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7 Things to Know About the American Forces Travel Booking Site

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Service members, veterans and their families now have a one-stop shop for finding and booking travel with military discounts. The Department of Defense has teamed up with Priceline to create a travel booking site exclusively for U.S. military members.

It only takes a quick eligibility check on the American Forces Travel booking site to begin accessing savings that claim to include up to 60% off hotel stays.

Here are seven questions about the new site, answered.

1. What kinds of travel can be booked through the site?

Eligible members of the military and Department of Defense can book everything from flights and rental cars to vacation homes and hotels. Even cruises are available on the site.

The site, which is powered by Priceline, can be used for booking domestic and international travel, and boasts hotel deals in more than 71,000 destinations around the globe.

American Forces Travel also offers packages that users can use to book flights in combination with hotels or car rental for even deeper discounts. On Priceline’s site, travelers who book a package save $240 per transaction per person, on average. People will see similar savings on American Forces Travel.

In the future, American Forces Travel hopes to also offer discounts on theme parks and other attractions.

» Learn more: Beat your travel budget and find cheap activities in any city

2. Who is eligible?

American Forces Travel is open to all military and military-affiliated personnel who are eligible to use Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs. That's an estimated 9 million people.

The list of people who are eligible to use American Forces Travel includes:

Active-duty members and their families.

Full-benefit retirees and their families.

Veterans who are100% disabled and their families.

Medal of Honor recipients and their families.

American Red Cross and USA paid personnel who are serving outside of the United States and their families.

Department of Defense civilians.

Veterans and non-active members who did not retire with full benefits should be eligible later in 2019. The Department of Defense has said it intends to make them eligible but has not specified a date yet.

3. How do I find out if I’m eligible?

The eligibility check is on the American Forces Travel site. Users will enter their last name, the last four digits of their Social Security number and their date of birth. Then the information is checked against the Department of Defense’s records.

Priceline is not part of the verification process and does not capture or retain that data.

4. What kind of savings can military members expect?

American Forces Travel will offer hotel deals up to 60% off and cruise deals up to 80% off. Military members will have access to discounts on 1.2 million hotels, as well as deals on flights and car rentals.

» Learn more: Credit card offers for active-duty military

5. Are these discounts different than what nonmilitary travelers might find on Priceline?

Some of the discounts are different because Priceline has a team dedicated to negotiating additional deals for American Forces Travel.

6. Outside of travel deals, what else can American Forces Travel provide?

The same services exist for American Forces Travel that exist for Priceline customers, including 24-hour customer service and insurance options for all forms of travel.

7. Why was American Forces Travel created?

Previously, military families would have booked travel with a travel agent on a military base. The Department of Defense created American Forces Travel to make the process faster, more modern and accessible.

In addition, travel booked through American Forces Travel will generate a commission that will support Quality of Life programs for each branch of the military.

How to maximize your rewards

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Luxury perks: The Platinum Card® from American Express

Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

Planning a trip? Check out these articles for more inspiration and advice: Nerdwallet’s top travel credit cards Thank you for your service: Military student loan rights Credit card offers for active duty military personnel

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2x-5x Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day. Earn 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, where you'll get Capital One's best prices on thousands of trip options.

75,000 Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.

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Does the Military's Travel Discount Site Really Offer Deals?

A military travel discount site rolled out this month by the Defense Department and Priceline boasts that it offers exclusive travel savings for qualifying users.

The site, American Forces Travel , offers hotel, flight, car rental and cruise deals, as well as bundled or package deals that a spokesman said can save travelers an average of $240 per person.

So I put it to the test. Could using it save money for a real human like me?

The answer for me was no.

First, a few notes. For this experiment, I researched prices for airfare, hotel and a rental car for a single trip to San Francisco from my home near Anchorage, Alaska, for my family: me, my husband and our two kids. We have family near enough San Francisco that we could use that airport, but not close enough that we would stay with them if we wanted to vacation in the city for a few days. I compared prices against those on the sites I normally use for booking -- Kayak.com for air travel, Hotwire.com for rental cars and Hotels.com for hotels -- and searched dates for a fictional four-day weekend trip in late March.

This test was inspired by comments from readers on our Military.com story announcing the discount program . Many commenters noted they were finding better travel rates outside the DoD's new site. Given that our test was truly limited, I encourage you to compare rates for yourself.

