Space-A Flights for 100% Disabled Veterans: Where You Can Fly (and Where You Can't)

If you're rated 100% permanent and total, you can fly free on military aircraft. That part is true. What's spreading online isn't: posts telling disabled veterans they can use Space-A to travel the globe. You can't. Here's what the rules actually allow.

Quick answer: Veterans with a permanent and total service-connected disability rating - including TDIU that VA has made permanent - can fly Space-A in Category VI, the lowest priority. You need the tan DD Form 2765 ID card. You can fly within the continental US, between the continental US and Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa, and within Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands - not to Europe, Asia or any foreign country. Since October 2020, your dependents can come too, but only when they fly with you.

Who Qualifies

You need a service-connected disability rating that is both total and permanent - the "P&T" designation. VA's announcement of the benefit put it simply: veterans "must have a permanent and total service-connected disability rating."

You also need a DD Form 2765, the tan Department of Defense ID card with "100% DAV" in the affiliation block. You get it at a military ID card office; bring your VA letter showing your permanent and total rating.

Does TDIU Count?

Yes, if VA has made it permanent. DoD's ID card rules issue the 100% DAV card to veterans VA rates "100 percent disabled or 100 percent unemployable," and VA's own regulation calls TDIU a total disability rating. What Space-A adds is the word permanent: temporary TDIU, like a temporary 100% rating, doesn't qualify.

Bring the VA benefit letter that shows your TDIU is permanent and total. Some terminal staff are less familiar with TDIU than with a 100% schedular rating, and the letter settles it.

Where You Can Fly - and Where You Can't

Space-A for 100% P&T veterans covers:

• Flights within the continental United States
• Flights directly between the continental US and Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa
• Flights within Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands

Hawaii is the big one. A free military flight to Oahu plus military lodging on the islands is one of the best-value trips a 100% veteran can take.

Bringing Your Family

When the benefit launched in 2019, VA said dependents weren't eligible. That changed on October 23, 2020, when DoD updated its Space-A rules to add dependents of permanently and totally disabled veterans.

• They must travel with you - they can't fly on your eligibility alone.
• The same destinations apply: the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii and US territories only.
• Bring ID for each family member and confirm with the terminal what it accepts before you travel.

How Space-A Actually Works

• Sign up with the terminal. Fill out AMC Form 140, the Space-A travel request, and email it to the passenger terminal you want to fly from. Within your category, your place in line is set by when you signed up, so sign up early.
• Watch the 72-hour schedule. Most terminals post upcoming flights on their Facebook page about three days out.
• Expect to wait or get bumped. Category VI boards last. Flights change or cancel for mission needs.
• Have a backup plan. VA's own advice is to keep a contingency plan, including money for a commercial ticket, in case a flight doesn't happen.

Is It Worth It?

If your dates are flexible, yes - especially for Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico, where commercial fares are high. If you have to be somewhere on a specific day, Space-A is the wrong tool.

Once you land, you can stay cheaply too. Our lodging map shows military campgrounds, cottages and resorts that admit disabled veterans, with rates and booking links.