Airport Parking and Passport Control

We just finished up our 9 day block leave trip. We planned to fly out of Prague to Dublin, Dublin to Edinburgh and then back to Prague. We know that airport parking can typically be pretty expensive so I researched some “off site” parking areas. I found ParkVia which is a website with a few offsite companies listed. You select your location (they have locations at other airports), and your drop off and pick up date and time. I looked through what each company offered, what their prices were and the reviews, I decided to go with SkyParking. We dropped our car off on the 19^th and picked it up on the 27^th, that’s 9 days and it cost 480 Kruna (Czech money) which was $25! Only $25 for over a week!! When you reserve a spot you just need to print out the email they send you and bring it with you the day you drop off your car. When we arrived they immediately showed us where to park and there was a shuttle waiting to take us to the airport. It was very quick and easy. When we arrived back home all we had to do was call them and let them know we landed and needed a ride back to our car. We waited about 15 minutes and they picked us up and took us back to our car. Once you get back you can then pay with card or cash. The customer service was great and I would recommend this place to anyone. If any of you are concerned about security of your car, this comes directly from their website: “Safety of your car is ensured by security guards on site 24/7, continuous CCTV surveillance, perimeter fence with barbed wire, and infrared monitoring. The car park has both gated and barrier entry, and is fully insured.” I will definitely be using this same company again for other airport locations. Just remember to book in advance to be sure they have an opening and to get the best rate.

       Parking was out of the way! Now we had to figure out where we could check in with Ryan Air. We were there early and Ryan Air doesn’t open their check in counters until 2 hours before the flight so we just grabbed something to eat. We checked in with no problems and decided to go ahead and go through passport control and security just in case we had any delays and let me tell you, it’s a good thing we did! We get to passport control and my husband goes to one line, gets his passport stamped and goes through. I went through a different line and this guy decided to look through each page of my passport and noticed my last stamp was from over a year ago. I told him I lived in Germany so then he kept asking for my Visa. I said “I don’t have a visa, my husband is in the military and we’re stationed in Germany.” He did not understand because he barley spoke any English. He just kept saying “you’re here illegally.” Finally the guy that let my husband through realized that we were having a problem and stepped in to help since his English was much better. I told him my husband is in the military and we’re stationed in Germany, I’m pretty sure I said that like 10 times. He finally went to get my husband and asked for his ID and I also showed my military ID. They finally pulled us out of line to the security office to figure out what was going on.   

        We explained to them that “my husband is in the US Army, I am his wife. He is stationed in Germany and that is why I live there with him.” They asked us for a copy of his orders… uhh who carries orders with them on vacation? We sure don’t. We told them the only thing we had was a leave form from my husbands office. They took that and agreed it was fine to prove that my husband was stationed in Germany but that I needed a leave form for myself. I know I gave them plenty of blank stares. We told them again, “I’m married to him (as I’m pointing) which allows me to live with him in Germany. They kept saying “then you need military orders or a leave form.” I said again “I’m married to him, I’m not in the military so I don’t need a leave form.” By this point I was getting very frustrated because they just weren’t understanding. I finally showed them my no-fee passport that has the SOFA stamp in it to prove that I’m most definitely here legally. So they took all of our passports, military ID’s and leave form and closed the door on us. We waited and waited and when he came back he still wasn’t happy with that. They finally called someone, we don’t really know who, but we think maybe someone from the US embassy to figure it all out. He finally told us that on that leave form there is a section at the bottom for dependants and my name was NOT in that box. I doubt that would have solved the problem much faster but make sure you have ALL dependants listed on the leave form when traveling. All of that took about 45 minutes to get resolved. So for future reference always have your tourist and no-fee passport, leave forms filled out 100% AND copies of orders with you when flying. The reason I didn't show my no-fee passport right away is because my travel passport is in my maiden name and my no-fee in my married name. I didn't want to make the situation worse/more confusing so I held out as long as I could before having to explain that. I thought once I showed that they'd have all kinds of problems with me having 2 passports with different names but they didn't care at all about the name difference. 
       We didn’t have any other problems flying out of Dublin or Edinburgh and I’m sure many, many people have flown out of Germany with no problems but I happened to get stuck with the guy who actually did his job the right way. My husband doesn’t have a stamp in his passport either but his guy didn’t check. So it’s always better to be safe than sorry. If my husband wasn’t with me they probably would not have let me through. I’m not sure how to fix that problem because if I was traveling with a friend and we didn’t have a leave form it could have been a nightmare! 

