Soldiers forced to pay for flights home?

[Training Risky]

Can anyone at Arsecot ops confirm this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/01/npiot01.xml

X was among a number of soldiers flown from Iraq to a base in Germany last year then told they would have to pay for the rest of the journey home because of a lack of seats on Army flights.

He had to telephone home to ask his parents to pay the £231 fare from Dusseldorf on a scheduled flight.

[Skeleton]

Your joking......right??

If your not then the person(s) responsible deserve all they get, I thought I had heard everything, but this beggars belief.

Hope its the reporters getting it wrong yet again though.

[Talking Radalt]

Hmmm,
I suspect it's more a case of:
Squaddie arrives in Germany aboard HM Airways, where flight unexpectedly terminates due to snag/weather/dare I say it...crew feeling a little weary;)
Much-loved Duty Mover announces next onward MOD flight is three days away....
Squaddie (with a credit account at Ritzy's, b0ll0x like space-hoppers and a promisary note from one "Misty Peaks" at Spearmint Rhino) thinks "F*** this, I'm going by Easyjet", picks up phone to M&D and asks for a ticket home since "MOD have dumped us in Germany" but, I might add, he chooses to omit the "until the day after tomorrow" bit of the conversation.
Mum'n'Dad crack open the Visa card, pluck young brave Johnny from a damp squat in Rheindalen, then immedaitely pick up the phone and call the Current Bun's "News" hotline.
:rolleyes:

[Mikehegland]

I see nothing has changed then.

During a JMC about 12 years ago. I had to fly from Stornoway to Glasgow. Stay overnight in a hotel. Get a hire car and drive to Lyneham. And I had to pay my own way - Not just for me BUT also for 3 engineers. It cost me best part of £2000 on my credit card and although the Pusser reimbursed me the actual cost...because it took 6 weeks to get the paperwork through I incurred an interest payment and they wouldn't pay that.!!!!


But the best story was when I went down bird and the local refuellers wouldnt accept the Shell card and so once again out came Mr Barclaycard to fill the trusty stead up with F34. When I got back Barclayvcard rang up to check an unusual payment and I told them it was to refuel my Helicopter - Quick as a flash a Platinum Barclaycard was in ther post - Brill

[Skeleton]

There has to be more to it....

Maybe got smashed and missed the trooper....

I hate the press.

[insty66]

Not sure about the telegraph story but I have paid to return myself home on time and I'm not the only one.
When a 2 week det became a 3 week one purely because Transport command could not get us home on time I shelled out and sorted myself.
Flying home 2 things struck me
1 There were MANY empty seats on my flight (approx 100)
2 If the RAF had shelled out it could have got all of us home on time for less than $30 000
Does a 10 cost that much 2 ways across the oggin? bearing in mind we only needed to go 1 way.


Kicker is, as I was home on time I was expected to return to work 4 days before the others didn't mind losing the LSSA but that :mad:

[SirToppamHat]

Insty66

Presumably the others faced disciplinary action for not doing as you did? Probably not, which begs the question: Why did you choose to pay your own way back?

I suspect, as others have suggested, that in this case, there was a choice.

One thing that really grips my sh*t is when advances of rates are not paid in full. The advice from Command Accts seems to be that advances should not be more than 90% of the anticipated rates. Given they have direct access to your pay for recovery of overissues or the whole lot if you don't fill in the paperwork on return, what is the problem? Granted most of us could find the 10% from our own pockets, but what about the troops?

STH

[JessTheDog]

Presumably the others faced disciplinary action for not doing as you did? Probably not, which begs the question: Why did you choose to pay your own way back?

People spend enough time away from home and family without having to put up with further delays!

One thing that really grips my sh*t is when advances of rates are not paid in full. The advice from Command Accts seems to be that advances should not be more than 90% of the anticipated rates. Given they have direct access to your pay for recovery of overissues or the whole lot if you don't fill in the paperwork on return, what is the problem? Granted most of us could find the 10% from our own pockets, but what about the troops?

