USAFA School Calendar 2009-2010 Availability?

haha, hornet just let it go :)

point is, you'll wanna get away. 'specially as a 4 dig. heck, my ticket was 600 bucks to go home for that week. i definitely wanted to be there as long as i could. i'm sure no one WANTS to stay at usafa an extra night, but the thing is, if you just absolutely cannot stay there another night, somethin's wrong with your motives. or at least that's what i think hornet is tryin to say :)

now as an upperclassmen, i have no worries about stayin an extra night. it's not so bad now... but i completely understand what yall are tryin to say
 
America's Finest said:
You don't have to attend a service academy to know that after an extended period of time from home it's nice to come back and relax for a bit to spend time with your family (who miss you very much). Of course we're all different so I'm not saying you should want to, I'm just saying that wanting to get the most out of your $300 plane ticket doesn't mean you don't want to attend the academy.
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I agree with you about the plane tickets, but overall I think you'll find hornet and chrissyjean are right, not just for the SA's but for most colleges. Thankgiving with my family was great, but I was desperate to get back to school after the first week or so of Christmas break (just finished a year at a civilian university). I'm sure it depends a lot on the person, but after being busy all semester I was desperate for something to do AND the chance to see my friends again.
 
Another aspect to look at here is that just because you would WANT to leave for home as early as you can, doesn't mean that is is always possible. Remember, the Air Force Academy is in Colorado, and scheduled flights (especially to the east) are not always convenient for the USAFA cadets. On your last day, you will be able to leave after LMD (Last Military Duty), which is often 3 PM (but not always). Your travel plans home must be submitted to your chain of command and approved. There are rules as far as how long after LMD that you are allowed to book flights out of the airports. Generally it has been 2 hours after LMD for COS airport, and 4 hours after LMD for Denver.
So, in this example, that means that you cannot book a flight leaving before 7 PM out of Denver. If you look at the airline schedules, there are very few flights leaving that late, and those that do will not get you into a hub airport early enough to get another night flight to your destination. So that means you will spend the night in Chicago, Minneapolis, or Dallas/Fort Worth, and then get an early morning flight to your home airport, and be home by 9 or 10 AM. On the other hand, if you sleep in your own bed at the Academy the first night, get up and catch a 7 AM flight out and make a connection, you can be home by noon without sleeping in an airport.

Also, you will find that you won't be able to book your flights very early because of unknown times and duties. Often when you do know enough to book a flight, there is even more limited availability of flights.

Personal opinion here: Parents: Let your cadet make his/her own travel arrangements. Too often I have heard of parents who book flights for their kids because they want to help, but don't understand the limitations and the uncertainties. Then, they end up paying for changes to the ticket, sometimes more than once, making the ticket very expensive.

The cadets at USAFA are in the best position to know what is happening, and how things work.

Stealth_81
 
I agree with sooner. Home gets boring after a while, especially when you're used to seeing all your friends every day. Sure, it's nice to visit family every now and then...but it gets old very quickly (especially for me, since I don't really have many friends at home anymore).

Whenever I tell people I only have a three week break until Beast, they take pity on me...but I'd rather be doing something with my summer than sitting around doing nothing for 3 more months.
 
I am counting down the days too. Home has become boring for me ;) the hill is where my friends are at and where the real fun is.

Hornet speaks the truth, as always. Just nod and agree basics ;) jk
 
Sure they pity your three weeks. I pity my 14 hours between graduating and getting on a plane for basic. I guess some people want to compensate having absolutely no summer with an extra day at home during thanksgiving or winter break. Man having family, a girlfriend, and friends at home sucks!
 
But that's summer, of course you'll get bored with that much time but Thanksgiving is not only a small break but also your first break so it's different.
 
Let's lay this to rest, shall we? The cadet opinions and experiences have been presented and the soon to be cadets have made their predictions.
 
hornetguy said:
Let's lay this to rest, shall we? The cadet opinions and experiences have been presented and the soon to be cadets have made their predictions.
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haha :shake:. besides, what's a USMA plebe doin' in the USAFA forum? :biggrin:
 
It's officially dead as of...now.

Anyway, now that we're talking about traveling and all that. Can cadets travel abroad for, say, Christmas vacation? If we had family in Italy would we be able to leave Dec 18 (or 19) and then fly out overseas?
 
yes, you can fly wherever you want (within US legal limits, aka no cuba or iran lol). Might have to attend OCONUS briefings, but no worries.
 
Bombtrack said:
It's officially dead as of...now.

Anyway, now that we're talking about traveling and all that. Can cadets travel abroad for, say, Christmas vacation? If we had family in Italy would we be able to leave Dec 18 (or 19) and then fly out overseas?
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I would hope so. My dad is being stationed in Japan after he finishes here at Fort Benning. Now that ticket is going to be expensive...
 
i still got a week until im a cadet... but my view on plane tickets is that its a whole lot cheaper to fly into denver... my dad and i are saving $500 by flying into denver and renting a car... for breaks i plan on maybe getting a few cadets together and renting a limo... if everyone splits the fare it could be pretty cheap...
 
Current cadets will PROBABLY tell you that you wont really be a cadet until you finish basic...we'll just be BASIC cadets until then :rolleyes:.

Anyway, I would totally be in that carpool. Where would you fly from Denver after that? Minneapolis/Chicago or a different way? (ie south, west, etc.)
 
that all depends on who you're flying with... (i.e. northwest, detroit, etc...)
 
Packerfan735 said:
i still got a week until im a cadet... but my view on plane tickets is that its a whole lot cheaper to fly into denver... my dad and i are saving $500 by flying into denver and renting a car... for breaks i plan on maybe getting a few cadets together and renting a limo... if everyone splits the fare it could be pretty cheap...
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Why a limo? :biggrin:
 
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