EDIT: This post is getting a TON of views! I'm seeing a lot of questions about why all this information is needed and what to do if you're traveling alone. If you are not related to the military and want to stay in Germany longer than 90 days you have to have a visa. When you are military and arrive in Germany you don't get a German stamp in your passport. That stamp proves when you got here so officials know when your 90 days is up. Since military can obviously stay longer than 90 days we're supposed to have a visa. The military version of a visa is the SOFA stamp in your no-fee passport. The no-fee passport is only for official use, to and from the States. You are technically not supposed to travel with your no-fee BUT you should always have it on you since it is your version of a visa. When I was in Prague they were not understanding that my no-fee passport was my visa and that is why you need a copy of the soldiers orders to prove that you're stationed in Germany. Make sure those orders have ALL family members on it. I know a lot of families get orders with just the soldier on it and once they're command sponsored they get a revised version with dependents. Soldiers don't have a no-fee passport because their CAC card is their version of a visa. If you feel that will cause problems it is possible to get a no-fee passport for the soldier. I don't think it's 100% necessary to have a leave form with you but it definitely wouldn't hurt. Another problem many wives could come across is having 2 passports with different names, maiden and married. If this is the case then you should also travel with a copy of your marriage license. I know this seems so silly and a little annoying to have to remember all this but all these papers will help clear up any problems you may encounter. When traveling alone or without the soldier you definitely need to have a copy of the soldiers orders. A marriage license in this case would probably be helpful too to prove that you're married to the name on the orders. Just be prepared and patient with those in other countries who may not understand.   

Space A Travel

  Space A or space available traveling is a fantastic perk of being in the military. There are tons of people who use it every day to fly all over the world. My husband and I just traveled space A for the first time to and from and States.  Luckily for us, we managed to not run into any major problems.  We flew from Ramstein to BWI and our return flight was from BWI to Ramstein. Space A traveling is selected by category and date and time of sign up. There are different rules for different categories. We traveled as CAT III because my husband is Active Duty and is on leave.

     Taken directly from the AMC (Air Mobility Command) website. Please read and make sure you understand what category you are in! 

Category I:
- Emergency travel in connection with serious illness, death, or impending death of a member of the immediate family of the following:
- United States citizen civilian employees of the DoD stationed overseas.
- Full-time, paid personnel of the American Red Cross serving with United States military services overseas.
- Uniformed service family members whose sponsors are stationed within the Continental United States (CONUS) and the emergency exists overseas.
- Family members of United States citizen civilian employees of the DoD when both sponsor and dependents are stationed overseas at the same location.
Category II:
- Sponsors on environmental and morale leave (EML) and accompanied family members.
- DoD Dependent School (DoDDS) teachers and their accompanied family members in EML status during school year holiday or vacation periods.
Category III:
- Members of the uniformed services in an ordinary or re-enlistment leave status and uniformed services patients on convalescent leave. Members on convalescent leave may not travel overseas unless their leave form is so annotated.
- Military personnel traveling on permissive temporary duty (TDY) orders for house hunting.
- If the permissive TDY is for the purpose of permanent change of station house hunting, the member travels in Category III and can be accompanied by one family member.
- Dependents of military members deployed for more than 365 consecutive days.
- Bona fide family members (up to age 23 with a valid identification card) of a service member of the uniformed services when accompanied by their sponsor who is in an ordinary leave status within overseas areas between overseas stations and air terminals in the CONUS.
- This privilege does not apply to travel of dependents to or from a sponsor's restricted or unaccompanied tour location or to travel in a leave status to or from TDY locations. It applies only to round-trip travel to an overseas area or the CONUS with the sponsor. DoD 4515.13-R restricts use of these privileges to establish a home for family members in an overseas area or the CONUS.
- Foreign exchange service members on permanent duty with the DoD, when in a leave status.
Category IV:
- Dependents of military members deployed for more than 120 consecutive days.
- Unaccompanied family members (18 years or older) traveling on EML orders. Family members under 18 must be accompanied by an adult family member who is traveling EML.
- DoDDS teachers or family members (accompanied or unaccompanied) in an EML status during summer break.
Category V:
- Unaccompanied Command-sponsored dependents.
- Students whose sponsor is stationed in Alaska or Hawaii.
- Students enrolled in a trade school in the CONUS when the sponsor is stationed overseas.
- Military personnel traveling on permissive TDY orders for other than house hunting.
Category VI:
- National Guard/Reserve components/members of the Ready Reserve and members of the Standby Reserve who are on the Active Status List.
- Retired military members who are issued DD Form 2 and eligible to receive retired or retainer pay.
- Family members (with a valid identification card) of retired members when accompanied by a sponsor. 