Air Travel Rates

Searching for air travel rates on this new site showed no savings or, worse, much higher costs depending on how I searched.

To be fair, the site didn't claim to have great deals for the types of flights for which I was searching. The site says its flight perks are no booking fee, reduced fees for reservation changes, all flights cancellable within 24 hours and exclusive flight options with split-ticket fares.

For my four-day, Friday to Monday trip to and from San Francisco International Airport, Armed Forces Travel found me a roundtrip ticket for $610.10 per person at Delta's Main Cabin rate, which lets you pick your seats.

As advertised, no booking fee was added, and I was told I could cancel within 24 hours. I didn't try to change my ticket, so I couldn't see what their fees would be for that, but their fine print warns, "Air travel itinerary changes, if permitted by the airline fare rules, may have a change fee charged by the airline typically ranging between $200 and $300 USD per ticket that will vary by market, carrier and specific fare rule," so I am unclear as to what their reduced reservations fees might be.

Related: 4 Tips for Flying Space-A

My flight search on Kayak.com brought up significantly cheaper options. For those Delta flights, it first brought up an Economy rate of $315 per person, where seats might be automatically assigned. Then, when I clicked through to book on the Delta site, I was offered a Main Cabin rate at $435 -- still well below the Armed Forces Travel rate.

It was difficult to even compare the Kayak offers to the American Forces site because the latter didn't have as many flight options. Kayak showed me a pair of Alaska Airlines flights that allowed you to pick your seat for $343 per person, well below the $610.10 option with Armed Forces.

American Forces' website told me I might be able to save more by booking in a bundle. When I clicked through that option to search for flights, I was offered the same main cabin price -- $435 -- as through Kayak. And while the click through said I was building a bundle, the system did not appear to require me to actually select anything more than a flight to get that lower price. That felt a little sneaky.

Hotel Rates

I started my search through Hotels.com for three nights at a hotel off Market Street in San Francisco, since we'd be visiting the Wharf area and shopping on my fictional trip. The hotel options in that area range from nice to really fancy without any familiar name-brand budget options, so I looked in the "nice" range. I then searched for the same area on the American Forces site.

The sites tended to offer different hotels. But they both offered the Hilton Parc 55, so I chose that hotel for this comparison. I wanted accommodations for two adults and two children. Hotels.com gave me a rate of approximately $178 a night for about $622 total, which includes $87.66 in taxes and fees. It had no trouble searching for two adults and two children.

The American Forces site, on the other hand, first told me that it could offer me only double-occupancy rooms, even though "four guests" was a drop-down menu option when I searched. That was confusing. When I changed it to two guests and searched, the next screen showed me as having searched for "two adults, two children." The top of the page said I was getting exclusive discounts, and the photo of the Parc 55 said "13 percent off."

But when I clicked through, it said my best rate was $635 for three nights, plus about $105 in taxes and fees for a total of about $740. If that's an exclusive discount, it's not a very good one, and it's definitely not better than the non-exclusive discount on the other site.

I also tried booking my hotel through the bundling option, which had found me extra savings with the flight. For the hotel reservation, it made no difference.

Car Rentals

American Forces again boasted exclusive rates and two specific perks -- the ability to cancel on cars reserved for payment at the time of pickup, and lower rates if you pre-pay.

My search on American Forces revealed my cheapest alternative to be an economy option with Hertz for $22 a day if a pre-pay. For $27, I could reserve through Thrifty and leave myself the option of canceling at any time.

Heading over to Hotwire.com, my site of choice for rental cars, I found the same Hertz deal of $22 for pre-paying. And again, over at Thrifty, I was offered the same $27, cancel-anytime option.

In short, for my trip, booking through American Forces offered me no savings.

I also tried booking a car through the bundling option. Like the hotel, bundling for the car brought no price difference.

I Didn't Find This Site to Be a Money Saver

A Priceline spokesperson said that for cars and hotels, "certain suppliers will be contributing exclusive rates to American Forces Travel. There are a lot of ways to save on the site," but she didn't offer clues on how to find those, specifically. She also said that hotel rates are likely to get better over time.

"As American Forces Travel continues to grow after the initial launch, we are constantly working to improve the product for our customers and have plans in place for an even more diversified inventory, as well as booking options for the near future," she said.

So, yes, likely there are deals I didn't find. After all, this experiment was limited to one trip to one major city in one state.

