Smart Air Travel

J

Jones14

Well-Known Member
Hello JC,

I had a few curiosities about air travel for AD military personel as I have some leave dates coming up soon and would like to be better prepared in the future as well. I'm currently in the Navy flight training pipeline and will be in the Pensacola, FL area through the remainder of 2013. Looking ahead at all of the possibilities of future training and even at most of the FRS locations, Southwest Airlines has pretty good coverage. They also typically have pretty low fares if you "Wanna Get Away" and have an exact set of days to go on leave.

I thought about enrolling for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Card, but thought there might be some better options out there for military members. I've heard about the AMEX Platinum card, which has good all around benefits, but not geared specifically for saving you money on airfare. A side note, that card is worth looking into simply because the $450 annual fee is waived for the life of the card for AD military. If you traveled A LOT, or internationally, that card would probably be great, but bouncing around between US airports... not so sure.

Also if you have any other advice or tips on traveling please share. Anything that might not be apparent to a new military member; how to get through security quicker, getting upgrades, USO services, benefits using certain airlines, etc.

Thanks.
 
Here's what I have:

-Pretty much all the airlines make baggage free if you're on orders. Until the day you separate or retire, you're always on some form of orders

-Put in leave early, especially while in formal training when looking to escape for holidays. Never book tickets without leave unless you ponied up for refundable tickets.

-You're an officer: overpay for the services you receive at the USO by at least a factor of two.
 
Is the AMEX Platinum lifetime fee waiver for AD military something new? I'd never heard of it while I was in. Having that platinum card may not necessarily do much for saving you money on plane tickets, but getting into most airlines' clubs for free because you have the card is pretty handy. Free snacks and adult beverages while you wait to travel somewhere are a fantastic benefit. Even if you never actually use the card, it's worth it to have just for that if it's going to be free. I stop in Delta Sky Clubs all the time...
 
From what I've read, you have to apply for the card normally then call and tell them you're AD and they will waive the fee for the life of the card. And others said that they were refunded for all of the previous years they had been paying the fee. There's a good thread about it over on AW, but the site seems to be down right now for some reason. I'll post the link later.
 
No idea, as most of the places I flew out of in flight training were not served by SWA in any way/shape/form, with the exception of San Diego when I was in the FRS at Miramar. I will say that I can probably count on one hand how many times I ever bought tickets for a leave trip more than 2 weeks prior to the trip. Hook's advice is solid, but I would say that there have been very few times when I was presented the opportunity to buy very much in advance. You can expect holiday leave periods to be published in the Nov timeframe, and then there will be some approval process involved as a lot of commands do a split period where you can take one week or so, but not the other, and that will be divvied up between the members of your class/etc so that there are folks to stand watch and fly the random X's that occur in the handful of fly days during that period. I could see there being more advanced notice if you are looking to take leave during a less standard time, but again, being a student, you just aren't going to have that luxury much if at all, aside from breaks in training, which again will pop up randomly like a week prior to taking leave. If you are a guy like I was, who always flew home to the exact opposite side of the country that I was stationed at (PNW guy), it will be expensive no matter what. If you are looking to go to the east coast, SE, or even the midwest, then it will probably be a lot more convenient, but since you mention SWA, I'm guessing you aren't going to those places.
 
Call SWA and ask about military fares. If they have them savings are much better than the lowest web fares. Last two SWA flights I took were >50% off the low web fare.
 
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