PCS - overseas to the US?

[audette]

So, we'll be PCSing soon-ish from overseas to the US.

DH kinda sucks at explaining processes to me. I am not sure if this is because the process is f-ed up, or if it's because he doesn't know enough of the details yet himself.

We plan on DH taking leave en-route to the next assignment. So, does anyone know how this all _should_ work? I kinda figured the military would be obliged to fly us from here to the next assignment, and we can figure out our leave from there.  DH seems to think we can somehow be flown back to the US on the military chartered flights, and take leave from where we touch down in the US, and later have them fly us from that location onwards to our next assignment.  (this seems overly complicated to me, but he seems stuck on it, somehow)

It looks like the vehicle shipment company is still screwing things up, so we're not terribly confident of our vehicle getting from here to the next duty station in anything resembling a reasonable timeframe.  Has anyone here made arrangements for a long-term rental (or a short lease) of a car to handle the lack of transportation from moving?  I mean, we _could_ just dial up hertz or avis, or whatever, but does anyone know of a company that will price a rental out by month instead of by week?

It sounds like clearing is going to be more complicated from here, too.  We'll have at least three different movers show up - UAB, HHG, and the folks picking up the military furniture we've been borrowing for our stay here.  I suspect this will be a headache, but probably manageable with scheduling.

I guess the whole travel aspect is what is stressing me out the most.  That and not knowing dates for anything yet...  Maybe all I really need is reassurance that this is not the first time folks move back to the US, and that it will all get handled.  Maybe not gracefully, but it'll get handled... 

[meltoine]

I've PCSed from overseas to the U.S., but I didn't have a car and H didn't take leave en route, so unfortunately I can't help Sorry!

[kpol]

We're in a similar confusion boat but we leave a few months after you, I think. My understanding is that the military will generally pay to fly you to one location and after that, you're on your own. So if you want to take leave to CA, but you'll be stationed in TX, the Army will pay to fly you to CA but CA-TX would be out of pocket. This could, of course, be totally wrong! MH wants to stop in Hawaii and said we can do that easily with an O6s approval and then fly to our next location all paid for, so who knows!

As for the car, we plan on getting a short-term rental and purchasing another one relatively quickly, but that doesn't really answer your question on that.

We did an in-country PCS while here and the packing was crazy, but a lot more manageable than I had anticipated. The Korean packers are quick and efficient. I hope it's not too big of a headache for you guys!

[audette]

Thanks, guys!

kpol - I can give you the details on our move, once we find them out. Maybe it'll help you...


Yeah, the whole idea of having a mid-trip interruption for us to take leave sounds fishy to me... Except that DH is thinking of suggesting that happen where we would likely shift from military contracted planes to commercial flights, so it might be doable. I dunno.


Packing here doesn't worry me too much. From everything I've seen here, I'm not worried about stuff getting damaged due to how it's packed up. I'm more just worried about the process. And the general "oh my god, we're going to be homeless for over a month again" - between moving, househunting, and leave, it may edge over a month and a half... I don't like being homeless.

There's also trying to figure out what to do with the additional checked luggage the orders allow for us to take that we won't have anywhere to keep once we get flown to our destination... Whee! We can each take 2 bags beyond the normal checked luggage allowance, according to the orders, but that will only take us to the next duty station, so we'll need to make storage arrangements for those bags.

[amaristella]

Nov 10, 2014 21:36:50 GMT -5 audette said:

There's also trying to figure out what to do with the additional checked luggage the orders allow for us to take that we won't have anywhere to keep once we get flown to our destination... Whee! We can each take 2 bags beyond the normal checked luggage allowance, according to the orders, but that will only take us to the next duty station, so we'll need to make storage arrangements for those bags.

Storage or flying? For flying. Make sure that the bags are considered normal for size and weight and plan to pay the fees. Most airlines will let you pay fees if you have too many. Or do you mean that you're staying in a room so small that more than two bags just won't fit. Trying to understand.

[amaristella]

For the car thing, also, I would expect to look around for local businesses that might be willing to do a reasonable monthly rate. I've only ever used pricing sites to look up monthly rates where I am now and it would have been better to buy a cheap car and then sell it again. Even if we had lost money on the arrangement it would have been cheaper.

Edit: Or maybe if you call individual companies. A lot of them want to know up front, though, how long you'll have the car for discounts, though. www.enterprise.com/car_rental/momInfo.do

[audette]

Nov 11, 2014 14:34:42 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Nov 10, 2014 21:36:50 GMT -5 audette said:

There's also trying to figure out what to do with the additional checked luggage the orders allow for us to take that we won't have anywhere to keep once we get flown to our destination... Whee! We can each take 2 bags beyond the normal checked luggage allowance, according to the orders, but that will only take us to the next duty station, so we'll need to make storage arrangements for those bags.

