military Space-A only cost us less than $400, which was for the three nights lodging and the two car rentals. According to the math I learned at Lee High School, we saved over $700 by taking the longer route, and to my retiree budget, that is a great savings.

                There were some other things to consider as well, which you see in the videos. The one up top shows we did not have any problems with leg room, screaming kids, or other obnoxious passengers since we were the only two on the plane. The other one shows we had a rare opportunity to ride in the jumpseats in the cockpit with the pilots on the flight from Jackson to Memphis. Now try that on a commercial flight.

                If any of you military retirees have never taken advantage of the Space-A opportunities, I will be happy to share some tips on how to do so.