Our AMC/MAC Flight Experience

So the AMC (or MAC) flight is a free military flight from where you are to almost any Air Force base in the world if they fly in that direction. When the Air Force has extra seats on a plane, they take military members, their families and retirees and give them them extra seats. It's a cost effective way to travel if you have the patience for it.

Day 1 - Arrive in Yokota after a 2 1/2 hour bus ride. Find out there is one flight leaving for Seattle-Tacoma Airport....it's called the Patriot Express and it goes there from Yokota every week. Sign up to be on the flight if there's seats. At about 15 minutes before we can check in for the flight they post a roster. The roster shows us where our names are on the waiting and priority list. Our hearts sink. We're close to the bottom. A family of six is clogging up the top, meaning one singular family may get all the seats. Five minutes before the flight we stand in line to hear who actually made it on the flight. One person did. That's all the seats they had for Space A travellers.

We try to get a room for $50 a night at the Air Force Lodge, but they're all booked and refuse to let us even get on the standby list in case there's a cancellation. We're told to go out in town to a Japanese hotel. The cost is $97/night.

Day 2 - Arrive at the airport terminal early in the morning. We are told there is a flight directly to Travis Air Force Base, near John's hometown. The roster is posted again and we're near the bottom, again. The family of six is still competing at the top for seats. We are asked to line up again and four people make it onto this flight. The rest of us are told to go home. Still no rooms at the Air Force Lodge so we spend $97 again to spend the night in the Japanese hotel.

Day 3 - We arrive at the airport again and are told they have one flight to Seattle. We doubt we'll get on it since we have discovered these Seattle flights are for military members travelling on orders and they do pack the flight. We get our name on the roster. The family of six has given up (after 9 days of trying, they said) and we're closer to the top. After about six hours of waiting we're all asked to line up to see if we made it. Four people are allowed on the flight. The rest of us are told to go home. John and I go to our regular hotel to try to get a room. They're all booked. We're out in the rain with no umbrellas. A Japanese lady sees us from inside her business and comes out and hands us two umbrellas. We call a hotel one city over and they have a room. We spend $160 a night for this room.

Day 4 - This day looks promising. They have a flight going to Alaska and continuing to Travis Air Force Base. It is reported to have 54 seats available. We once again sign up to be on the list. When they post the roster, our hearts soar. We're close to the top. With 54 seats we're guaranteed to get on! When they ask us to all line up, they break our hearts. The flight has been cancelled. It has never left Singapore. There will be no other flights to the US that day. They let us wait for nearly four hours knowing the plane had never arrived and never bothered to tell anyone until the last minute. In anger, we rush to our computers and pay nearly $2300 to get back to the US.

The main thing is knowing when to give up. John is on vacation and burning leave days as we wait in purgatory. We wasted nearly $500 on hotels while trying to get a flight. We know next time we have to be Category II, because each flight that left with people always left with Category II people. No Category III people ever left. I don't know if we'll be doing a Space A flight again.