Has anyone taken a Space A flight from Yokota AFB before? I've never done Space A and I was wondering if anyone can give me information specifically on the Space A flight from Yokota to Seattle. Is it fairly easy to get on the list? Is there a way I can sign up for it without physically going to Yokota? Because I am in Yokosuka, it is a bit far and I don't drive here in Japan so I was wondering if there is an email or phone number I can use instead of going to Yokota to get on the list. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Maricris

Maricris,
As a matter of fact, my family and I just got back last weekend from taking the Yokota to Seattle Space A flight. In fact, we went round trip, both ways using that flight.

I will get my wife to write down the steps we took to make it as seamless as possible. I am assuming you are married since you have a young'un in your picture. Is your husband planning on making the trip back to the states with you?

I"m sure others will weigh in with a complete answer soon, but I will just mention we are about to approach peak season for travel. Seats become very competitive. If you are traveling without your active duty spouse, you likely won't get on once school is out, and don't forget you'll need a way to get back to Japan in case Space A doesn't work out. If you are traveling with your spouse, then it all comes down to who has the earliest sign-up date on the list. There will few few seats available in the summer as PCS families fill them up.

I'm like 99% sure you can sign up by fax. I also recommend you get the book on Space A travel which is probably available at your bookstore. All the tips, tricks and fax numbers are there.

Yes you can sign up by email or fax. Go to the space a website and it will give you all the terminals info and emails.
www.amc.af.mil/amctravel/index.asp

I agree about traveling in the summer, you never know. Sometimes it is just better to buy tix to the states. I got stuck in Seattle last summer and ended up buying a ticket back after waiting for two weeks. It wasn't cheap!!

OK, didnt exactly expect my wife to write a novel, but here is her rundown of what to do to catch the Yokota AMC flight:



I was extremely concerned about trying to travel Space A because I had heard stories of it taking a long time to get back and forth and what not. It's not as hard to do as people make it sound. I made numerous calls back and forth between Yokota and McChord (Seattle's Air Force Base). Honestly, the guys at McChord have been super helpful and nice. You usually get a "civilian" Japanese guy when you call Yokota and he is relatively difficult to understand. The single most important step in trying to fly Space A is getting EML orders from your active duty member's admin office. Flying on EML orders puts you in a much higher category. Active Duty on leave (with dependents) are Category 2 if you have EML orders to fly out on. Dependents flying without the active duty member and on EML orders are a Category 4. If you don't have EML and your active duty on leave, it's Cat 3. The website that I have found that best describes the categories and eligibility for flying space A is http://www.baseops.net/spaceatravel/. You will also find the contact list for all AMC Passenger Terminals at the bottom, complete with phone numbers.

Not only are the EML orders important, if you are anything other than active duty, and will not be flying with your active duty sponsor, you need to get your name on the sign up list as early as possible. Sign up is one of the things that they look at. I do have the email addresses for both Yokota and McChord to sign up and they are 730ams.space.available@yokota.af.mil and eagle@mcchord.af.mil. One of the guys at McChord directed me to takeahop.com which is another site that allows you to sign up on there, although I did that, I recommend sending via email and/or fax and most definitely call to confirm that they received your request and have you on the sign up list. Active duty CANNOT sign up until at the earliest midnight the day that you will be checking out on leave. I emailed the scanned copy of my husband's leave chit and our EML orders the day he checked out on leave. If you sign up before, it will not matter because they will resign you up when you go on leave. Your name remains on the roster for I think 60 days. Include a copy of the leave chit, EML orders, names of all traveling with you and dates that you wish to travel when you sign up.
I haven't tried to use this in getting to other countries. With the exception of going to Korea, I think it would be much more difficult and I'm pretty sure that in most cases they are not commercially operated flights like the Patriot is that goes back and forth between here and the states. The Patriot flight is the flight that leaves Yokota destined for Seattle-Tacoma International. (this is another important note...when signing up for the return flight out of Seattle, you must put SEA-TAC as the location for departure. NOT McChord.) The flight leaves on Thursdays and Saturdays with Thursday being the easier one to get on bound for Seattle. The flight out of Seattle has roll calls on Monday and Wednesday nights with Monday supposedly being the easier one to get on. You need to contact each terminal to confirm show times and flights are only listed up to a month in advance. It is June right now, they can only tell you June flights. There is a possibility that they pick up a third flight for the summer due to this being a heavily traveled time frame.

Regardless, you have to keep in mind that flights can be cancelled or changed at any time. Also keep in mind that during heavier travelled seasons, you could have a more difficult time catching a space A flight. A lot of PCS orders fall between mid May - end of Sept. Summer is a busier time to fly because of summer vacation from school, and holidays of course may be hard to fly around as well. You have to be prepared to buy a ticket to get yourself back if necessary and it can be very costly to do. You may incur hotel charges for having to wait around somewhere. Personally we chose to spend the night in Seattle upon arrival to the states and the night before we planned to leave. The best/easiest option is to just do Space A back to the states and then search flights out of Sea-Tac that you would purchase yourself. From what I have read and heard, dependents are not allowed to fly space A within the continental US without their active duty member. Not to mention those flights are usually military transport and other government scheduled flights that vary wildly and may not get you quite close enough to your desired destination. It just worked out much easier and cheaper for us to spend a night in Seattle a hotel and take a commercial flight out the next morning. It's highly advisable to not try and schedule a flight out of Seattle for anything more than 3 hours after the scheduled arrival time. We were scheduled to be there around 1330ish and landed a bit early, however we waited somewhere close to an hour by the baggage claim on all of our luggage. We were not the only ones waiting! This was even after we had gone through customs.

Roll call in Seattle is done on the first floor by the Seattle's Best Coffee, under the USO (which is on the second floor). There is a fee for travelling Space A. I think it is 35 and some change to leave Yokota and then maybe 17 leaving Seattle.

It's really not as difficult as it sounds like it could be. Just be prepared, be sure to take all the steps required to get properly signed up and get those EML orders to get in to the highest possible category. I can offer to help or answer questions that anyone may have. I bothered the guys in McChord a lot, like I said, they were very willing to help and gave me a lot of information that made our Space A travel a whole lot easier.




Like I said, a novel! But, alot of good information, and my wife has become somewhat of an expert on all things Space A, at least between Japan and Seattle anyways. If anybody has any further questions, feel free to shoot them my way and I will either answer them myself, or forward them over to my newly minted "Space A Master"...

To chime in on this... since Yokota is a drive, if you plan on flying Space A for a short term (anywhere)... what do you do about leaving your vehicle on the base? Can you leave it at Yokota until your return? Or do you need to be dropped off/picked up by someone?

I'm planning on doing the Space A from Yokota, and that is a concern that everyone should be aware of.

Yokota has long term parking. It's right over the bridge across the terminal.

Is there a bus or shuttle from Yokosuka to Yokota or would we have to take the train?

littlebit.....I'm pretty sure there is one, but I don't know the schedule. You can check in the building where the Narita bus stop is. I asked them once, but I don't remember what they said about going to and from Yokota.