    Within each category there are different rules about signing up. You need to sign up at each location you might be flying out of. For us, Ramstein was our only option to fly to the states but when flying home we had multiple locations along the east coast, so we signed up with 5 different passenger terminals. You will email each location this information: 

- Leave Form and/or dependent command sponsorship as applicable - not required for e-mail sign-up (optional)

- Names of travelers (Last, First, and Middle Initial)

- If active duty - Leave start and End Dates

- SSN for active duty and Passport numbers for dependents

- Branch of service of the sponsor

- Rank of sponsor

- Rank of dependents (END = enlisted dependent / OFD = officer dependent)

- Emergency Point of Contact info (Name, address, and telephone #) address=number, street name, city, state

- Date of birth for all travelers (DD/MMM/YYYY)  (i.e. 25 DEC 1987)

- Country of Residence

- Nationality

- Passport country of issue and expiration date (DD/MMM/YYYY)  (i.e. USA / 14 JAN 2014)

- Ultimate destination (address, city, state, zip code) If traveling to Charleston, but you are headed to Oklahoma, the destination should reflect and Oklahoma address.

- and country of choice for travel (example: USA)

           

     If you send all of this info ahead of time, when you get marked "present" your time will be expedited.  If you don't send all of this info, we are required to input this info upon the first time you present yourself for travel. (Taken from the Ramstein Passenger Terminal Facebook Page)

 When you email this information in you will not get a response. They have way too many emails coming in to respond to them. To make sure your information made it and your date and time of sign up are correct be sure to print out your email with the date and time. If something happened when sending in your email or it got over looked, they will honor the date and time of sign up from your printed email. You may be wondering where the date and time of sign up comes to play. Yes, there are categories but within each category people are put in order according to their time of sign up. If you are a CAT III (active duty on leave) you can NOT sign up before your leave starts. So my husband’s leave started 17 May, so we were eligible to sign up at 12:01am 17 May. If you are a CAT IV-VI you can sign up 60 days in advance but it’s only good for 60 days. If you sign up exactly 60 days from when you want a flight and then don’t get on that flight, your sign up is no longer good on day 61. So give yourself a few days of adjustment if you don’t get on a flight.

Within CAT III we signed up on 17 May at 12:01am. Someone else in CAT III may have signed up 17 May at 6:00am; therefore we are listed before them because our sign up time was earlier. Each category is listed this way.

The locations that have space available flights list their flights 72 hours in advance (search for their Facebook page for updates). They list the destination, tentative seat numbers and the roll call time. You must mark yourself present before roll call time or your name will not be selected for a flight. To mark yourself present you must check in at the terminal with the proper documentation (ID cards, passports, leave form or command sponsor letter) and be travel ready, meaning you and your luggage are ready to board a flight. Around 20 minutes before call time of a flight they will post all passengers that have checked in on a scrolling list. It will be in order of category and date and time of sign up. It will also list the number of seats requested by each person. The list will look like this:

1.

2.

3.

