So you made it Seattle, what happens next?
We arrived in Seattle around 11:30pm the night before our
8am AMC (or Patriot Express) flight. If your flight schedule is similar to
ours, I recommend you get off the plane in Seattle, get all your baggage off
the carousel, and go find the AMC desk. Don’t worry, there are luggage carts
for your to rent for $5 a piece right by the baggage claim carousels; we had 8
big suitcases and needed 2 carts. Take the elevators up one floor to the
ticketing level. Come off the elevator and you are looking the airline check-in
counters. Go all the way to the leftmost counter and that’s AMC (or Air
Mobility Command). Our paperwork noted a check-in time of between 1-4ish am.
When we got there around midnight, folks were already lined up; sitting or
laying down on the floor with their luggage.
Tip: There are
actually two lines to line up in (at least when we flew in Jan. 2015 there
were). The one immediately at the desk that you see immediately is for single
soldiers and families of 3 or less. Families with 4 or more people are to line
up around the corner on the left side of the desk. There should be a sign.
We stayed with our luggage but some people chose to line up
their bags and then go find food or somewhere quieter until time to check in.
Right before check-in time, an AMC clerk came around to
everyone in the line and gave the sponsor (the soldier) a paper, on which they
had to write the family members’ names and passport numbers. I also wanted to
note, both our kids were so exhausted by this time they slept through the
entire check-in ordeal. Our youngest slept in his stroller; so glad we brought
that!
Our oldest fell asleep on his blanket on the floor. I may or
may not have just dragged him on that blanket when the line moved forward.
Check in was fairly easy. Same as check-in would be with any
other airline. They called families up much faster than they called folks from
the other line. I was thankful for that. We were third in the family line and
it only took us about 5-10 minutes to get called to the desk. The clerk at the
desk asked us how preferred to sit so she could book specific seats for us. The
AMC flight had seats in a 2-3-2 pattern so we chose to sit parent/child and
parent/child one right behind the other (just like we had done on the previous
flights) because it seemed to work well.
She printed our boarding passes and weighed/took all our baggage and we
were on our way! If you have a stroller that you will be gate checking (keeping
with you in the airport and checking at the gate when you get on the plane),
make sure the gate-check tag they put on it says “OSAN.” You definitely don’t
want your stroller to get left in Japan! Also, I should mention that I was
worried about the size and weight of our carry-ons and they didn’t even end up
inspecting them. Actually, they didn’t even ask to see them.
After leaving the counter we went straight to the security
checkpoint. As it was super early in the morning, there were only two lanes
open but that was fine. It still didn’t take long and it was the same process
as any other flight (no liquids over 3oz, shoes off, pockets empty, stroller
and carry-ons through the conveyor belt thing). My three-year-old was sleeping
and they let me carry him through with me, my five-year-old walked through on
his own.
The TSA agent at the security checkpoint had told us about a
Children’s playroom in Concourse A so that’s where we headed. We wanted the
kids to be as tired as possible for the long flight so they would sleep. The
playroom was very nice. Because it was 2am there were a few people in there
sleeping on the comfy, padded floor but we let the kids play anyway.
AMC flights take off from the S-gates, which are in the
South Satellite. You will need to take the Transit tram (kind of like a subway)
to get there. This map shows a map of Concourse A, you can find the Children’s
Playroom and the entry to get down to the Transit tram.
The tram does not open for operation until 4:30am so I
recommend letting the kids play in the playroom for a bit, getting a snack and
COFFEE from McDonalds or Starbucks (the only places that seemed to be open that
early), and then head to the tram right at 4:30am.
When we got to the South Satellite, we found a quiet corner
near our gate to relax/sleep in for a bit since we still had about 3 hours
until time to board. I was worried about finding an outlet to charge our
devices but there were plenty around the gate area. There are a few little
stores and places to eat in the South Satellite too, if you are hungry or want
to pick up a few magazines for the flight.
We boarded the plane right on time. They called for families
to board first which was really nice. The airplane was pretty standard.
Comparable to Coach class I would say, maybe a bit more legroom though.
Television screens in the middle every 3 rows or so and a big one in the very
front.
