Leave

Your leave balance is a financial asset. Airmen who manage it deliberately get more out of their careers, and more money at the end, than the ones who let days evaporate every September.

Thirty days a year, sixty in the bank

Every month on active duty earns 2.5 days of leave, 30 days per year (1). The clock starts the day you ship to Basic Military Training, even though you can't use any of it there. You'll finish BMT (about 7.5 weeks) with about 6 days banked, and technical training with 15 or more.

The ceiling is 60 days. At the end of each fiscal year (September 30), any balance above 60 is forfeited. This "use or lose" cutoff catches more Airmen than you'd expect. Your Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) tracks your balance and shows projected use-or-lose days: check it monthly, especially from spring onward, and schedule leave before September.

The rulebook is DAFI 36-3003, "Military Leave Program", most recently updated with DAFGM2025-01 in May 2025. It implements DoDI 1327.06, completely reissued on August 7, 2025, which permanently codified several interim policies from 2022 and 2023 (1)(2).

Training freezes your leave (mostly)

No leave during BMT. During tech school, leave is generally restricted by your phase status, with one major exception: "Christmas Exodus" (also called holiday block leave), when training bases typically release students for about two weeks in December. If you haven't accrued enough days by then, advance leave borrows against future accrual, repaid as you earn. Some Airmen skip it to avoid carrying a negative balance. Personal call, but the option exists.

After tech school, your flexibility opens up. Requests go through the LeaveWeb system, typically needing supervisor and commander approval at least 14 days in advance when possible.

Combat time can raise the cap

Serve in a combat zone or qualified hazardous duty area drawing hostile fire or imminent danger pay for 120 or more consecutive days and you may qualify for Special Leave Accrual (SLA), which lets you carry a balance above the 60-day cap.

The FY2023 NDAA (Section 632, effective January 1, 2023) tightened the program: the cap dropped from 120 to 90 total days, and the retention window shrank from three fiscal years to two (3). Members holding more than 90 days under the old rules have until September 30, 2026 to use the excess or forfeit it, with a one-time option to sell back up to 30 days above the 90-day threshold (which counts against the career sell-back maximum covered below). SLA approval requires a Brigadier General (O-7) in your chain of command; the DFAS SLA page has current details (3).

A pass is free. Leave never is.

A pass (also called liberty) is authorized time off that does not deduct from your leave balance:

• Regular pass: up to 3 days (a typical weekend). No approval needed beyond your normal duty schedule.
• Special pass: up to 4 consecutive days, containing at least 2 consecutive non-duty days. Requires commander approval.

The catch: a pass confines you to your local area, which your commander defines. Typically that means commuting distance around your installation, often 100 to 250 miles depending on the base. Travel beyond it, or any absence of five or more consecutive days, requires chargeable leave (1).

Don't game this. Leaving the local area on a pass is a punishable offense under the UCMJ that can bring Article 15 nonjudicial punishment, loss of rank, and lasting career consequences. Worse: if you're injured or killed outside the local area while coded as on pass, the Line of Duty determination could deny benefits to your family. Not worth the few leave days saved.

Saturday counts against you

If your leave spans a weekend or holiday, those days are charged (1). Leave doesn't pause because it's Saturday. Visit family from Thursday through the following Tuesday and you've spent six chargeable days, not four.

Habits that stretch the balance:

• Bracket the weekends. Monday through Friday charges five days but delivers nine days away, with both weekends at your destination.
• Use passes for local getaways. A three-day weekend inside your local area costs zero leave days.
• Ride block leave windows. Many units designate leave periods (around holidays, between deployments, during slow stretches) where approval is easier and you can plan farther ahead.
• Know the half-day rule. Work at least 50% of your duty hours on a given day and it counts as duty, not leave; your first chargeable day is the next one.

Sick time is not vacation

Most civilian jobs drain vacation for sick days. The Air Force keeps them separate: convalescent leave is non-chargeable and never touches your 30-day annual balance (1).

