I’ve been told that in the Army (and other military services) one is supposed to receive ones orders up to 180 days out from your end of duty date. Well, by that count, Justin was supposed to get his orders in November. It’s January, the END of January and we got them this week. This may not seem like a big deal if you don’t know what all this means, but since we are moving out of our apartment and flying to California etc, it’s a big deal.
First of all, we needed his orders more than a month ago because our landlords needed a 30 day move out written thingamajigger. And I didn’t know when we should move out because we didn’t know when Justin would be sent to San Antonio for out-processing (side note: they can out process him here, but he was told he had to go to San Antonio initially). So we made our best guess and signed our 30 day advanced notice.
Also, you need the orders to schedule two different sets of movers to come to your house and pick/pack up your furniture and unaccompanied baggage.
And I had to buy a plane ticket far enough in advance that I’d get one of the three pet-in-cabin spots. But I didn’t really know when I should leave. (See post: Plane Tickets) and I actually had to change my plane ticket, which thankfully wasn’t too expensive but it was a huge pain.
That, and since we are ETSing and not PCSing the Army doesn’t put you up in a hotel, not when you’re getting out. Justin gets a barracks room again, but that doesn’t include me or the cat. So our lovely friends said we could stay with them (kitty too) but I had to give her vague dates ranging from a few days to two weeks as for how long we’d be staying with them.
Then there is the housing allowance (which is tied to where ever I am) that needs to be changed once we leave the apartment (and I get back to the states).
Plus the ‘eating down’ plan, where you try and deplete your pantry since you’re moving and only buy very few things like milk and eggs.
There are about a dozen other things that need to be done, signed or checked off that Justin is taking care of- but with the short notice, semi-non-responsive chain of command, and confusion of leaving the Army plus moving home from overseas- it’s been complicated and time consuming. And did I mention the semi language barrier? Yeah, that’s a fun one.
Luckily things are well in hand, and the apartment, movers, and plane ticket are basically taken care of (*knock on wood*) so that leaves me sorting out house hold stuff that can’t be packed (liquids, flammables, perishables, valuables, etc) and figuring out if I should pack all my clothes and shoes in checked baggage or let some of them be packed with unaccompanied baggage.
Usually I just throw everything in baskets in my car and caravan when I move, but this is so worth it- we’re going home!
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
New Years!!!
Justin and I had a GREAT new years eve by the way. We had some wine and played with the Legos I bought him for Christmas. Then at midnight we stepped outside onto our back patio and heard everyone at the clubs and restaurants on Itaewon cheering and setting off fire crackers and fireworks a little further out. We toasted silently and had a new years kiss (of course). Happy New Years 2012
Plane Tickets
One of the expensive/stressful/annoying things about living overseas is buying plane tickets home. It makes me wish for the days when all I had to think about was buying a ticket from Texas to California, or just between cities in the same state. Now I have to hope that no one buys the seat next to me so I can try and sleep on the 10-12 hour flight.
Also when you fly with pets in cabin (vs under the plane, I don't know anything about that, or shipping them cargo) you have to call and make sure that one of the three available spots is open on your flight (they only have three pets allowed in cabin per flight, ?!?) Then you have to buy your ticket, call the airline back and reserve an in-cabin spot for your pet. You don't pay for the pet ticket until you get to the airport and everything checks out (the airlines have to approve your carrier, the size and weight of your pet, and you have to have health travel papers for your pet too, plus whatever else is required for international travel depending on where your are going and coming from).
So I was getting pretty excited about moving home and wanted to buy my plane ticket soon so I could be sure to get my cat's place reserved too. Justin hadn't received his order yet (which tell us the dates he has to be in Texas for out processing, hence telling me what day I should fly out). So we just made our best guess as to when he would be sent to out processing and I bought my ticket.
Actually it wasn't as simple as that. I had to call United airlines a number of times (my billing address was wrong on my debit card and it caused a major delay), I timed the last two times I had to call them and each start-to-finish-get-a-person-on-the-phone was 46 minutes. Let me say that again, EACH TIME I CALLED IT TOOK 46 MINUTES TO GET A REAL PERSON. The people I eventually talked to were really nice (definitely in India), it just took for-ev-er to get to them. Oh, the best part was, it was like 2AM in Korea so I could call during business hours- but it didn't help. After I called my bank to see why my billing address was wrong and fixed it; I finally, finally (two days later and multiple 46 minute hold times) bought my ticket (I was also trying to use a 20% off coupon I had been given because the last flight I had been on had a 12 hour delay. AND I had to reserve a cat in-cabin space. AND I had to buy my Economy Plus ticket, with it's 5 "extra" inches of leg room, otherwise I can't even push the cat carrier past the seat to the floor to slide it under the seat in front of me. Extra room my foot!!).
As a side note, my ENTIRE call to my bank took 9 minutes. And I didn't have to resort to the NATO phonetic alphabet to talk to him either. (of course when I DO use the phonetic alphabet, I just make it up and sound... fantastically uneducated).
