JBM
10-07-2008, 04:47 PM
OK, make that ¥20,000 a day, but I am giving serious thought to trying to take a "Space-A" military charter flight to Japan in February.
Since my move from Kansas, I now live only a couple of hours from McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, WA. McChord is a major Air Mobility Command base with C-17 aircraft, so they have a lot of flights to the Pacific region. McChord doesn't have flights to Japan...but they do run the Northwest charter (the "Patriot Express") that flies out of SEA a few times a week!
As my work is seasonal, I am available for travel from January to March and also June to August. Here's where it gets good: McChord says that the "low period" is February through March, so I stand a pretty good chance of getting a flight.
"Patriot Express" flies to Yokota AFB near the town of Fussa, about 25-35 miles west of downtown Tokyo. I'm going to have to consult Japan Rail schedules to figure out how to get to where I want to go. I definitely want to go back to Sapporo, especially while the Winter Festival is still on (I was there in 2005 for a military exercise, but it wrapped up and we went home before the festival began), but I would also like to really see Tokyo. All I got to see of Tokyo was whatever was visible from the highways connecting Haneda (domestic) and Narita (international) Airports.
Because I am in a "grey" area for military retirement (formally retired from the Army Reserve but not drawing retirement pay), I can't take my wife on this flight...although it's just as well, as she hates flying. She also is new to her job, so taking vacation time is a non-starter until summer anyway. If this were a C-17 or C-5 rather than a 747 or A330, she would emphatically shout "Hell no, I won't go!" Selling her on a business class flight to Europe in 2010 or 2011 is going to be tough enough...
Although "Space-A" sounds great on paper, it's not without risks. One is that you can be bumped by someone of higher priority. Of the six categories of travelers, I would be in the last category. Another risk is that flights can be rescheduled or even cancelled as the needs and missions of the military dictate. Fortunately, since "Patriot Express" is a regularly-scheduled civilian carrier charter, the "needs and missions" clause probably won't come into play. Then again, soldiers reporting to duty in Japan or returning home to a new assignment would get priority over me, for example, so it's possible I might have to wait for another flight home.
In this case, I have to be prepared to wait in Japan for a flight home. It might only be a day, or it could be several days. I'd have to plan to pay extra for lodging, meals, and perhaps even a one-way trip home on a civilian flight.
To help keep costs down, I am going to try to use lodging at US military installations where possible. Since it will be impossible to find that at every stop, I do want to try a "capsule" hotel at least once. Weird Al Yankovic didn't seem to mind his...
Stay tuned for more details over the next couple of months.
Since my move from Kansas, I now live only a couple of hours from McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, WA. McChord is a major Air Mobility Command base with C-17 aircraft, so they have a lot of flights to the Pacific region. McChord doesn't have flights to Japan...but they do run the Northwest charter (the "Patriot Express") that flies out of SEA a few times a week!
As my work is seasonal, I am available for travel from January to March and also June to August. Here's where it gets good: McChord says that the "low period" is February through March, so I stand a pretty good chance of getting a flight.
"Patriot Express" flies to Yokota AFB near the town of Fussa, about 25-35 miles west of downtown Tokyo. I'm going to have to consult Japan Rail schedules to figure out how to get to where I want to go. I definitely want to go back to Sapporo, especially while the Winter Festival is still on (I was there in 2005 for a military exercise, but it wrapped up and we went home before the festival began), but I would also like to really see Tokyo. All I got to see of Tokyo was whatever was visible from the highways connecting Haneda (domestic) and Narita (international) Airports.
Because I am in a "grey" area for military retirement (formally retired from the Army Reserve but not drawing retirement pay), I can't take my wife on this flight...although it's just as well, as she hates flying. She also is new to her job, so taking vacation time is a non-starter until summer anyway. If this were a C-17 or C-5 rather than a 747 or A330, she would emphatically shout "Hell no, I won't go!" Selling her on a business class flight to Europe in 2010 or 2011 is going to be tough enough...
Although "Space-A" sounds great on paper, it's not without risks. One is that you can be bumped by someone of higher priority. Of the six categories of travelers, I would be in the last category. Another risk is that flights can be rescheduled or even cancelled as the needs and missions of the military dictate. Fortunately, since "Patriot Express" is a regularly-scheduled civilian carrier charter, the "needs and missions" clause probably won't come into play. Then again, soldiers reporting to duty in Japan or returning home to a new assignment would get priority over me, for example, so it's possible I might have to wait for another flight home.
In this case, I have to be prepared to wait in Japan for a flight home. It might only be a day, or it could be several days. I'd have to plan to pay extra for lodging, meals, and perhaps even a one-way trip home on a civilian flight.
To help keep costs down, I am going to try to use lodging at US military installations where possible. Since it will be impossible to find that at every stop, I do want to try a "capsule" hotel at least once. Weird Al Yankovic didn't seem to mind his...
Stay tuned for more details over the next couple of months.