Storage or flying? For flying. Make sure that the bags are considered normal for size and weight and plan to pay the fees. Most airlines will let you pay fees if you have too many. Or do you mean that you're staying in a room so small that more than two bags just won't fit. Trying to understand.

The military will reimburse us for the baggage fees for two extra bags each - for the flight from here to the next duty station. But, we're hoping to take leave before DH signs in to the next assignment (and before we rent a place there), so we may have up to four bags each leave Korea with us, but we probably won't want to drag all eight of them to/from where we're going for leave, both because of cost (the fees while on leave would be on us, I assume) and because of the pain in the ass factor.

So we would need to figure out what to do with the extra bags while bumming around and visiting family...  Getting to where my family lives will involve additional flights that will end up coming out of our pocket.

[audette]

Nov 11, 2014 14:36:59 GMT -5 amaristella said:

For the car thing, also, I would expect to look around for local businesses that might be willing to do a reasonable monthly rate. I've only ever used pricing sites to look up monthly rates where I am now and it would have been better to buy a cheap car and then sell it again. Even if we had lost money on the arrangement it would have been cheaper.

Edit: Or maybe if you call individual companies. A lot of them want to know up front, though, how long you'll have the car for discounts, though. www.enterprise.com/car_rental/momInfo.do

Yeah, I was wondering if that might be the case. With the various horror stories we're hearing from those who have shipped cars with the current contractor, we might not know when we'll get our car back - it could be as little as a couple months from handing it over here. It could be 6-8 months. Who knows.

Yay for the military contracting to the lowest bidder...

[amaristella]

Nov 11, 2014 15:54:59 GMT -5 audette said:

Nov 11, 2014 14:34:42 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Storage or flying? For flying. Make sure that the bags are considered normal for size and weight and plan to pay the fees. Most airlines will let you pay fees if you have too many. Or do you mean that you're staying in a room so small that more than two bags just won't fit. Trying to understand.

The military will reimburse us for the baggage fees for two extra bags each - for the flight from here to the next duty station. But, we're hoping to take leave before DH signs in to the next assignment (and before we rent a place there), so we may have up to four bags each leave Korea with us, but we probably won't want to drag all eight of them to/from where we're going for leave, both because of cost (the fees while on leave would be on us, I assume) and because of the pain in the ass factor.

So we would need to figure out what to do with the extra bags while bumming around and visiting family...  Getting to where my family lives will involve additional flights that will end up coming out of our pocket.

In that situation I would probably pack as light as possible and plan to pay the extra fees on every leg of the trip that the government doesn't cover. As to how anybody who picks you up from the airport will fit the extra bags in their car, I don't know. I guess if it's that bad you could also rent a car while you're there? I guess taking a vacation during a PCS is just adds another layer of complexity.

[VillainV]

We were able to book tickets to our leave location, then we took about a week of leave, and drove a POV from there to our new duty station (got paid mileage for the drive). Your best bet is to call the contract travel agency on base that will book your tickets and ask them what they can do for you.

As for baggage....yeah, I would only take with you what you can have the whole time on leave. Remember you can use APO to mail stuff, and get reimbursed for the postage up to the amount the military WOULD have paid if it was part of your HHG shipment (as long as it doesn't put you over your weight allowance). We mailed a lot of stuff from the UK to the US.

As for POV shipping, our POV took about 10 weeks to get from the UK to the US including customs and transport from the port to our nearest VPC. The car itself was in excellent condition, and the drop-off and pick-up were way easier than when I shipped it TO the UK (with the old company). I found the customer service with the new company to be EXCELLENT even if it took them a little longer to get the car to us.

[audette]

Nov 13, 2014 21:33:43 GMT -5 VillainV said:

We were able to book tickets to our leave location, then we took about a week of leave, and drove a POV from there to our new duty station (got paid mileage for the drive). Your best bet is to call the contract travel agency on base that will book your tickets and ask them what they can do for you.

As for baggage....yeah, I would only take with you what you can have the whole time on leave. Remember you can use APO to mail stuff, and get reimbursed for the postage up to the amount the military WOULD have paid if it was part of your HHG shipment (as long as it doesn't put you over your weight allowance). We mailed a lot of stuff from the UK to the US.

As for POV shipping, our POV took about 10 weeks to get from the UK to the US including customs and transport from the port to our nearest VPC. The car itself was in excellent condition, and the drop-off and pick-up were way easier than when I shipped it TO the UK (with the old company). I found the customer service with the new company to be EXCELLENT even if it took them a little longer to get the car to us.

We have nowhere to mail items to in the US, unless we start looking up hotel addresses...  I _could_ mail some things to family in Canada, but shipping rates to Canada are stupidly expensive, and unlikely to be reimbursed, seeing as it's Canada... 