I was thrilled and emailed and called everyone who would care to tell them I had bought my plane ticket.
Flash forward a few weeks.
Justin gets his paper work turned back to him because the people who needed to do their job didn't (basic Army nonsense). And then he turns in more paper work and is told that his dates are going to be later, but no, they still didn't have his orders.
So I had a choice to make; the new dates that Justin would be leaving put me in California without him for almost 5 weeks. I didn't want to be apart from him for that long for one thing. For another thing, I didn't want to leave him alone in Korea for that long (without even the cat to keep him company, because Gambit had to fly with me). And, I wanted to be there to help "close up shop", ship our person items, return our loaned army furniture and be there with the paper work that says they never delivered some of it when they try and charge us for stuff we never got. AND most importantly I wanted to be there when we closed out our apartment with the landlords so we could get our deposit back. You usually get the deposit back and we kept the place flawless and it's a hell of a lot of money that I AM going to get back.
All of these things added together means that I have to call the airlines and change my flight. I put it off for a while, but I finally called them and checked on a few things, like how much it could cost to change my flight, if the new date I was looking at had a pet in-cabin space, etc. I'm waiting until next week to actually change my flight in the hopes that Justin's orders will finally come through (he was supposed to get them in November btw) but if they don't I have to change my flight soon because my old fly date is Jan 18th.
After I get home and Justin is home with me too, I think we aren't going to fly anywhere for a while.
Also when you fly with pets in cabin (vs under the plane, I don't know anything about that, or shipping them cargo) you have to call and make sure that one of the three available spots is open on your flight (they only have three pets allowed in cabin per flight, ?!?) Then you have to buy your ticket, call the airline back and reserve an in-cabin spot for your pet. You don't pay for the pet ticket until you get to the airport and everything checks out (the airlines have to approve your carrier, the size and weight of your pet, and you have to have health travel papers for your pet too, plus whatever else is required for international travel depending on where your are going and coming from).
So I was getting pretty excited about moving home and wanted to buy my plane ticket soon so I could be sure to get my cat's place reserved too. Justin hadn't received his order yet (which tell us the dates he has to be in Texas for out processing, hence telling me what day I should fly out). So we just made our best guess as to when he would be sent to out processing and I bought my ticket.
Actually it wasn't as simple as that. I had to call United airlines a number of times (my billing address was wrong on my debit card and it caused a major delay), I timed the last two times I had to call them and each start-to-finish-get-a-person-on-the-phone was 46 minutes. Let me say that again, EACH TIME I CALLED IT TOOK 46 MINUTES TO GET A REAL PERSON. The people I eventually talked to were really nice (definitely in India), it just took for-ev-er to get to them. Oh, the best part was, it was like 2AM in Korea so I could call during business hours- but it didn't help. After I called my bank to see why my billing address was wrong and fixed it; I finally, finally (two days later and multiple 46 minute hold times) bought my ticket (I was also trying to use a 20% off coupon I had been given because the last flight I had been on had a 12 hour delay. AND I had to reserve a cat in-cabin space. AND I had to buy my Economy Plus ticket, with it's 5 "extra" inches of leg room, otherwise I can't even push the cat carrier past the seat to the floor to slide it under the seat in front of me. Extra room my foot!!).
As a side note, my ENTIRE call to my bank took 9 minutes. And I didn't have to resort to the NATO phonetic alphabet to talk to him either. (of course when I DO use the phonetic alphabet, I just make it up and sound... fantastically uneducated).
I was thrilled and emailed and called everyone who would care to tell them I had bought my plane ticket.
Flash forward a few weeks.
Justin gets his paper work turned back to him because the people who needed to do their job didn't (basic Army nonsense). And then he turns in more paper work and is told that his dates are going to be later, but no, they still didn't have his orders.
So I had a choice to make; the new dates that Justin would be leaving put me in California without him for almost 5 weeks. I didn't want to be apart from him for that long for one thing. For another thing, I didn't want to leave him alone in Korea for that long (without even the cat to keep him company, because Gambit had to fly with me). And, I wanted to be there to help "close up shop", ship our person items, return our loaned army furniture and be there with the paper work that says they never delivered some of it when they try and charge us for stuff we never got. AND most importantly I wanted to be there when we closed out our apartment with the landlords so we could get our deposit back. You usually get the deposit back and we kept the place flawless and it's a hell of a lot of money that I AM going to get back.
All of these things added together means that I have to call the airlines and change my flight. I put it off for a while, but I finally called them and checked on a few things, like how much it could cost to change my flight, if the new date I was looking at had a pet in-cabin space, etc. I'm waiting until next week to actually change my flight in the hopes that Justin's orders will finally come through (he was supposed to get them in November btw) but if they don't I have to change my flight soon because my old fly date is Jan 18th.
After I get home and Justin is home with me too, I think we aren't going to fly anywhere for a while.
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