 |
| Mt. Fuji during our approach. |
Bob
and I made calls and searched online for any information that would be helpful in preparation for our flight to Japan.
Air Mobility Command has a website but it's vague, somewhat outdated and, in
our experience, not entirely accurate.
The
AMC terminal is in the SEATAC
Airport Seattle
 |
| Long line to check in by 11:15 p.m. |
There
wouldn't be enough time to check in and get a hotel room to rest and let the
kids sleep, so we were stuck at the
airport. A map we found showed 24 hour Denny's about a 10-15 min walk away (not a great
area). Our other option was the USO. We read that it gets packed in there...it was. We were there
from midnight until 4 am. Our flight was delayed a bit so we were sitting there
for longer than originally thought.
Thank
goodness for the SEATAC USO! Without it we would have been laying down on the ground in the
terminal. There were quite a bit of people doing that...some had spent the
evening at the USO and some didn't know it was an option. When we got there
they had milk, juice boxes, water, apple sauce, pre-made tuna sandwiches and
some pastries. They had free wifi, some couches, a family room with cribs, a
media room with recliners and a large TV and a luggage storage area. We got
drinks and took advantage of the wifi while trying to stay awake. Our goal was
to fall asleep on the plane since we would be landing at 9 am.  |
| Fridge in the USO |
Around
1 am food was brought in from restaurants that had closed. We had salads, wraps,
sandwiches and fruit salad cups. The volunteer staffers were wonderful and were
doing their best to make us all comfortable. Some people were laying on the couches
and taking up the whole thing for themselves, so our younger daughter fell asleep on my lap at the table we
were at. Jim, a volunteer, came over with a blanket for us. Our four hours in
there seemed to drag on, but the volunteers made it much better. We really
would have preferred to fly commercial or to have a military flight during
normal operating hours when lounges and restaurants in the terminal would be
open.
It
took about an hour to leave the USO and get to the gate. Security opens at 4 am
so we lined up a few minutes before. AMC doesn't participate in Pre-check, so
allow for extra time in the regular line. The irony is that it's free to
military members...the girls and I get it too. We took the SEATAC tram to the S
terminal. The coffee place by the gate was opening up so I grabbed breakfast
and a drink for each of us.
 |
| Beef stew |
Boarding
started with O6 and above and then opened to families and then single members.
The plane was a commercial 767 flown by a charter company. Seats were spaced
2-3-2 and the entire plane looked like coach class. We were given breakfast
around 8 am PST and dinner a couple of hours before we landed.
The AMC website has a PDF claiming meals are "comparable to commercial airlines business
class, and special meals such as kosher, children's, diabetic, and vegetarian
can be ordered with a 24-hour advance notice." An announcement was made
offering pancakes or an omelette for breakfast and dinner was a choice of
chicken with pasta or beef stew.
 |
| Omelette with sausage |
We
travel. We travel a lot and earned enough miles to fly in business class to
Europe (this past summer) and SE Asia (summer
2013). These meals were in no way comparable to business class. The two meals we
were issued could be compared to coach meals. If you've got younger kids I
recommend a snack for them and/or getting a meal before boarding. We had both
since our expectations weren't high and it worked out well. We used the ear plugs and eye masks from amenity kits we've gotten over the years. If you've got them, bring them. There were a lot of young kids on board and the crying was non-stop. Most on board were families so we had more kids on this flight than the average commercial flight.
After landing at Yokota everyone deplaned,
but those staying at Yokota or going to Yokosuka Yokosuka
