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Kateri Amrhein
New member
Username: Kateri
Post Number: 3
Registered: 08-2006
Posted From: 71.242.113.34
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 10:08 pm: | |
We typically fly from Andrews on C-21s (or Dover on C-5s). We just weighed my purse (contents included) and it is almost 5 lbs. No wonder my back hurts! Guess I'll be buying a smaller one. K |
John D.
Senior Member
Username: John_d
Post Number: 3317
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 72.254.12.67
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 07:46 pm: | |
Kateri, have you flown on small aircraft with the 30lb limitation in those 4 years? If not then that is why you have not run into it. If yes, then they just didn't bother weighing "all" your "baggage."
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Kateri Amrhein
New member
Username: Kateri
Post Number: 2
Registered: 08-2006
Posted From: 71.242.113.34
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 06:51 pm: | |
We've been traveling space a for 4 years, and I've never had my purse weighed. Is this a new policy or have I been slipping through the cracks??? |
Tom DeMicke
Senior Member
Username: Typhoontom
Post Number: 72
Registered: 03-2005
Posted From: 211.121.74.249
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 09:53 am: | |
Very nice trip report and very good advice about the Vegetarian Meal...I had no idea and may have made that mistake! I'll eat a regular balongna sandwich before eating PB&J on white brea. Yuck! Happy Travels and be sure not to forget to wrap a red bandanna around the handles of your carry-on bag so we may identify you as a proud member of this board! See you around!
Tom
Okinawa, Japan |
Gay Davis
Advanced Member
Username: Waynesgem
Post Number: 34
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 205.188.116.7
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 - 08:07 pm: | |
We were in Germany at Spangdahlem in April and rented a car from Hertz.Turned it in about a week later in Berlin. |
Cherry C.
Senior Member
Username: Cherry
Post Number: 1652
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 71.252.15.145
| | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 10:22 pm: | |
I believe it's in GERMANY that Hertz can no longer rent to retirees on base. |
Martha Fralia
Senior Member
Username: Mjfralia
Post Number: 137
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 152.163.100.67
| | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 09:00 pm: | |
Did you rent the car from Hertz on base? I didn't think retirees could rent from on base locations. |
Katie Daily
Member
Username: Kdes
Post Number: 7
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 24.113.102.5
| | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 06:00 pm: | |
Richard, Great trip report!
You may want to try and get to Charleston next time out of McChord - as they seem to have a couple of flights to Charleston each week. Charleston has lots of flights flights to Rota.
Also, always check when the DoD schools let out for the summer. In early June, 2003 I was in Rota trying to return to the east coast. The DOD school let out a week early (to start building repairs) so the Patriot Express ended up having only 5 space-A seats available (compared with over 70 seats two weeks earlier on the trip to Spain). Lots of PCSing, Cat 3 & 5's. |
Margie Weathers
Senior Member
Username: Margie
Post Number: 257
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 65.210.99.211
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 07:56 pm: | |
Thirty pounds is really a lot of stuff. When we had the chance recently to board a C21, the only thing I had to throw overboard was a travel guide I really wanted to keep, but since it was toward the end of the trip, it wasn't so bad.
Richard, love your writing style and your flexible resourceful travel style. You're our kind of guys. |
GJZ
Intermediate Member
Username: Candleinthesand
Post Number: 12
Registered: 05-2006
Posted From: 152.163.100.67
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 05:47 pm: | |
Dick, excellent post, enjoyed reading it! Sounds like kind of adventure we would do well on too! So you never made it to original destination, oh well......
We are in process of "planning" our first space available flight here too. Finding this board so helpful!
Aghast that a woman's purse is weighed! Had understood that you should carry meds, makeup, etc. in a big purse so as to avoid putting it in carryon which came under the 30# limit. |
Rob G.
Senior Member
Username: Rob_g
Post Number: 390
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 84.166.242.144
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 04:59 pm: | |
Nice report and a terrific first post! This is how they all should turn out  |
Richard A. Casey
New member
Username: Dick_casey
Post Number: 1
Registered: 06-2006
Posted From: 12.72.248.42
| | Posted on Thursday, June 15, 2006 - 03:35 pm: | |
Thanks to all of the adventurers who kindly posted notes about their experiences, my bride of 35 years and I took a shot at space-A travel. You can call it beginner’s luck; we call it having a great time!
Being spry 60 year olds CAT VI type beginners, we each packed a small wheeled "carry on" size bag, and a shoulder bag and made the McChord, Monday May 22, show time of 1430 to Dover, really wanting to make it to Rota. The C-17 lifted off three hours later. 0200 found us in Dover where we missed out on a C-17 with 6 seats going to Ramstein, (nothing in the 72 hr. schedule for Rota), but two C-5s around mid day headed for Germany.
We started hoofing it the 1 mile to the Air Force Inn, (no on base transportation at 0230) but a kind soul gave us a lift in his pick-up truck. $27.00 and a good night’s sleep later, we were hoofing it back to the terminal and again, a friendly person scooped us up and dropped us at the terminal’s front door.
A few hours later we made roll call on a C-5A and were airborne around 1800. Bright sunny daylight streamed into the aircraft as they opened the doors in Ramstein about mid morning German time, and in under an hour we had cleared the terminal. A $7.00 taxi ride got us to the Ramstein Inn, the excellent on-base lodging provider, and in quick order we were assigned a place in the North Inn for a lofty $32.00 US/night.
Learning about several C-21’s scheduled for Rota the following day brightened our first full day in Germany, but they fell off the schedule and nothing was going down range to anywhere sunny without bullets flying. Next morning we rented a car from Hertz, one of two on-base rent-a-car vendors, and drove up to Trier had a great meal and cruised through dozens of quaint German towns. No autobahns for us.
The next day found us long faced, as again the C-21s scheduled for Rota were scratched, so we told Hertz we were keeping the car for a week and headed into France. A week later, we’d been through the Black Forest, a bit of time around the Bodensee in Switzerland, a few days in Garmisch (The new Edelweiss Hotel MWR hotel is fabuloso) a few days in Munich, and with big smiles on our faces and our bellies full, we were back in Ramstein.
Friday morning, 2 June, after another night of grand accommodations at the Ramstein Inn, were back in the terminal, and made roll call for a C-17 headed to McChord. We were wheels up around 1030 German time and a long and uneventful flight put us into McChord around 1300 local time.
A short ferry ride later and we were home back on Vashon Island.
A few things I learned: Ask lots of question at the passenger service counter and do not leave until you are sure you are properly entered in AMC's computer for your intended destination(s). Make sure you really-really know what is flying, when, and where. Pack lighter than you normally do, the C-21 will only accept bags weighing less than 30 pounds, and this includes the Lady’s purse and ALL other bags. Depending on the counter staff, they MAY, average the weight of both traveler’s bags in determining the 30# limit. If waking in the middle of the night for an early morning flight, phone the terminal BEFORE pushing the START button on the coffee maker. If you are a vegetarian, DO NOT order the veggie in-flight meal unless you crave a PB&J on white bread.
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