4. King, C        CAT III    seats 2

5. Smith, T      CAT III    seats 4

6. Johnson, S   CAT III    seats 1

And the list will continue through CAT IV, V and VI. At this time you’ll be able to get a better idea of your chance of getting on the flight. They will start at the top of the list and call each person. If that person accepts the flight the seat numbers will begin to drop. If your name is called and you are not there you are removed from the list and put at the very bottom! If you are chosen for a flight then you’ll immediately check your baggage and go through security to prepare boarding for the flight. If you are flying out of Ramstein to BWI or visa versa you will be on the patriot express which is a commercial flight. You will have to pay a head tax per person of $29.10 and will be served a meal. If you are flying on a military aircraft make sure you are wearing closed toed shoes! You can also buy a meal for $4.60.

Ramstein Passenger Terminal

All of this information is very easy, you just have to make sure you follow and understand all the steps. The part that gets frustrating is not getting a flight. When my husband and I were trying to fly out of Ramstein we kept looking at flights we wanted. We were hoping for a flight on Saturday the 25^th, there was one listed but it was then moved to Sunday. We drove to Ramstein Saturday knowing there was a flight early Sunday morning to Birmingham with 20 seats. When we arrived to check in at the terminal the seats had already been dropped down to 9. We of course did not get on this flight so our next option was a flight to BWI on Monday. We stayed another night at Ramstein and hoped for the best on Monday. The flight to BWI had 153 seats so our chances were much higher! We were selected for this flight at made it to BWI. My in-laws reserved us a rental car so we could drive to NC. Coming home was a little more stressful. We knew there was a flight from BWI to Ramstein Tuesday the 28^th with 52 seats. We were not real confident we’d get on this flight and weren’t sure we wanted to risk driving 6 hours to BWI for only 50 seats. There was also a flight from Norfolk to Ramstein but we called to ask about seat numbers and they were not sure if they were even accepting space A travelers. They were unsure if the military personnel on the plane would be carrying weapons or not and if they were we would not be allowed. We took our chances and drove to BWI. We got very lucky and got seats on this flight, there were only 4 seats left after our name was called.

Flying space A may be stressful at times but getting a free flight across the Atlantic is definitely worth it!! Please remember space A flights can change at any time! Flight times, destinations and seat numbers can change even minutes before a flight. Also know that actual flight times and order of destinations (if multiple stops on one flight) are not listed online due to OPSEC rules. If you have specific questions about flights call the terminal to get more detailed information. Just remember to be very flexible and prepared for anything!

Don't expect anything fancy or comfortable!

Filing Moving Claims Part II

     My last post about filing claims talked about the process up until submitting the final claim. Here is what needs to happen next! Once that final red “submit claim” button is pushed you will receive an email stating that the moving company has received it, this may take a few days. If you have not received a response about your submitted claim call your moving company to confirm whether or not they received it. The moving company will then make an appointment with you to send someone out to look at and take pictures of all the damaged items. For some reason they need their own photos even after you spent all that time submitting them yourself

     For our claims process, after the guy came to look at our items I believe it took about 2 weeks to receive notice that the moving company had given us an offer on our items. The offer can be seen on the DPS website where you submitted the claim. On each item it will show how much you asked for it and how much the moving company is willing to offer. Now it’s up to you to decide if you think you got what you wanted. The next step is VERY important! You have to accept EACH offer individually. So if you have 15 items you have to click on all 15 items one at a time and click “accept offer.” If you don’t accept the offer on one item you will not get the money for it. Lucky for us the money we were offered was reasonable so I did not have to counter offer anything so I don’t have much information on that. I do know that if you do counter offer an item you’ll need to provide well written explanation as to why you should get more money for that particular item.

     The items that can be repaired will have an offer of a repair price. This is their estimate on how much it would cost to fix/repair your item. If you accept the offer it does not mean you have to repair it. We had 2 chips in our living room TV stand but you can’t see it unless I point it out. The TV stand was 100 dollars. They offered us 75 dollars to have it repaired. It was not worth the haste of finding a repair person. So we accepted the offer and ended up pocketing 75% of the original value. Now is the right thing to do? Some would say no and that that money if given to you for a repair. But honestly, that TV stand is going to go through another overseas move and could get damaged again. So when looking at the amount you are offered take into consideration how much you paid for it and what percentage they’re actually offering you.