• Quarters: for short-term illness (cold, flu, minor conditions), a military medical provider sends you home for typically 24 to 72 hours. No formal paperwork. Notify your supervisor and stay home until cleared. Charged to nothing.
• Convalescent leave: for significant illness, injury, or surgery, a military or civilian provider recommends a duration and your unit commander approves an initial period of up to 30 days. Extensions require additional medical review plus approval from a Lieutenant Colonel (O-5) or higher (1).
• Medical appointments: never require leave. You attend them during duty hours as part of your service. Notify your supervisor and go.

One more provision worth knowing: a 2023 Department of the Air Force Guidance Memorandum gives sexual assault survivors and victims of adult maltreatment up to 30 days of non-chargeable convalescent leave, usable intermittently for physical or psychological recovery, under both restricted and unrestricted reports (1).

Birth parents get their own convalescent benefit, covered with parental leave below.

Family emergencies: expedited, not free

Emergency leave covers the death, serious illness, or life-threatening condition of immediate family, which the Air Force defines as your spouse, parents (including stepparents), children (including stepchildren), siblings, and anyone who raised you in loco parentis for at least five years before you turned 21 (1). Grandparents don't make that list unless they meet the in loco parentis test. Commanders have discretion, though, so talk to your supervisor and First Sergeant about legitimate family needs anyway.

Know this going in: standard emergency leave is chargeable. It's regular leave with expedited approval, not a separate non-chargeable category. If your balance is low or negative, request advance leave; the Air & Space Forces Aid Society (formerly Air Force Aid Society, rebranded December 2025) can provide emergency financial assistance for travel costs (5).

Funding follows geography: stationed overseas (OCONUS), your unit typically funds emergency travel to the U.S. For CONUS-to-CONUS travel you generally pay your own way, though AFAS offers interest-free loans or grants through the Red Cross.

The Red Cross verifies. Your commander decides.

For deployed or overseas members, the American Red Cross Hero Care Network verifies emergencies so commanders can make fast, informed decisions (6):

1. Your family calls the Hero Care Center at 1-877-272-7337, staffed 24/7/365.
2. Red Cross staff collect your full name, rank, and unit, plus the nature of the emergency.
3. The Red Cross independently verifies the emergency with hospitals, funeral homes, or attending physicians.
4. A verified message reaches your commanding officer, even at remote or deployed locations.
5. Your commander makes the final leave decision.

The Red Cross does not authorize leave, and its verification is not a requirement for approval. Commanders retain sole authority either way (6). Give your family that number before you ship.

Bereavement leave is deliberately narrow

Following the death of a spouse or child, you can take up to 14 consecutive days of non-chargeable leave. The benefit was established by the FY2022 NDAA (Section 622) with an effective date of June 25, 2022, was implemented through DTM 23-003 on March 29, 2023, and is permanently codified in DoDI 1327.06 with the August 7, 2025 reissuance (2)(7).

There's an eligibility threshold: you qualify only if you hold fewer than 30 days of accrued ordinary leave at the time of the death. At 30 or more, you use regular chargeable leave first and become eligible once your balance drops below 30 (7).

It covers nothing else. Deaths of parents, siblings, grandparents, or other family members route through regular (chargeable) emergency leave, or Permissive TDY at the commander's discretion. The narrow eligibility has been a point of congressional discussion, so it may expand.

Every parent gets 12 weeks

The Military Parental Leave Program (MPLP) is one of the most generous parental leave policies in the country. It was expanded by the FY2022 NDAA and implemented through DTM 23-001 on January 4, 2023, with Change 1 incorporated January 15, 2025 (4)(8).

Birth parents stack two benefits:

• Maternity convalescent leave: up to 42 days (6 weeks) of non-chargeable recovery time, taken immediately and continuously starting the day after hospital discharge (4).
• Parental leave: 12 weeks (84 days) of non-chargeable leave.
• Combined total: up to 126 days (18 weeks).

Everyone else (fathers, same-sex partners, adoptive parents, foster parents) receives the same 12 weeks (84 days) (4). The old system gave a "primary caregiver" six weeks and the "secondary" just three; MPLP eliminated that distinction entirely.

