Military Flight with Baby

kt_arr · December 2013

Hello ladies! So DH and I are currently stationed in Hawaii, and next summer I have to fly home to Pennsylvania for a wedding. LO will be about 4 months old, and I was going to bring her with me. I was thinking about booking a military flight to save on costs, but I was also wondering if a commercial flight would be easier for traveling with an infant (especially if it's a long flight). Anyone have any experience with this?

ufsandra85 · December 2013

i take space a all the time. first you cant "book" a military flight. second is there a base in PA that has flights from Hawaii? I would look on the Hawaii space A page. i dont remember seeing a flight schedule like that. also if you have to take several flights then you can get bumped anywhere along the way. I dont know if Hawaii you can take the flight unaccompanied ( i know you can if you live in Europe and Japan but I don't know about hawaii) and if you are bringing your husband you cant sign up to get on the waiting list till the day his leave starts so that may be the day before you have to leave.

kt_arr · December 2013

By "book" I meant being put on the waiting list. I do know that you can fly unaccompanied from HI. They do have some flights to PA every once in a while (Harrisburg) but I was thinking about taking a flight to the East Coast and possibly getting a rental car and hotel once I get there. That'll still cost at least a few hundred dollars, but that's a lot cheaper than almost $2,000 for a one-way ticket on a commercial flight. But then again, it's still a huge hassle to do all of this with an infant… I can't figure out which one is more worth it haha.

ETA: Thankfully I'll have over a month to wait for a flight, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Avion22 · December 2013

We have a friend who has travelled Space A a lot with a baby -- he's maybe 18 months, and she's done several trips between the UK and US since he was born. I would think it's easier to travel with a 4-month old than a 1-year-old anyway. My biggest concern would be that you could get stuck someplace and not have enough diapers/formula/whatever. At least with commercial flights there is predictability. Space A tends to be really good if you have flexible travel plans, but could get stressful if you have a specific even that you're trying to make it back for (like a wedding).

Carnation77 · December 2013

I think that would be tough. I know the routes they fly and you will probably have a lot of stops going that far. There is a base in PA, but I'm not sure exactly where you're trying to go. I think a commercial flight would be much easier. You can probably get one nonstop or with only one stop. It also depends on what kind of plane you would end up on. If it's a cargo plane that would be horrible with a baby. They're loud and aren't always the best at climate control.

kt_arr · December 2013

Carnation77 said:

I think that would be tough. I know the routes they fly and you will probably have a lot of stops going that far. There is a base in PA, but I'm not sure exactly where you're trying to go. I think a commercial flight would be much easier. You can probably get one nonstop or with only one stop. It also depends on what kind of plane you would end up on. If it's a cargo plane that would be horrible with a baby. They're loud and aren't always the best at climate control.

Haven't thought of that. I do have a lot of time to wait for a flight and wasn't too concerned about flying directly into PA (was looking anywhere close enough that I could drive a rental car without too many overnight stops). It might just be easier to hash out the couple thousand dollars to fly commercially.

Thanks for the input, ladies!

Samiantha101 · December 2013

I use to live in HI, and I know the flights can get expensive. I signed up for a delta credit card, and received enough points to fly anywhere in the continental US out of HI. And every year after that, I got a free companion pass. I know this may not work for everybody, but it worked well for us.

marineshunni · January 2014

Personally Space A is great, but really hard to get on. Especially if you are flying from OConus. You can fly with regular airlines and get a pretty good military discount. I did this all the time when I lived overseas & flew to Texas with my son. I went to the travel agency on base and got my discount. But this was my personal experience.

CherSomething · January 2014

I used to take a rotator from Lakenheath (or was it Mildenhall) into BWI when I was stationed in England. I was a dependent and took my infant with me. If the flight you can take kind of plane from HI to CONUS (a commerical airline for military & families), you'll be fine. It was just like any other airline, you got hot towel, a movie, and everything. I don't know if they have these in HI.

I flew space-A on med-evac military flights and it was dreadful. Tqake off, land, take off, land take of land, all very quickly... Up and down. And it was LOUD. I wouldn't recommend that with a baby.

Good luck!

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