     Now once you’ve accepted the offer on EACH ITEM you will again get another response from the moving company. We got an email around 5 days after accepting our offer asking for our address. About 2 weeks later we received a check in the mail. Our claims process if finally 100% over and I can finally throw out our old broken couch that is hogging up the garage space! 

Here is a small recap of the process. 

This is actually taken directly from the claims page! 

1)      You should notify the Transportation Service Provider (TSP) [the Moving Company] of any loss or damage to your personal property within 75 days of the delivery of your shipment. 

2)      There are two ways to notify the Moving Company of any loss or damage to your personal property, but only one way to file your claim. 

               A.  Loss and Damage Report. Using forms provided by the Moving Company, you can notify them of your loss or damage at the time of delivery and/or after the delivery. You can also file a loss/damage report in the DPS claims module. NOTE: You do not have to file a loss/damage report as long as you file your claim within 75 days of the delivery of your shipment. Submitting a loss/damage report does not constitute filing a claim. 

              B.  Filing your claim. You must file your claim in the DPS claims module. TO prepare to file your claim, you will need to know what items were lost or damaged to include the inventory number, year of purchase and purchase cost. Pictures of damaged items can be uploaded into the DPS claims module. Once your claim has been submitted, your Moving Company will contact you with an email within 30 days to complete the claims process. 

3)       Step by Step instructions for both loss/damage report notification and how to file your claim are located at www.move.mil

Traveling with Kids

     I recently had a fellow Army wife send me a message stating that it's much easier and less expensive for my husband and I to travel here in Europe because we don't have children. That is very true! I don't know what it's like and it doesn't usually cross my mind. I don't think about paying for each child, or where a good restaurant is that will have kid friendly food. I don't think about the extra bags and luggage needed or needing to find a restroom to change diapers. So although I don't have any personal experience traveling with children I did find some great websites with some "traveling with kids" tips. 

Exploring Bavaria, Germany

Traveling to Europe 

Traveling with Kids: Facing my fears in Europe

Europe with Kids: The Ultimate Guide 

Europe with Kids

Filing Moving Claims Process

       If you received anything that was broken, damaged or lost through the moving process you can claim those items to either have them repaired or replaced. This process can take a while so once your HHG are delivered unpack everything as soon as you can. You have 70 days from day of delivery to start the initial claims process. Make a list of all items that are broken, damaged or lost. Write a small description about what happened to it. For example, if your kitchen table in scratched you would write "kitchen table scratched on tabletop, left end of the table." While you are going through each item be sure to take pictures of the damage and write down the inventory number. You know, those annoying little stickers on every piece of furniture that you find years after your move... You will later use these when finishing the claim. 
       Call the claims office, usually where JAG is located (legal office), to see if you need an appointment. The first time you go in be sure you have ALL paperwork from the move. Inventory of all items, POA's, orders and the paper you signed from the movers on the day of delivery. Now the next step may vary depending on where you are located. Some places will help you get started so you understand how the website for filing claims works. Other locations may not help at all or they may do every step for you. 
        Here at Vilseck, the claims office showed me how to work the website so I could then finish the claim on my own. The DPS website can be a little frustrating so be sure you ask questions to make sure you understand the process. I have heard the DPS website will not work on a Mac but I do know someone who had theirs work. Also, on a PC you will need to open everything in Internet Explorer, it will not work in Firefox or Chrome. 
       Now the first step is going to be adding all the items that were broken, damaged or lost. At this time you'll only be filling out the item name, description of what happened and the inventory number. The claims office at Vilseck does all of this with you. Once all items are entered then you have finally started the claims process. Remember to get this done within 70 days of delivery!

          After that list is turned in you have 9 months to complete the claims process. All of this has to be completed through the DPS website. A spouse can file the claim but the claims people will not contact the spouse/dependent because the move was done under the sponsor’s name. So all emails regarding the claim will be sent to the sponsor. In this next part of the claim you will be adding detail to each item such as serial numbers, pictures, and copies of receipts. You will also add in the year the item was purchased and what amount you are claiming. For example, we had a desk broken into pieces. I looked up the desk online and found the exact same one. I claimed the exact amount of what the desk was being sold for. If you are unsure of how much an item is research it to find the value of what it’s worth. If you don’t tell them what the item was worth or what it looked like they will research the cheapest one and pay you for that. I had hand painted wine glasses broken. They were a gift so I don't know how much they were. I went onto Etsy and found some that were similar and claimed a price that they were being sold for. 

