Space A travel on Hops

First I would like to quote the individual who wrote an extensive article in Wikipedia about space available travel.  "Space-availabe travel is a privilege (not an entitlement) available to the Uniformed Services members and there dependents."


Space-available travel is a program that allows military members, retired military, and military dependents to fly on government owned/contracted flights where there is enough space to occupy a person or persons and often luggage. These flights are only available when they do not interfere with the mission. The Majority of these flights are available through the Air Mobility Command (AMC) or through the Navy. Flights are available to Japan, Korea, Alaska, Guam, Spain, Italy and several other locations.


This is a link to a forum where space-availabe flights are listed and the schedules for these flights. You have to be a registered user to access this site but, if you are traveling and don't want to sit in the terminal for hours when a flight is rescheduled then you might like this site.


I heard it from a post here that you should "TRY TO AVOID FLYING FROM MAY TO SEPT" That said, it is probably a good idea to keep your hops to a minimum of 3 flights or less. The more planes you board the more time it will take and the more likely you will be to get stuck in a location that you might not want to be in. Personally, I don't think I will be taking any hops that require more than one flight unless I am on there per the provision of the US Military for the purpose of a PCS (moving to a new home).  I travel with 3 young ones and I don't plan on putting them through that. I am fine with saving money to travel to locations that I want to go and save myself the headache of being stuck in 5 different locations for several days in each location just to "save money". Traveling from Texas to Thailand via space-available travel is a stretch at best. But, hey if you want to try it you need to know that you will have to wait and you will get "stuck" at least a couple of times! :) If you are adventuresome then this could be the ticket for you! 


A good blog that really gets into all the in's and outs of space-availabe traveling is here 


http://spacea.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=Space-A_Travel_FAQ

This blog has many explanations to the terms and conditions for Space-available flights and links that you may be interested in when considering travel.