Over the years, many widows/widowers of military members have asked me what travel benefits continue with the passing of their spouse. If you are a surviving spouse of a service member who died while on active duty or after retirement, read on to learn what travel-related Department of Defense benefits you can still use.
Please note that you must have a valid military ID card to use these benefits. If you need a new one or have ID-card related questions, contact your nearest ID card office.
Lodging on Military Bases
You can stay in base lodging on a space-available basis at installations worldwide. Your dependents and, in many cases, sponsored guests who are not military ID card holders, can accompany you.
Reservation policies and rates vary by location. The best way to find information about a specific facility is by consulting their web page (do a search for “[name of installation] lodging.”).
Note that lodging on most Army bases and several Joint bases is privately operated by IHG Hotels & Resorts, but the above search will work to locate their respective web pages.
The DoD lodging website also shows lodging by service and by state. In our experience, this website is best for identifying what locations are convenient to your travel destination, but not necessarily for making reservations. We always make base lodging reservations by calling the facilities directly using their local phone number.
For more reservation tips, plus details about room types, read this article.
Military Recreational Lodging
Surviving spouses are eligible to stay in military Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) lodging, which includes everything from full-scale resorts to beachfront cabins and RV parks. As with regular base lodging, many facilities allow you to sponsor family and friends to accompany you.
A few examples of MWR lodging include:
Armed Forces Recreation Center (AFRC) Resorts
The four AFRC resorts offer unique access to top destinations around the world. Like civilian resorts, the AFRCs have numerous amenities, such as pools, spas, fitness centers, and a choice of several restaurants. All have a concierge service that offers trips, tours, and discounted tickets to local attractions.
- Shades of Green (Orlando, Florida) is on the Disney World property.
- Hale Koa Hotel (Honolulu, HI) is an oceanfront getaway on famed Waikiki Beach.
- Edelweiss Lodge and Resort (Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany) is a luxurious getaway in the Bavarian Alps.
- Dragon Hill Lodge (Seoul, Korea) is in the heart of one of the most dynamic cities in Asia.
Note that the AFRC resorts offer a Survivors’ Family Program for eligible family members of sponsors who died (of any cause) while on active duty. The program provides a 50% discount off published room rates. See the Eligibility page on any of the AFRC resorts’ websites for more details (here is an example from Edelweiss).
New Sanno Hotel
While not an AFRC, the New Sanno Hotel in downtown Tokyo has similar amenities, plus prime access to some of the top areas of Tokyo at a very reasonable price.
Waterfront Cottages
Stay in lodging directly on the beach or with incredible waterfront views! Here are 34 of the many military installations with beach cottages and waterfront cabins arond the world.
RV Parks
You can find military campgrounds in dozens of locations throughout the U.S. Some are located on military bases, while others are at independent recreation areas.
Here are five tips for using military RV parks.
That was just a sampling of the military recreational lodging you can use! Learn about more MWR facilities here.
Space-A Flights Within the Contiguous United States (CONUS)
Surviving spouses are eligible to fly Space-A within the lower 48 states. Your dependents (with valid military ID card) can accompany you. This eligibility is relatively new; the policy changed in October 2020.
Practically speaking, the geographic limitations mean that unless you are located near a military passenger terminal with regular domestic Space-A opportunities, you’re unlikely to realize any cost savings by taking advantage of this privilege.
However, if you live near a base or still want the adventure of Space-A, the following bases have a lot of activity. If you follow their schedules, you will see there are several destinations within CONUS to/from which they generally have flights at least a few times per month:
- JB Andrews (Maryland)
- Dover AFB (Delaware)
- JB Charleston (South Carolina)
- JB McGuire (New Jersey)
- NAS Norfolk (Virginia)
- JB Lewis-McChord (Washington)
- Travis AFB (California)
- NAS North Island (California)
This article explains more about how to figure out which bases have flights to the places you want to go.
Keep Your Adventure Going
Even if you don’t have another family member or friend with whom you like to travel, don’t let it stop you from continuing to explore. Solo travel is fun and rewarding in a way that’s different from traveling with a companion.
For more inspiration, read about this surviving spouse of an Air Force retiree who is living her and her late husband’s shared dream of moving to Portugal!
We hope to see you out there continuing your adventure and creating new fond memories!
Stephanie, thank you for all of this great info. Lots to consider. However, nice to know we widows can fly within Conus. But,
We don’t understand why we are no longer able to fly international. Being a recent widow, I would love to be able to go to Europe and Asia and do this with Space A. Prior to my husbands death, we did space A to Europe. It was wonderful. We felt very safe on our military aircraft and appreciated the ability to do this. Why have they cut it off for the widows? We really could use and appreciate the Benefit.
Are they or will they ever consider giving this benefit back to us? Thank you for any help understanding the Widows and hopefully getting this benefit returned. What can be done?
Hi Patricia – Prior to the 2020 update to the policy referenced in the article, surviving spouses were not eligible to fly Space-A at all. I have not seen any official explanations for eligibility changes in the policy, and I’m not aware of any ongoing lobbying efforts to broaden eligibility further. You could contact one of the military or veteran service organizations and ask whether this issue is on their agenda.