But as part of their target audience, I can't say I'll be hitting it up to find deals for my family any time soon.

-- Amy Bushatz can be reached at [email protected] .

Amy Bushatz

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American forces travel .

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American Forces Travel℠ is a new Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) program arising out of a joint service initiative combining the efforts of each of the five branches of service (Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard) and the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community & Family Policy.

Because the Internet is now the most popular way to research and book travel, the branches of Service chose to evolve their travel offering. The Services have contracted with a world leader in travel, Priceline®, to deliver high value travel benefits to the U.S. military community. American Forces Travel℠ is transforming the way MWR provides online leisure services to our Service members and families, empowering them to revitalize, reconnect, be well, and most importantly, be mission-ready. In addition to dramatically enhancing quality of life for the military community, American Forces Travel℠ will inject critical revenue into MWR programs by providing commissions from every booking made.

Awarding the no-cost contract to Priceline® is a major milestone for the Services and a testament to their collaborative and transformative efforts. While there are many for-profit online leisure travel offerings marketing to the military today, American Forces Travel is the only official joint services MWR leisure travel website.

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7 Things to Know About American Forces Travel

February 2, 2019

Service members, veterans and their families now have a one-stop shop for finding and booking travel with military discounts. The Department of Defense has teamed up with Priceline to create a travel booking site exclusively for U.S. military members.

It only takes a quick eligibility check on the American Forces Travel booking site to begin accessing savings that claim to include up to 60% off hotel stays.

Here are seven questions about the new site, answered.

1. What kinds of travel can be booked through the site?

Eligible members of the military and Department of Defense can book everything from flights and rental cars to vacation homes and hotels. Even cruises are available on the site.

The site, which is powered by Priceline, can be used for booking domestic and international travel, and boasts hotel deals in more than 71,000 destinations around the globe.

American Forces Travel also offers packages that users can use to book flights in combination with hotels or car rental for even deeper discounts. On Priceline’s site, travelers who book a package save $240 per transaction per person, on average. People will see similar savings on American Forces Travel.

In the future, American Forces Travel hopes to also offer discounts on theme parks and other attractions.

» Learn more: Beat your travel budget and find cheap activities in any city

2. Who is eligible?

American Forces Travel is open to all military and military-affiliated personnel who are eligible to use Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs. That’s an estimated 9 million people.

The list of people who are eligible to use American Forces Travel includes:

• Active-duty members and their families.
• Full-benefit retirees and their families.
• Veterans who are100% disabled and their families.
• Medal of Honor recipients and their families.
• American Red Cross and USA paid personnel who are serving outside of the United States and their families.
• Department of Defense civilians.

Veterans and non-active members who did not retire with full benefits should be eligible later in 2019. The Department of Defense has said it intends to make them eligible but has not specified a date yet.

3. How do I find out if I’m eligible?

The eligibility check is on the American Forces Travel site. Users will enter their last name, the last four digits of their Social Security number and their date of birth. Then the information is checked against the Department of Defense’s records.

Priceline is not part of the verification process and does not capture or retain that data.

4. What kind of savings can military members expect?

American Forces Travel will offer hotel deals up to 60% off and cruise deals up to 80% off. Military members will have access to discounts on 1.2 million hotels, as well as deals on flights and car rentals.

» Learn more: Credit card offers for active-duty military

5. Are these discounts different than what nonmilitary travelers might find on Priceline?

Some of the discounts are different because Priceline has a team dedicated to negotiating additional deals for American Forces Travel.

6. Outside of travel deals, what else can American Forces Travel provide?

The same services exist for American Forces Travel that exist for Priceline customers, including 24-hour customer service and insurance options for all forms of travel.

7. Why was American Forces Travel created?

Previously, military families would have booked travel with a travel agent on a military base. The Department of Defense created American Forces Travel to make the process faster, more modern and accessible.

In addition, travel booked through American Forces Travel will generate a commission that will support Quality of Life programs for each branch of the military.

How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2019 , including those best for:

• Airline miles and a large bonus: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
• No annual fee:   The Wells Fargo Propel American Express® card
• Flat-rate rewards with no annual fee:   The Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card
• Premium travel rewards: The Chase Sapphire Reserve®
• Luxury perks: The Platinum Card® from American Express
• Business travelers:  The Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card

Planning a trip? Check out these articles for more inspiration and advice: Nerdwallet’s top travel credit cards Thank you for your service: Military student loan rights Credit card offers for active duty military personnel

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Pay & Benefits

Here’s what to do if you’re having trouble getting dod travel discounts now open to veterans.

