In this video, we explore the AMC Space-Available program and dive into whether it’s worth it. Join us as we make the most of our time in Seattle while patiently awaiting our chance to travel with Space-A! We’re trying to get home to Okinawa, Japan. Discover tips, and insights to maximize your Space-A experience. Don’t miss out on this adventure! #military #seattle #AMC #travel #okinawatrip #spaceavailable
Hey what’s up everybody hey just want to take the time to share our AMC space a experience we got back like about 5 days ago it’s one of those high risk High rewards the risk is you may not get a flight you may be on standby for a while
And you may not get picked or selected you know regardless of uh category the lower the category like one being the best two three and all that you may have uh you know a chance on U getting on a flight but what you risk is you probably
End up eating some of your leave days that’s usually used for you know Leisure might be associated with ated expense for food hotel stays and you know maybe car rental and stuff like that to get around and also uh we’re traveling with a family of five we got tons of luggage
And you know that just makes it more challenging I guess if you do get it right the reward you know big savings big savings big time right when you secure a flight you know forun your family especially for a family like our size we use the environmental morale
Leave uh process basically just getting that submitted through the chain of command to be placed in the category 2 one tip is to ensure your EML start start date Falls within the window of your planned travel dates don’t specify the don’t put the exact date of your leave on the email form
Instead provide some you know buffer period like you know 10 days before and 10 days you know after your end date you you want to go ahead and put more with 15 put 20 whatever because things happen space availability is not guaranteed you know just like I said before right you
May end up losing leave days and then due to unavailability and majority this uh priority it goes to you know folks that is uh undergoing a permanent change of Duty station and then you know folks in emergency Le uh leave status for all this you must be in a leave status in
Order to submit your request you know to AMC to get you know signed up and also uh with our experience just to share our experience we attempted uh space a travel on kadina trying to go to Travis Air Base via the c170 on December 15th and during that
Time they only have five tenative seats unfortunately when it came came uh to rad call there were no seats available um the next available flight was on the 17th of December which like you know two days and due to the fact that we live here on cadina and it made a little bit
You know kind of kind of easier just a little bit more flexibility on our our end right um so we kept monitoring the the 72 hours uh flight schedule you know for any changes we plan on arriving you know on the 16th for Road call but the
Flight got pushed to Monday and that’s December 18th and then also on December 17th the 72-hour schedule changed again now it got pushed to the 19th and now you’re looking at you know a Tuesday so we checked the so we continue to check the the 72 hour schedule and now
It’s next thing you know the flight is completely cancelled they just went ahead and removed it so our next option was the patriot Express we you know if you’re not familiar with the Patriot Express the PE and stuff right that’s that’s equivalent to a commercial
Airline there is a fee I think the fee that we pay was like about I don’t know probably $37 $38 per person which ain’t bad at all right it it beats uh paying you know a uh a ticket to go to Seattle or so cu the patri express is
Going to go to Seattle you know saving 5,000 that’s if you get it right so uh that was scheduled for Wednesday and that’s December 20th so and then we look on the 72h hour schedule and then it populate with 160 plus you know tentative seats so we show on Wednesday
Morning at about like 4: in the morning you know to go ahead and trying to check in trying to you know just check in and trying to get that space available you know trying to go to Seattle we was able to do that they book
Us you know with us with a family of five and then when we arrived in Seattle we took a commercial flight to uh Sacramento that’s paying out our own pocket it’s about two 200 I don’t know per person so you know we spend a little
Bit over a th000 just for that oneway uh ticket to go to uh Sacramento all right just want to and also want to talk about our return flight so for our return flight from um to okanawa from uh seac from Seattle it was scheduled for January 4th so we flew from Sacramento
To seac you know on January 3rd right just to get that checkin and also we checked the 72-hour schedule there’s only five tenative seats available the space a line was quite long you got folks from you know all the way to Category 6 lining up during roll call
About um 04:30 4:30 in the morning there were 19 seats that they announced that opened up but unfortunately we were not selected the next patri Express date was on the January 8th it was an early morning you know for us and the kids we were like exhausted especially for
Myself I didn’t sleep for the whole entire day been trying to wait up and stuff stuff but the kids was able to you know get some get some rest on the hard floor so we end up getting a renter car uh we book Airbnb also with the airnbb we couldn’t
Check in till about 400 p.m. so we spent our time driving around um I think we went to uh some shopping area uh parking lot and then also I don’t know we parked it was empty during that morning right you talking about 5 6 in the morning it
Was empty and then we trying to you know get get some rest right trying to you know take a quick nap and and stuff like that right cuz for me I was tired and then next thing you know about a few hours you know just all this traffic