We were on the plane for about an hour before the pilot
finally came on the intercom and told us that we had to “de-plane” because
there was a problem with the plane’s GPS system. Both our kids were sleeping at
this point so it was a huge inconvenience, but what can you do? I’d rather wait
and that be fixed than take off in a broken airplane, for sure! They did,
however, let us leave our carry-ons on the plane if we chose to. We left most
our stuff and only took our “snack bag” and our blankets and wallets (with the
passports, IDs, and boarding passes in them) with us back into the airport. We didn’t end up getting back on the plane
until 3 hours later. This was by far the hardest part of our trip. It had been
such a long journey for most all of the passengers already; everyone was ready
to get back on the plane and go.
Finally, we did re-board the plane and get in the air. They
fed us breakfast shortly after takeoff (even though the delay had caused it to
be closer to lunchtime). Breakfast was
your choice of eggs or pancakes, a plain bagel with cream cheese, a fruit cup
and whatever you wanted to drink. The flight attendants were great. They
brought us drinks (free) whenever we wanted and were also very understanding of
our children having to go potty every 5 minutes. (Okay, that’s a little
dramatic… it was more like every hour. But, it felt like more often). They also fed us lunch, which was your choice
of beef or chicken, pasta salad, a roll, chocolate cake, and crackers with
cheese.
Tip: It seemed
like they sat all of us families who had small children up front. So, if you
are a family with older children or have no children I would suggest requesting
to sit towards the back of the plane. (:
We landed in Japan about 10 hours after takeoff. They asked
us to remain seated and a Customs Agent came on the plane to do a walk-through.
They let the passengers staying in Japan off first. After that, they took all
of us going through to Korea to a terminal (a holding area). There were not a lot of outlets available
there to charge devices so if you need one, find one quickly upon arriving.
There were also vending machines with candy, snacks, water, and soda and
restrooms. We were there for about an hour.
Our three-year-old ran laps around some of the chairs in the terminal
and our five-year-old slept like a rock the entire time.
It was a pretty short flight from Japan to Korea. Two hours
maybe? I can’t remember for sure. Everyone on the flight slept almost the
entire time. Upon landing at Osan, Customs came on board again and did another
walk-through and then we got off the plane and were taken to the 2nd
floor of a building to get briefed and start filling out paperwork for Customs.
The briefing was about 15 minutes and then we went down the hallway to stand in
line and wait for our turn to check-in with our IDs and fingerprints. The line
took about 45 minutes to get through. After that we went downstairs to get all
our luggage and declare things for customs. There were people there readily
available to help those of us (families) that had a lot of bags. The hardest
part was digging through our bags to find the things we had to claim. The only
things we claimed were two small foldable knives, my prescription medication,
and the fruit we had brought for snacks on the plane. We laid all this out on
the table and my husband (the sponsor) had to answer that he wasn’t hiding
anything else. They let us keep everything but one of the knives. We had no
idea this was going to be a problem or we wouldn’t have brought it. My husband
had the option to stay longer and fill out paperwork for them to ship it back
to someone in the US or give the agent signed consent to destroy it. He signed
consent for them to destroy it so we could be on our way quicker. This whole
part of the process felt very rushed and our kids were exhausted and cranky.
We stopped for (another) potty break after clearing Customs
and then continued out to the busses to go to Yongsan. They were nice charter
busses. Families and officers going to the Dragon Hill Loge hotel on one, and
soldiers going to barracks on the other; luggage went underneath. It was about
an hour ride to Yongsan.
When we arrived at Yongsan, we were taken to the 1st
Replacement building just across the parking lot from the hotel. We were told to leave our luggage on the
busses and had to sit through a 30-minute briefing there (with our children)
and fill out more paperwork. Luckily, there is a small play area in 1st
Replacement’s building and I took the kids out there while my husband (the
sponsor) stayed in the briefing and the briefers didn’t seem to mind. After, we
got all our luggage off the busses, took with us what we could, and crossed the
parking lot to the hotel to check-in. Our children found new energy and were
very excited that we had finally made it and we were too!
If you made it this far and you are still reading, then
congratulations! If you can get through this ridiculously long post, clearly
you are resilient and will do JUST FINE on this journey! Happy travels!