The fine print that matters:

• The FY2026 NDAA expanded the use-window from one year to two years after birth, adoption, or foster placement, fixing a real problem where deployments and PME could run out the clock (9).
• With commander approval, leave can be taken in increments (minimum 7-day blocks, up to 12 increments). A commander who denies incremental use must authorize the full 12 weeks continuously.
• Dual-military couples each receive their own full 12 weeks. Parental leave cannot be transferred to a spouse.
• Married and unmarried members are treated equally; for children born outside marriage, parentage must be legally established.

Guard and Reserve parity arrived with the FY2024 NDAA (effective October 1, 2024): drill-status members of the Selected Reserve who give birth while not on active duty can receive up to 12 paid Inactive Duty Training (IDT) periods of authorized absence within 12 months, with equivalent pay and retirement points (10). More in Section 22.5.

The exit decision: terminal leave vs. cash

You can convert unused leave into cash at three points: reenlistment, extension of enlistment, or separation/retirement (including upon the death of a member). The career limit is 60 days total (11). Not per enlistment: 60 days across 4, 6, 20, or 30 years of service, combined.

The cash is worse than it sounds. Sold leave pays your base pay rate only, calculated at 1/30th of monthly base pay per day (11). No BAH, no BAS, no special pays, no benefits. It's also taxed immediately as supplemental income at about 22 to 25% federal withholding, plus state taxes. An E-4 with four years of service earning roughly $3,300/month in base pay would receive about $110 per day before taxes, roughly $85 after. Thirty sold days net about $2,550.

One exception: leave earned in a Combat Zone Tax Exclusion (CZTE) area is non-taxable when sold back. Deployed leave from a tax-free zone dodges the tax hit entirely.

The alternative is terminal leave: regular chargeable leave taken immediately before separation or retirement, with your last leave day becoming your official last day of active duty. You remain on active duty status the whole time, drawing full pay plus all allowances (BAH, BAS), keeping TRICARE, and still earning time toward retirement. You can even start a civilian job during terminal leave and collect two paychecks at once.

Roughly double, and the gap widens at higher ranks and larger allowances. Some Airmen split the difference: 20 days of terminal leave, 10 sold. Whatever you pick, decide well before your separation date. Request terminal leave at least 14 days before your first leave day and complete out-processing before it starts; coordinate through the transition process and see Module 21.

PTDY and PDMRA: absence that charges nothing

Permissive TDY (PTDY) is authorized absence with no leave charge, though you pay your own travel costs. DAFI 36-3003 Table 3.6 sets the categories (1):

Post-Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence (PDMRA) is non-chargeable compensatory absence for members whose deployment-to-dwell ratio exceeds 1:2 for active duty or 1:5 for Reserve/Guard (1). Accrual scales with cumulative deployment time, from about 1 day per month beyond 12 months deployed up to 4 days per month beyond 24. Use it within 12 months of returning or forfeit it. There's no cash value or sell-back option.

Guard and Reserve: your status sets your accrual

Leave accrual for Reserve and Air National Guard members depends on duty status:

On active duty orders of 30 or more consecutive days, all regular leave policies apply to you. Traditional drill weekends earn nothing (10). Leave earned during an activation or mobilization can carry into future active duty periods under certain conditions, so talk to your unit's Military Personnel Flight (MPF) whenever you transition between duty statuses.

Taking leave out of the country

Within CONUS (the 48 contiguous states plus Washington, D.C.), there are no statutory distance limits on leave travel. Your commander approves, and most routine requests are straightforward. International travel adds steps (1):

1. Commander approval, typically at a higher level than domestic leave.
2. Review the Foreign Clearance Guide for country-specific entry and security requirements.
3. Complete required Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection training modules.
4. Register with the State Department's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP).
5. Develop an Individual Anti-Terrorism Plan if your chain of command requires one.
6. Register your travel itinerary with your unit.

Start early. Some approvals take weeks, and the Foreign Clearance Guide may flag countries requiring extra security briefings or restricted for DoD personnel entirely. If you're stationed overseas already, travel to neighboring countries may be streamlined depending on your theater's policies.

Two more terms you'll see alongside CONUS for the rest of your career: non-foreign OCONUS (Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands) and foreign OCONUS (all other countries).