How do Military Hops work and who can use them?

How hard would it be to take a Military hop over seas and can you take family with you even if you are still in the Military? And if so what all or who do you need to talk to about doing that?How do Military Hops work and who can use them?Family meaning dependents who are registered in DEERS yes, you can take them with you if you are AD or Retiree when going overseas (OCONUS) or CONUS. If you are talking about father, mother, brother, sister who aren't your dependents then no you can't.



Flights vary from where they are going, what they are doing and what they do there. It can be anything from a Lear Jet to a commercial airline or a C130 or K135 or anything in between and beyond. You could be sitting in nice airline seats or in mesh seats or on the cold floor. You might have a decent toliet w/sink or you might be using a toliet surrounded by a shower curtain in the back of the plane. You might have movies or you might have to provide your own.



When you are flying you need to be prepared for delays, cancellations, getting bumped and everything else. Get ready to sit in a Military airport for hours, even days trying to get a flight somewhere, anywhere. If you are then great.



If you are AD then you can't sign up until you are on leave, but you do have a Priority over many others. You will be Category 3, and only be bumped by people on orders, or who signed up before you. If you are a Retiree then you are Cat 6 so you can get bumped a lot. Dependents can fly by themselves but only in certain conditions. 1) AD member deployed over 180 days, then everywhere is open to them; 2) AD member stationed overseas (not deployed, stationed) and going to visit them (requirement letter from AD command); and 3) AD %26amp; Family stationed overseas and coming stateside for a visit. But there is restrictions.



There is lots of websites where you can get information, click on some of them below.How do Military Hops work and who can use them?Any immediate family member of a service member (that means Spouse and kids BTW and not Mom, dad, cousins bothers or sisters etc...) can hop a military flight to any overseas destination (there was a period when it also available for inter USA travel but I am not sure if that is still available) on a space available capacity. It takes a little work to find the proper numbers to call for flight info and there are no guarantees that you will be able to get on a flight, that you won't get bumped off the flight at some random stopping point or that you can return by the same means. Costs for the flights are minimal and on most you can purchase a box lunch for a reasonable fee or snacks and sodas too. Some adventurous types just show up to a MAC terminal and take any flight thats available. Although those must be kind of hard to pack for.How do Military Hops work and who can use them?AMC Space A flights have lots of rules and regs.



generally speaking: you must be on Leave Dependents may ONLY fly if they are flying WITH their sponsor CONUS. they can only fly to and from OCONUS when stationed overseas on accompanied orders and have command sponsorship.



when their sponsor is deployed and they are residing OCONUS they can fly back to the states without the sponsor so long as they have a letter from the command stating he is on deployment.



you cannot sign up for a flight until you are on leave. you can and will be be bumped by people on orders or a higher category( Emergency leave, for instance).



it is frankly NOT an easy thing to get at all and ultimately you have to have back up plans for all stages. flights get canceled, people on orders get priority and you still have to be back when your leave is up.How do Military Hops work and who can use them?
You can catch a hop as Space A. You can take your family. But there will be a delay. There is a web site for Space A schedules and flights.