We are considering if we will want/need any extra bags.  We have a couple things going for us, such as the ability to easily get to stores and pick up things we might need, or to get interim items that we are waiting on arriving.  But, we're also travelling in the height of winter, and will need heavy winter gear with us.  I also have to transport some things for work, which will take up space in our suitcases.  We will just have to see how things pan out when it comes to packing.

That last paragraph, though, gives me a _lot_ of hope.  It means we might not be without our car for long, and we have plans to buy DH a new vehicle asap.  I can handle being a one car family for a short while, but so many horror stories of the new company have circulated, I was worried it would be a long, long while...

[VillainV]

audette, will you have a sponsor at your new duty station? Or know anyone there at all who can store a few boxes or a foot locker in their garage until you get there? We sent our stuff to some friends (who ended up being our new landlords, but we would have used them anyway).

Honestly, moving home from overseas was one of the hardest PCSes I've ever done, probably because it was with husband and baby in tow. There is no possible way to pack ALL of the stuff you will need in the 8 weeks or so it will take for your household goods to arrive, so you will likely end up buying, renting, or borrowing stuff to get you by for a while -- dishes, pots/pans, coffee maker. Temporary quarters at our new duty station were uninhabitable (feces smeared on the walls of the bathroom -- we stayed a grand total of 7 minutes), so we begged and borrowed what we could, and bought a lot of stuff cheap. I mean, it wasn't *horrible* and we got by, but it makes me never want to do another overseas PCS again.

I'm sorry if this doesn't sound encouraging. You just have to manage your expectations.

[audette]

Hah! You say "sponsor" like they actually exist in the real world.

We have _never_ had a sponsor. Not for a single PCS. This is our fifth PCS...


It was rough coming here, because we had no stuff, and no transportation, and shopping in Korea is, um, doable, but clothes that fit me are difficult to find, at best (I'm not huge, but I am plus sized). Kitchen stuff is different, because they cook differently here...


We have hopes that we will at least be able to pick up essentials fairly easily after this move. We won't know much about the town or base, but there will be places like Target and Walmart, and regular grocery stores, etc...

[VillainV]

Nov 13, 2014 22:59:46 GMT -5 audette said:

Hah! You say "sponsor" like they actually exist in the real world.

We have _never_ had a sponsor. Not for a single PCS. This is our fifth PCS...


It was rough coming here, because we had no stuff, and no transportation, and shopping in Korea is, um, doable, but clothes that fit me are difficult to find, at best (I'm not huge, but I am plus sized). Kitchen stuff is different, because they cook differently here...


We have hopes that we will at least be able to pick up essentials fairly easily after this move. We won't know much about the town or base, but there will be places like Target and Walmart, and regular grocery stores, etc...

Huh. I've never not had a sponsor. What about general delivery mail to the new base? Or see if you can mail stuff straight to your husbands new unit?

[audette]

Nov 14, 2014 3:06:21 GMT -5 VillainV said:

Nov 13, 2014 22:59:46 GMT -5 audette said:

Hah! You say "sponsor" like they actually exist in the real world.

We have _never_ had a sponsor. Not for a single PCS. This is our fifth PCS...


It was rough coming here, because we had no stuff, and no transportation, and shopping in Korea is, um, doable, but clothes that fit me are difficult to find, at best (I'm not huge, but I am plus sized). Kitchen stuff is different, because they cook differently here...


We have hopes that we will at least be able to pick up essentials fairly easily after this move. We won't know much about the town or base, but there will be places like Target and Walmart, and regular grocery stores, etc...

Huh. I've never not had a sponsor. What about general delivery mail to the new base? Or see if you can mail stuff straight to your husbands new unit?

*jealous*  Yeah, no sponsor, ever.  Not even for the move to OCONUS.

Are you guys Air Force?  Maybe they manage this stuff better.

I'd be leery of mailing stuff to the next base with us taking leave in the middle of the move.  DH's report date is a month and a half after we leave here (ish).

eh, I figure we'll probably figure out how to handle just using the two bags each.  Simplest. 

[VillainV]

audette, I think you have some good options. And you're right, being back in the land of Target basically solves all of your problems. Funny story though -- our first week back, we were buying ALL THE THINGS from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Target, Walmart, you name it. We probably dropped about $700 on random stuff (mops, brooms, bath mats, you know the stuff you always have to buy when you move). I got a call from USAA about possible fraud on my account. Was it about the $700 at big box stores? Nope! It was from a $7.50 charge to set up our new internet. Really?!?!?!

And yes, we're Air Force :-) Most of our sponsors have been unofficial though -- usually just someone we already know who is at our new duty station (we always know somebody), or sometimes a random person from my new unit.

[audette]

Bwahahaha! I'm amused about the fraud alert...

I think we'll do OK. Mostly I just want to get to planning, and we can't plan much until DH gets his butt down to TMO to start scheduling dates...