Leave is a benefit of service in the armed forces. It is paid vacation from duty for the purpose of relief, relaxation, personal reasons, or emergencies. Leave is a right provided by Congress under federal law. However, that does not mean that service members can purchase discount airline tickets to leave base whenever they wish.
DoD Directive 1327.5, entitled Leave and Liberty, is the overriding directive regarding leave and applies to all branches of the military. Within the directive guidelines, each military service has its own regulations regarding authority of leave approval, forms to use, and other relevant matters. Liberty, also called a pass, is covered in the DoD Directive but this time off is not charged as leave.
Leave must start and end within the local area, which is defined as the place of residence to and from which the daily duty station commute take place. Some service members take leave during travel to a Permanent Duty Station (PDS) or Temporary Duty Assignment (TDY). In this case, local area is defined as the old PDS or TDY for leave start and the new PDS or TDY location for leave end.
Before using military discounts for airline tickets to vacation destinations, service members should complete and submit a Leave Authorization Form. The only exception occurs when the leave is taken en route for PCS or TDY travel. In this situation, the financial services office uses a travel voucher to determine the authorized travel and leave to charge.
If a holiday or regular off-duty day falls within an authorized leave period, it is chargeable as leave. A unit commander will only approve successive leaves for Monday through Friday periods during unusual or emergency circumstances. Once service members have been approved for leave, they should click here to purchase a military discount airline ticket for leave travel.
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