Have you heard of or used Space-A travel in the past years? If you’ve got some time on your hands, it’s a great way to travel at little to no cost! Basically, Space-A flights allow passengers to fill unused seats on DoD aircraft. A great way to keep the cost down when traveling with or without your family!
Many disabled Veterans have used it since it was first introduced back in 2019 as they joined Retirees and their spouses, National Guard Members, Reserve Members, and surviving spouses of those who died on active duty in their ability to utilize this benefit.
However, dependents of disabled Veterans were not able to accompany said Veteran – at least until the end of 2020. In the middle of the Pandemic DoD rolled out a change to the eligibility requirements, permanently adding the dependents of totally or permanently disabled veterans. They can now accompany their veteran sponsor on flights within the continental US or connecting flights to and from Alaska, Hawaii or US territories.
Here’s who is eligible and in what order seats are distributed:
- Category 1: Emergency leave unfunded travel
- Category 2: Accompanied EML
- Category 3: Ordinary Leave, Relatives, House Hunting Permissive TDY, MOH Holders and Foreign Military on permanent duty with the DoD, when on leave status
- Category 4: Unaccompanied EML
- Category 5: Permissive TDY (Non-House Hunting), Students whose sponsor is stationed in Alaska or Hawaii OR enrolled in a trade school in the CONUS when the sponsor is stationed overseas, Dependents who are unaccompanied but command-sponsored, Post Deployment/Mobilization respite absence & others
- Category 6: Retired, Dependents accompanied by either Retired or 100% Disabled Veteran, Reserve, ROTC, NUPOC, CEC, Veterans with a 100% Disability Rating, Surviving Spouses of Servicemembers who died while on active duty, inactive duty training or annual training status
