Thanksgiving travel home

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Afb

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We are fortunate to only be an hour from Baltimore by plane so we are hoping to bring our plebe home for Thanksgiving. Anyone have thoughts on best and fastest way from Annapolis to BWI? Would 3 hours between leaving yard and flight be enough time?

Any sense of when they need to be back on Sunday? Thank you!
 
As one who has driven a many plebe to all of the various airports (National, Dulles and BWI), allowing 3 hours to get from yard to BWI, through security check point is quite reasonable to me. On the return, I would recommend to catch an early to mid afternoon flight as to help alleviate "Murphy's Law". I know that both my brother will home to drive our plebes to the airports. Now Christmas sleigh ride is another whole game plan as plebes/MIDS will be leaving at various times as their final exams are different. Its good that you live 1 hour flight time from BWI; however, we always open our home to plebes and straglers who cant spend Thanksgiving with family as they are saving monies for Christmas break as do other sponsor families.
 
Afb said:
We are fortunate to only be an hour from Baltimore by plane so we are hoping to bring our plebe home for Thanksgiving. Anyone have thoughts on best and fastest way from Annapolis to BWI? Would 3 hours between leaving yard and flight be enough time?

Any sense of when they need to be back on Sunday? Thank you!
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Your plebe should not have any issue finding a way to the airport and you probably won't even need to be involved. There are tons of options and they'll be able to figure that out when the time comes. I think 3 hours is normally fine since BWI is less than 1/2 hr ride from the Yard and the airport is accommodating to Mids, but give as much time as possible due to busy Thanksgiving travel time. Your plebe will learn how to precheck with their military credentials and getting through security will be quicker and easier for them.

One thing to keep in mind, when we flew our plebe home last year at Thanksgiving the price was WAY higher than during other times of year. So, be prepared for a whopper of a ticket price.

As far as the return trip goes, I agree with md403 that your plebe should plan to be back early afternoon on Sunday to account for possible delays. Our plebe had no issues at Thanksgiving, but has had flights canceled or changed due to weather issues at other times. Your plebe will probably be nervous about getting back on time anyway. If they plan an early flight and there are delays it will look a lot better that they planned properly. Arriving on the Yard late after planning a trip at the last possible minute will not look good even if the weather or some other issue out or your plebe's control caused the delay.
 
Your plebe will be told what the travel parameters are. Look forward to the day when he plans all his own travel and picks up the baton for knowing his report times and organizing himself! A life skill and goal to shoot for after the first year or so.

**To sum up Thanksgiving, these things have been the case in previous years, though there is never any guarantee it will be the same this year. ** The many threads relating to travel to and from SA all emphasize flexibility and patience. Search on "holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc."

- On the Wed before Thanksgiving, classes will start early, and all class periods will occur before lunch. After all military obligations are complete, plebe will sign out on leave. Flights beginning at 2 should be achievable, but BWI is massively busy that day, and security lines have been getting worse. National and Dulles are considerably further away, with the DC Beltway holiday rush a factor. Plan with an abundance of caution.

- Mids use Super Shuttle, Airport Shuttle, kindly sponsors, etc., to get to airports.

- Sunday report back times have varied from 6-10 pm over the years. There is also a required flight arrival time X hours before that report time. Your plebe should do the research and confirm what that is. That's to mitigate weather delays and get 4200+ mids' noses counted back in the Hall by some decent hour on a "school night."

- Your plebe will get briefed and should also read up on it for himself in MidRegs.

- *** TSA PRE-check. Explore having him using his CAC info to register for TSA Pre-Check as active duty military. ****
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/special-procedures/military-travelers
 
Capt MJ said:
Look forward to the day when he plans all his own travel and picks up the baton for knowing his report times and organizing himself! A life skill and goal to shoot for after the first year or so.
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In our experience this happened very quickly during plebe year. After the first couple of trips, we have had virtually no involvement in our Mid's travel plans other than knowing what time to pick her up at the airport. Made DW a little uneasy at first, but it's amazing how self sufficient they become in a short time, and in more ways than simply taking responsibility for their own travel and report times.
 
I recommend planning travel around TSAPrecheck. On recent travel, when I booked my reservation on a well-known carrier and entered my DOD ID number, I did not receive TSAPrecheck. When I asked about this (out of curiosity) to a TSA employee, they stated that sometimes military DO NOT receive it (I guess there is some type of random number system--not sure of the inner workings). Up to my recent travel, I have ALWAYS received TSAPrecheck. Lesson learned: I would not assume that you will breeze your way through TSAPrecheck as military. I, certainly, am now aware that TSAPrecheck is not guaranteed for military.

*** You won't find this information on the TSA website...kind of would be good to know.***
 
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