Coming in and people parking you know to my left to my right opening and looking at us cuz people can see through the damn window I don’t know and then I I want to go find somewhere else to park so I want to go drive by uh I found a
Target Park all the way near the end so and then we continue the the rest up there so basically uh during our stay we made the most of our situation by exploring um exploring the area you know D dining in you know uh multile restaurant we’ve been looking at a whole
Bunch of like loud restaurants and stuff right they got some good extreme loud food and U trying to to uh enjoy the unexpected uh extra time that we have on January 7th we check we check out the airnbb and continue our tour and later on drop off the renter car you know
Later that evening um to get in line for the space a check-in despite riding early we were not selected and it seemed like you know anybody with a family of four or more you know were not considered as priority you know compared to the single traveler so that’s the
Thing that we were dealing with in the end we basically didn’t want to wait um I know there was a flight schedule for next day and stuff like that to Osan and to uh yakota you know uh Japan that’s the next day we want to try to check and
Trying to you know compete for that and the thing is it has zero tentative seats we just like said it all right so we went ahead and purchased our ticket so that’s for the next day and that day that we try to fly that’s on the eight
Right you trying to book for the same day you ain’t going to get it well you can get it the thing is it’s very expensive so we plan for the um for the ninth which you know 2,000 per ticket we pay like 1,000 per ticket so this experiment along with you know added
Expense for food lodging and dealing with inflation hey I think was like quite challenging looking back if we had the you know we have known the uncertainty of space a we might have just you know op out for uh you know for a direct flight just a fly out from San
Francisco San Francisco to okano and you know save a few thousand dollars right because we spent about a th000 flying from Sacramento back to Seattle and just hoping to see if we can trying to compete for the space a and we also met some folks just standing in line you know talking to
Some folks there are some folks that we met that got selected for space a on 4 January got the boarding pass and everything right they call their names boom and you go ahead and line up and you know get ready to check in your luggage and um get a boarding pass
And the thing is by the time he was getting ready board you had some couple with a higher category right probably in uh you know a uh PCS status and then due to that with him getting selected he got knocked out with him the getting issued a boarding pass that actually pull him
Back so he was getting ready to board the plane next thing you know hey you know you no longer have the seat let go to somebody else that takes precedence you know over you so that’s the that’s the thing with you know with space a you
Can never be sure it’s uh it’s not guaranteed and it could be a headache because it wasn’t just us families and you know um that that didn’t get selected um there was folks that signning way earlier than you know the single Travelers because I knew some folks just
Talking to them they sign up you know mid December you have some folks that sign up in November and the thing is they still didn’t get selected with their family there was a family of six there was a family of five there’s a family of four that did not get
Selected so just kind of take that into consideration when you’re trying to utilize space a maybe uh trying to take advantage of it during the off time where it’s not PCS season you’re looking where especially during the holidays December January is holiday day travels and PCs seasons and and stuff like that
So there’s a lot of personnels that that is moving and U relocating and all um and also during the summertime right I’ll say hey avoid the summertime you’re going to use space a but the thing is for single traveler if you got the time you got the leave days and stuff like
That to go ahead and burn this is you know it’s good for you but the thing is for family it’s something that we got to consider maybe we we’ll probably try to plan next time where we got to do it where it’s kind of like off Seasons despite all this the travel
Issue you know our time with the family from Sacramento Fresno San Diego created countless cherish uh memories I was able to come up with uh total eight YouTube videos 82 YouTube video that that’s a big win for me creating a whole bunch of memories you know filled with
Smiles laughters man a lot of love all this Unforgettable moments you know during our 13 days out of uh 22 days you know of leave so just think about that right 13 days was all leave a I was with the family well out of the 22 days the
Remaining N9 days were spent you know traveling and dealing with AMC space a my family Sacramento all the way down to San Diego from me my wife you know our family is heartfelt thank you that’s go out to all you guys you guys show us nothing but love
You know with warm Hospitality you guys cook daily for us and spoil spoil us and providing us with you know with a comfortable place to stay and um during our time together uh you know C making videos this is truly Unforgettable I will never forget this moment right but
That’s why I got to go back and just you know just look and just kind of you know reminisce on certain things right we are Beyond grateful right a lot of love hey appreciate all you guys hey till uh maybe next time I I’ll retired
And U I’ll be home with all you guys and um we do some more stuff you know and our family growing got all his kids on the way and stuff like that right try to keep them really tight all right all right y’all