herzmeh

The departure

I arrived at the terminal roughly three hours before depature, made my presence known to the pax clerks, got my parking pass and drove about a mile and half to the parking area. Parked the car and on a nice, humid evening, went for a pleasant stroll back to the terminal. Roll call begun on time, with everyone wanting to go to Germany getting manifested on the flight. Paid $4.25 for the dinner to be served once airborne, received my boarding pass (on a real cardboard stock, mind you!) and a ticket jacket, went back to the waiting area. Some people went out of the terminal and it was a mistake on their part... boarding begun almost an hour early - about 3-4 people missed the flight.

After going through security screening, all 20ish of us sat in another waiting area for no more than 30 minutes, then we were bussed to the aircraft.

The flight

The flight was rather uneventful. Seatbelt sign was turned off about 5-10 minutes after wheels up, dinner was served within 15 minutes of wheels up. Blankets and nearly full-size pillows were available on a pallet in the back - shrinkwrapped and smelling fresh and very similar to UA's biz blankies. Water and Gatorade was available from a few coolers up front. Few kids got invited into into the cockpit to observe the sunset. Rolled out my mat, grabbed a blanket, or two, or four and went to sleep. Got a good 6-7 hours of sleep. Got woken up by the crew about 20 minutes from landing. Oh, another note... your "checked" baggage is stacked on a pallet right in front of you, but you are not allowed to access it. Thing is, what the crew doesn't see will not hurt them. Biggest minus was wild flactuation of the cabin temperature - seemed to go from low 40s to high 70s, up and down, up and down for most of the flight.

The arrival

Arrival was uneventful as well. Arrived, bus to the terminal, waited for about 20 minutes for the immigration inspector to arrive. Passport stamped, baggage already waiting, customs a breeze.

The legroom and the sleeping area.



The dinner.



The cabin.

Babaduck

That's a great insight - so I gather the IFE isn't up to scratch

herzmeh

Well, there are numerous 120v outlets throughout the plane. If crew is nice enough, they even let you plug in a power strip.

luv_flying

Cool! sorry for being ignorant, but how did you get such a trip?

herzmeh

Air Mobility Command offers seats on space-available basis to eligible "patrons".

http://www.amc.af.mil/amctravel/index.asp

nolan222

Great insight, thanks for sharing!
So you are able to roll out a 'mat' and catch some zzzzs?

aisleorwindow

Way cool. I assume you have to be employed by the military to get access to these flights?

Would you mind sharing how much it costs?

Bretteee

Thanks. Hilarious.

Orlando Vic

I think they may have a uniform in your size.

-Vic (USAF, Ret.)

herzmeh

Yeah, but it's a crapshoot. Sometimes the plane is empty, sometimes it's full of cargo, so you're stuck in the jumpseat.

herzmeh

$0 for flight and $4.25 for the boxed meal. It's $20 and change in taxes if you depart BWI (usually to RMS, then onto Aviano and then onto downrange) or SEA (Japan, then onto Korea).