Are you having trouble getting access to the discounts on DoD’s American Forces Travel site?

An additional 16 million veterans are now eligible to use the Defense Department’s discount travel site, under an expansion announced July 16 by DoD and Priceline, which operates the platform at no cost to DoD.

Those eligible can find discounts of 40 to 60 percent off popular hotels, flights, car rentals, travel packages and cruise brands, according to DoD and Priceline officials. There are more than 1 million hotel deals at more than 71,000 destinations around the world, for example.

All honorably discharged veterans are eligible to use the leisure travel site, which was launched in 2019 for active-duty, Reserve and Guard members, retired, and their family members, and certain others. This expansion increases the number of eligible people to about 22 million.

Some veterans have contacted Military Times to report they aren’t able to access the website, and don’t have options for further assistance.

Here’s what DoD and Priceline officials told Military Times in response to our questions.

If you’ve entered your correct information at this website https://www.americanforcestravel.com , and you’re not allowed access, here’s what you do.

For veterans:

Are you an honorably discharged veteran? Have you been successfully authenticated through Vet Verify — received an email confirming your approval and/or successfully created an online account at one of the military exchanges? Those online exchanges are Shopmyexchange.com ; mynavyexchange.com ; mymcx.com ; and shopcgx.com . If you have been successfully verified through the online exchange, go to the American Forces Travel Facebook page: Facebook.com/AFTMWR and send a private message for assistance.

If you haven’t received an approval email from Vet Verify, or haven’t been able to successfully create an account at one of the military exchanges in the past, go to Vetverify.org and go through the authentication process at the site. While this verifies veterans for purposes of shopping at the online exchanges, it also will verify you for the purposes of the DoD discount travel site.

For active duty, Reserve and Guard members, civilians and disabled veterans:

Call the Defense Manpower Data Center at 800-727-3677, and ask to confirm your Social Security number, all characters of your last name, and date of birth. Ask to confirm that all your details have the MWR flag.

If the information you provide to DMDC matches what is on file, and you still can’t get authenticated, go to the American Forces Travel Facebook page: Facebook.com/AFTMWR and send a private message for assistance.

Customers — veterans and others —with more questions should contact customer service at 800-727-3677, officials said.

Be prepared to wait. This is the same phone number as the DMDC line. This reporter waited for 58 minutes on hold after calling at 4:09 p.m. Aug. 4.

The automated system asked callers not to leave any personal identifiable information on a message or request for callback. But there was never an opportunity given to leave a message or request a callback.

Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.

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American Forces Travel

Written by Veteran.com Team

American Forces Travel (AFT), a joint venture between Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) and Priceline.com, offers discounted travel to military members and their families. AFT launched in 2019 and is the only leisure travel website dedicated to Department of Defense and veteran customers.

AFT offers discounts of up to 40% for transportation and as much as 60% off hotels, rentals, and events and is the first online MWR Leisure Travel website. Qualified users can find deals on:

• Event tickets
• Travel packages

The event tickets option is supported by TicketNetwork.

Update:  In a memo signed April 12, 2021, the Defense Department will extend online access to American Forces Travel to honorably discharged veterans of the uniformed services.

Who Is Eligible To Use American Forces Travel

The website is unique in that it is NOT open to the general public. You can use American Forces Travel if you are in any of the following categories:

• All current active duty military (Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard)
• All veterans of the United States Armed Forces with a discharge status of honorable or general under honorable conditions
• All members of the Reserve components and National Guard
• Coast Guard Auxiliary Active Duty
• All current active duty and retired National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• All current active duty and retired US Public Health Service (USPHS)
• All retired military, including Reserves and National Guard who are retirement eligible
• All Medal of Honor recipients
• All veterans with service-connected disabilities
• All veterans who are Purple Heart recipients
• All veterans who are former prisoners of war
• All primary family caregivers of eligible veterans under the Department of Veterans Affairs Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers
• Eligible family members who are officially sponsored (ID card holder) by those in the above categories
• All Department of Defense and Coast Guard civilians, including appropriated funds (APF) employees and nonappropriated funds (NAF) employees
• Full-time, paid employees of the American Red Cross and United Service Organizations (USO) hired in the United States and serving at U.S. DoD installations overseas

In many cases, those who are separated from the military but who did not spend enough time in uniform to draw retirement pay are left out of certain military perks like the ability to use certain MWR programs or facilities .

