Military Families-Suggestions, Please

[tlivgstn]

My daughter's husband is in the Air Force and they are being stationed at Ramstein in Germany. Her husband has to report by March 31 and they didn't get their orders until a week ago which means that she is going to have to fly over by herself with my two grandsons-ages almost 3 and 1 once they get their passports or military whatever.... Are there any discounts for family members of the military? If I could find a bargain, I might be able to fly over there with her and fly right back (b/c I teach and can't take many days). Or go with my husband and 12yo this summer.
Thanks in Advance.

 

[cm8]

hi! do you mean for airfares or passports?

 

[Sleepy]

My daughter's husband is in the Air Force and they are being stationed at Ramstein in Germany. Her husband has to report by March 31 and they didn't get their orders until a week ago which means that she is going to have to fly over by herself with my two grandsons-ages almost 3 and 1 once they get their passports or military whatever.... Are there any discounts for family members of the military? If I could find a bargain, I might be able to fly over there with her and fly right back (b/c I teach and can't take many days). Or go with my husband and 12yo this summer.
Thanks in Advance.

Is she flying commercial or military flight?
I would be very careful about your plan. The military is a very iffy organization when it comes to flights. You might have tickets in hand and all of a sudden you are told you will fly on a different date. You might be told you will fly commercial and then be told military instead, or vice versa. Can you be assured there is no way she would fly military? You can't fly with her if she is flying military flight. Finally, there is no military discount for you on flights. You are not a dependent. Unlike park tickets, etc, plane tickets are one thing a military person can't buy for you in order to get the discount.

 

[KerryCM]

My daughter's husband is in the Air Force and they are being stationed at Ramstein in Germany. Her husband has to report by March 31 and they didn't get their orders until a week ago which means that she is going to have to fly over by herself with my two grandsons-ages almost 3 and 1 once they get their passports or military whatever.... Are there any discounts for family members of the military? If I could find a bargain, I might be able to fly over there with her and fly right back (b/c I teach and can't take many days). Or go with my husband and 12yo this summer.
Thanks in Advance.

Your daughter should be able to get a passport for herself and the children quicker because her husband is military. Both of my daughters are married to Air Force men, one in Colorado Springs and one at Lakenheath RAF in England. The one in England has also been at Ramstein. She was able to get a passport within a week by going through the family office on base. Are you daughter and her family currently in base housing? Will they be having th AF doing their packing and moving? The AF usually puts the family on a commercial flight, mine flew American, and pays for the relocating family memebers as well.

You will not be able to obtain a military flight discount, and they aren't that great, because you will need to present and ID at checkin. The flights are usually a small discount on full price fares.
I hop this helped. I will call my daughter in England to get more info for you, but your daughter should have this info with their PCS material.

 

[Sleepy]

Your daughter should be able to get a passport for herself and the children quicker because her husband is military. Both of my daughters are married to Air Force men, one in Colorado Springs and one at Lakenheath RAF in England. The one in England has also been at Ramstein. She was able to get a passport within a week by going through the family office on base. Are you daughter and her family currently in base housing? Will they be having th AF doing their packing and moving? The AF usually puts the family on a commercial flight, mine flew American, and pays for the relocating family memebers as well.

You will not be able to obtain a military flight discount, and they aren't that great, because you will need to present and ID at checkin. The flights are usually a small discount on full price fares.
I hop this helped. I will call my daughter in England to get more info for you, but your daughter should have this info with their PCS material.

They still have to go through the process of getting the no fee and then the visa through the military. I am sure that is what they are doing right now since she is not able to fly with her husband end of March. Maybe things are different with AF, but I know with Navy, it takes a while.....definitely not one week.

 

[jsmith]

Passports will not be the hold up-no fee military ones take less than a week-but they have to do overseas medical screens and and such that have to be done. that and being sure they have command sponsership and getting SOFA stamps in their passports. As someone else said-buying a ticket to go with her would be next to impossible-she wont know when shes flying-whether its military or commercial and so on intime for you you to purchase tickets.
as for going in the summer-im watching airfare to europe for the summer pretty closelly right now-budget 1k to 15 per person.

 

[Sleepy]

Passports will not be the hold up-no fee military ones take less than a week-but they have to do overseas medical screens and and such that have to be done. that and being sure they have command sponsership and getting SOFA stamps in their passports.

I have been through the process. Maybe has something to do with which country you are heading to, but ours took way longer than a week, then we had to do the visa process, which is what you are probably referring to as the SOFA stamp. Command sponsorship is automatic once orders are issued and you are released from current command. This is why the military is allowing her to fly overseas without her husband. Under normal circumstances (non-sponsorship), she would not be allowed to fly alone. I know once we arrived in Italy, we had to apply for what was called a sogiorno permit. It is what allowed us to stay in the country once the passport stamp expired. Like I said, I guess all countries are different in their requirements.

ETA: We recently went through a second process for new no fees since my husband is now retired (retired over here), working gov conttract over here and trying to get a GS job (same place). That no fee also took many weeks and then the visa took about a week.