Posted on: Monday, October 7, 2002
MILITARY UPDATE
Space-A fits bill for travelers with time, flexibility
Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 49, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.
By Tom Philpott
Here's a travel quiz to stump even frequent fliers.
What airline service saw no interruption after Sept. 11, 2001, is committed to giving passengers more leg room and, starting this month, will upgrade many in-flight meals to business-class fare?
The answer is the military's Space-Available program.
Each year more than 225,000 service members, retirees and their families travel virtually for free, and worldwide, in what otherwise would be vacant seats aboard military aircraft and contracted commercial jets.
Each flight is for a military mission, but many have unused seats that six categories of nonduty travelers can fill. Listed by priority, they are: members on emergency leave; members taking environmental or morale leave from austere assignments; active-duty members, with or without family, and typically on vacation; unaccompanied active-duty family members; student dependents; military retirees and, if going overseas, their spouses. Drilling Reservists and National Guard members also fall into the last category.
Space-A is run by the Air Mobility Command based at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., and involves both military aircraft and chartered airliners. Most seats are on popular overseas routes or "channels." But military planes flying between scores of U.S. bases worldwide also have seats. A lot of Space-A seats are available on contracted flights through commercial gateways: Atlanta and Baltimore into Europe, and Los Angeles and Seattle into South Korea and Japan.
The contracted flights, called Patriot Express, are filled primarily with members and families moving to new assignments. But if a jet has 360 seats and 300 duty passengers, 60 seats are available for Space-A.
Maj. Brooks Reese, chief of Space-A passenger operations for AMC, said Space-A "must be completely a by-product of mission requirements." Aircraft can't be sized or flights added just to accommodate Space-A users.
For the same reason, AMC doesn't track Space-A use closely. It can't say, for example, whether more passengers fill Space-A seats aboard chartered airlines or military aircraft. The more comfortable seats are clearly on Patriot Express flights, however, which "provide a huge space-available opportunity," Reese said.
Under new contracts, airlines that serve Patriot Express, which AMC won't name for security reasons, are reconfiguring seats to allow more leg room. And starting this month, meals will be upgraded from coach to business class. The upgrades include child entertainment kits with coloring books, crayons and games.
"We've worked with the carriers really hard to make that a better flight than (typical) commercial," said Air Force Master Sgt. Maggie Batchelor, noncommissioned officer in charge of AMC passenger operations. "It's not the same experience that people were turned off by years and years ago."
The upgrades are intended as a morale boost for members moving to new assignments who typically are required to fly Patriot Express, Reese said. The upgrades then are a residual benefit for Space-A travelers.
The comfort of Space-A military aircraft varies by aircraft type and mission. Some newer transports can match commercial coach-class travel. Others remain noisy, cold excursions with passengers strapped into canvas jump seats, staring at dimly lit cargo pallets and eating box lunches.
The price is always right, however. Space-A users typically pay only a "head tax" of $12.80 and, if leaving from or returning to the United States, an $11 federal inspection fee.
The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks disrupted commercial aviation but not military transport missions and, therefore, not Space-A travel to any significant degree. "We were still flying," Batchelor said. About 90 minutes before a flight's departure, a Space-A roll call begins by priority category. Passengers are called within a category based on when they registered for Space-A travel. Seats are never guaranteed and passengers can be bumped even while between legs of their trips, if passenger or cargo requirements change. "You need to have funds available to defray any costs you might incur," Batchelor said. "That could include hotels, meals and commercial plane tickets back. You need to be flexible and to understand the risk (of delays) and financial commitment that might be involved."
Demand for Space-A peaks during "the holidays and any time school is out," Batchelor said. The best opportunity for Space-A travel, she said, "is after New Year's and before Easter."
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