Reunion travel

Defence may pay for members to travel to reunite with their family.

You can get reunion travel if  you:

• have unaccompanied resident family Resident family who live apart from you due to approved service, compassionate, work or study reasons.  
• have  non-resident family A child or partner who doesn't normally live with you.  .

If you live with your partner as a Service couple When you and your partner are both ADF members. and you’re posted to a seagoing ship A Royal Australian Navy ship or other approved ship. , seagoing submarine A Royal Australian Navy submarine or other submarine approved for this allowance. or seagoing flight An aircraft able to land on a Royal Australian Navy ship or other approved ship.    , you’re also eligible for reunion travel. 

If you're separated from your resident family for less than 2 months, you're not eligible for a reunion travel credit.

The number of credits you may get depends on your family situation.  

You have unaccompanied resident family

If you have unaccompanied resident family (URF) you can get up to a maximum of 6 reunion travel credits a year, depending on how long you're separated from them. If you're on a flexible service determination, the number of credits you can get depends on your pattern of service.   

You have non-resident family only

If you have non-resident family (NRF) only and your family member is living outside your housing benefit location (HBL), you may get:

• 1 reunion travel credit while they’re living outside your HBL for more than 6 months
• 2 reunion travel credits while they’re living outside your HBL for 12 months. 

If you’re part of a Service couple When you and your partner are both ADF members. , only one of you will get reunion credits to visit the non-resident family member.  

You have non-resident family and unaccompanied resident family

If you have non-resident family (NRF) and unaccompanied resident family (URF), you can get up to a maximum of 6 reunion travel credits a year. You can use up to 2 of these credits to visit your NRF.     

You’re posted to seagoing vessels and part of a Service couple  

You may get 6 reunion travel credits a year if you live with your partner as a Service couple and you’re posted to a: 

• seagoing ship
• seagoing submarine  
• seagoing flight. 

One credit covers one return trip, including: 

• return airfare
• travel to and from the airport.    

You can use one reunion credit to travel between your family’s home location and either: 

• your primary service location The place where you’re expected to provide capability. If you only have one service location, that location is your primary service location. If you have more than one service location, your primary service location is specified in your alternate located work agreement or your transition agreement.
• the port where you are, if you're on a seagoing ship, seagoing submarine or seagoing flight.   

If your family lives outside Australia, you can get a return trip to an international terminal in Australia that both:

• is closest to your primary service location
• has flights to or from the country where your resident family or non-resident family live. 

You'll need to pay for the overseas portion of your trip.

You can use more than one travel credit at a time to bring more than one family member to your location.  

You can choose to book and pay for the trip yourself and claim the costs later.  

If you pay for the travel yourself, you can claim back the lesser of: 

• what Defence would pay if they booked the travel
• the actual travel costs including door-to-door travel and airfares.  

This means you may not be reimbursed for the total costs of travel. 

You don't need to have leave approved while your family are visiting you. 

Start the application process by completing a Travel Request Form (AE505). You can download this from the intranet Forms tab on the Defence Protected Network (DPN).