This was an embuggerance - I was fortunate enough to have a "corporate" credit card which I used for accommodation. This was in breach of the rules but so what? I was abroad for the best part of a tour on a monthly basis for at least a week at a time and I would have been inconveniently out of pocket even with 10% of the total!

What really annoys me is the 1771 process - getting countersignatures etc. Civil servants (on less pay with more incentive to fiddle) can apply for refund of actuals so, why can't we? Particularly when there is a "bed and breakfast and dinner" and an "actuals" rate and the B&B&D one is supposed to be claimed. I made sure everyone for whom I was responsible knew about (and claimed for) the actuals rate as the B&B one tended not to cover the cost of an evening meal.

[Mikehegland]

Quote -

People spend enough time away from home and family without having to put up with further delays!


and your in the RAF !!!!!

So, what would you know about spending time away from home and family? when was the last time you deployed for 9 months?

get a life fella

[Training Risky]

Yes that's right. The fat old lazy RAF sit around at RAF Little Snoring... bantering in the bar... quaffing tea.... civilians in uniform.... etc,etc.

We never actually deploy anywhere do we, apart from ***********, ****, ****** *****, ****, and any other sh!thole around the world you care to mention.

How wonderful it must be to be you.

tw@t:mad:

[Fg Off Max Stout]

As a chap who lists Chinook experience, Mike, you should know that whereas a regiment will do their 6 month det and then come home for quite a long time, Chinny operators routinely spend 6 months or more out of the country year in year out.

Maybe your 747 time has clouded your memory, but we're not talking 4 day stopovers in Miami with 15 nubile hosties, we're talking 2 months in a tent in some armpit of the world with tropical diseases, bad sanitation, landmines and no gin, accompanied by 15 hairy crewmen.

[insty66]

Well, you all put that rather better than I could have. Thank you JtD TR.




STH and Mh
Strange as it may seem the idea of being with my family does not fill me with horror and when added to a delay which means hurry up and do nothing . I'll vote with my feet/credit card as have many others I know.

[JessTheDog]

So, what would you know about spending time away from home and family? when was the last time you deployed for 9 months?

Ooohh!

Life can be just as frustrating for those non-formed-units personnel who support OOA committments - the South Atlantic, Cyprus, the sandbox etc - as well as for those on "hardship" formed unit tours. Making people sit around unnecessarily away from home because of a cock-up (perceived or real) is not the way to encourage retention, particularly in the current climate of cutbacks and rock-bottom morale.

It doesn't bother me any more as I have taken that ultimate promotion to the rank of "Mr!"

[Mikehegland]

Civvy's in uniform.#

wow..... that achiebed the required bite eh?

Ive just been chatting to an A.F mate who has recently retruned from a "deployment" (his words not mine as he reckins a deployment is anything more than a fortnight - !)

and his biggest gripe was that he wasn't able to tune the TV in correctly ....!!! Eventually he had to complain to the Hotel manager !!!!!

Priceless, absolutely priceless.

[Always_broken_in_wilts]

Mike old chap,

You have to ask your self a couple of questions.

If the biggest gripe your "AF mate" had was the TV in his hotel room, whilst as you quite correctly point out, those who wear "cam gear" for a living live in sh!te for 9 months :rolleyes:

1. Who joined the right service:ok:

2. Who joined the wrong service:E

all spelling mistakes are "df" alcohol induced

[GTNav]

Mike

As a puma and ch47 geezer, where did you spend 9 months away? I can only guess one place. You cannot have been in SH long if you have only got 4500 hours including your 747-400 office. Basically, what is your gripe? That you were the only person in the RAF who did anything hard or that you are boring us all with a WIWOP or WIWOC story.

From what I heard, the boys from Odiham have cut new ground in the last 2 years that previously was only done by wesex boys.

So please tell us what your point is once you have fixed your TV in Vegas or your computer connection in NYC!

[moggiee]

ABIW - I couldn't have put it better myself. Having worked with the Army and had to listen to their whining about how "soft the crabs have it" I used the same riposte on many an occasion.

Joining the Army at all is nearly as baffling as joining the RAF and NOT wanting to be aircrew!

Message for unhappy blunties - it's the Royal "AIR" Force, for heavens sake!