Right Click Block

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Postponing Space-Aing

It's true.  I couldn't go through with it.  I'm publicly announcing what I already told my family: there's no way I'm going to try to Space-A this summer. 

Well, that's not really it... it's that I don't think I will be *able* to Space-A this summer, so I'm going to save myself the stress of two weeks waiting around in an airport for nothing. 

Ramstein Passenger Terminal has a facebook page where they post every day how many Space-A travelers got out and what the lowest Category was.  (Remember, I'd be a Cat 5 cause I wouldn't be flying with J.  Cat 3's are the ones who are accompanied by their military member)  In the three or four weeks that I've been keeping track, the lowest number I've seen fly out was Cat 4.  And that was only one flight, to Illinois... because some of the Cat 3's didn't want to go there. 

The terminal also posted some helpful info about their actual statistics in the past few years.  Their Space-A summer traffic usually tops out at around 3,500 passengers a month.  But as soon as the DOD schools are back in session, the numbers drop a ton.  September usually sees between 1,500-2,000 Space-Aers.  Pretty much any time school is in session is a good time to fly.  And any time it's a summer/winter break, you can pretty much bet that you'll be waiting upwards of a month for Cat 5 and up to two weeks for Cat 3. 

Two friends of mine got out the day they tried... one in November and one in March.  So it looks like fall and spring is the way to go!

So I'm going to postpone my trip until things settle down over there.  I told my family sometime in September.  We'll see what the numbers do... I'm itching to get over there ASAP, but we'll see what happens! 

It was a little disappointing to realize I wouldn't make it to family vacation.  And all the fam is more free during the summer.  But I kind of knew what to expect, so it wasn't a shock.  It was just hard to make the final decision. 

All in all, I'm SO thankful for Space-A and SO thankful that I'll be able to go home for free.  (Or almost free!) 

2 comments:

  1. sad . . . but happy that we will see you in September (I told your sisters this morning - they hadn't seen the e-mail) I LOVE YOU!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So sorry Jess, but hopefully it can all work out!

    ReplyDelete