         You will fill all of this info out for each item (don't forget to attach those pictures). Once every item has been completed you will submit the final claim. DO NOT click the red "submit claim" button until you are 100% sure everything is done. You can not go back to fix it. Once you have submitted the final claim you should get an email stating that the moving company has received it (it may take a few days). They will then send someone to your house to look at all your items. They will be looking to see if the item can be repaired. Depending on what happened to the item you will either get a replacement amount or a small amount to get it repaired.
       Once the claims person takes a look at all the items they will send you an offer of how much you should get back to either replace or repair your items. You CAN counter offer this! If you don’t agree with the amount, argue it!

Reminder: Do not throw away any items until the claims process is complete. All items will need to be looked at before sending an offer.

And this is where the claims process has stopped for me. We are currently waiting on an offer!  

Receiving your POV

Once you arrive in Germany one of the first things on your mind is probably "where is my car?" It can be very frustrating wondering where it is when you’re sitting in the hotel with nowhere to go. You can track your car from status from www.whereismypov.com. You will need to enter the sponsors last name and his/her social or order# given to you by the VPC when you dropped it off. When your car has arrived you will receive an email that it’s ready for pick up. If you call asking for updates they will ask "have you received an email yet?"  Also, once your car has arrived in Germany and is on a truck to your location it will not tell you where it is. It will only tell you it arrived at the port.

Once you receive the email you will need to take ALL your POV paperwork from shipping it with you to pick it up (especially the POA). You cannot pick up your car unless you have your German drivers license so be sure you have that. The VPC to pick up your car may not be at your exact location. For example, if you're stationed at Vilseck, your car will be at the Grafenwoher VPC. When you go to pick it up you will need to go to the registration office first (expect to wait a little bit, the earlier the better) and tell them your car is ready to be picked up. They have to issue you temporary license plates first just so you can drive it out of the parking lot. They will look at your paperwork, drivers license and you must pay either 15 or 30 dollars (sorry, I can't remember) and then they will issue you a new German registration. Make sure you have both the soldier and spouse name on the registration. You need both names on it so both names can be on the gas ration card. Once you have the registration you can go to the actual VPC office and show them you have the registration and temporary plates. This is where they will need your POA if you have one. They will take you to your car where you personally look it over to make sure there are no scratches or dents that weren't previously there. If there are, be sure to tell them and they will document it (this will later be taken to the claims office). Their paper to document dents and scratches is carbon copy paper, be sure to write hard enough to copy through. If the claims office can't read it they will have to go through a process to get the original. After you inspect the car they will place the temporary places on. You then have 30 days to get your car inspected on post by the German inspection center. The inspection itself will only take about 15 minutes but the line to get the inspection could be very long so prepare to wait. Once your car has been inspected and passed you will then go back to the registration office, the first place, and they will issue you the official license plates. Once you have those you have freedom! Enjoy exploring!

German drivers license

If you want to drive in Germany you must first have a valid stateside drivers license. If you are stateside right now and your license is close to expiring get it renewed! Once you get here you will need to go to the drivers class, which is about 2 hours long. Immediately after the class they give you the test. Good old fashion pencil and paper test! The class goes over or reviews about 98% of what is on the test but it’s important you study before the class. You can go by the drivers test office and ask for a book to study. The signs are one of the most important parts of the test. If you don’t like to study the least you should do is learn the signs. You will not be able to learn them all in the 2 hour class. Once you pass your test they give you a 90 day temporary license (which is good to drive on) and they will mail you an official German license in about 2 weeks.

Depending on your location, the times available to take the drivers test will vary. At Vileck they say civilians take them only on Thursdays. The other days are for soldiers and in-processing groups. The sooner you get your license the better! Once your car arrives you want to be able to pick it up! 

Don't stress about the test. It's not that hard. Most of it is common sense and very similar the driving in the states. Just learn those signs and you'll be fine!

 

        Hubs and I after we passed our driving test (horrible picture). 

                      We were excited to get out and explore!