But in this particular case, that is not true. On April 12, 2021 MWR opened access to AFT to all who have separated honorably or under honorable conditions.

That was a significant shift in policy for use of MWR programs. Some 16 million veterans are given access to the discounted travel perks, along with 10 million active duty troops, Guard and Reserve members, dependents, etc.

Why People Use American Forces Travel

For some, the discounted travel options are quite enough, but not all who buy tickets are doing so from the United States.

Military travelers feel more comfortable knowing the people arranging their tickets and travel understand their unique requirements–especially when it comes to having limited time to spend traveling while on leave, traveling to foreign countries from other foreign countries, etc.

An agency like AFT brings with it an understanding of military lifestyle needs–when booking from overseas, to overseas, you’ll want to know you’re getting the price you need but also the support you might have to have en route no matter what time of day anywhere around the globe.

About American Forces Travel

AFT partnered with Priceline.com to offer the travel service. There are many sites that operate unofficially claiming to offer discounted leisure travel to military and military-affiliated people. AFT is the only one that operates under the auspices of MWR.

AFT is not the only military-affiliated travel service, but it is the only MWR leisure travel site.

American Forces Travel is a multi-service initiative designed to provide greater non-official travel options. Before AFT, such travel options were available through individual Base Tickets and Tour offices.

You can sign up for AFT online by clicking on the Get Started button on the upper right of the screen. You will need to enter some personal data to prove your identity including the last four digits of your Social Security Number.

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How to Earn Airline Miles From US Military TDY Deployments

If you are a servicemember in the US military and fly for Temporary Duty (TDY), you can be accruing thousands of miles to be used toward your personal travel. Some servicemembers travel on TDY multiple times per month as a part of their duty assignment, and may be missing out on earning those miles with airline loyalty programs.

Luckily, you can earn miles at every stage of your TDY booking. Here's how:

• If you book your own travel through the Defense Travel System (DTS), you will need to create your trip and receive your confirmation number. If you do not book your own travel, this information will be in the email that you receive from CWT SatoTravel after travel is booked for you. CWT SatoTravel is the largest provider of travel services for the US military, issuing close to four million tickets annually to the armed forces and government agencies.
• Take that confirmation number and input it into your membership account with the airline that you are using to travel. Most airlines offer simple instructions on earning miles on their apps and websites.
• If you are not able to set this up before you travel, you still have an option. Bring your travel documents with you to the airline desk when you check in and ask for your frequent-flyer number to be added to the trip.

If you have already completed your TDY trip, don't lose hope. Every airline has its own specific policy on how to redeem miles, but more often than not you can claim miles up until about six months after your trip.

Which airline you fly on is going to depend on how much the DoD is willing to pay for your particular TDY trip. All of this information will be automatically calculated into DTS when booking and changes frequently. The only time this changes and you may have more leverage on the airline that you fly with is when your mission requires you to be at your destination by a specific day and time. For example, if you are being sent to US Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, you must report by a specified day and time in order to be admitted into the course. Therefore, the DoD will accommodate you in order to ensure that you meet mission requirements.

Once you get to the airport make sure that you check out the lounges available to you as a military servicemember traveling "on orders." You can check out US Navy veteran and TPG Senior Points and Miles Contributor Richard Kerr's article on airport lounge access for military members, which should answer any questions on specific airline policies.

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Military benefits

Supporting our troops

At American we’re proud to honor those whose service has given us the freedom to fly. To show our appreciation, we have special offers and benefits in sincere gratitude for your service.

We offer government or military fares in some markets. Call Reservations for more information.

Contact Reservations

U.S. active duty military, veterans and their families can save on vacations by subscribing and booking through WeSalute+, founded as Veterans Advantage.

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Depending on your destination, bags are free of charge with active U.S. military ID*:

• Up to 5 bags 100 lbs each for active U.S. military and / or dependents traveling on orders
• Up to 3 bags 50 lbs each for active U.S. military on personal / leisure travel
• Military bags

*Free checked bags apply when traveling on American marketed and operated itineraries. Free checked bags don’t apply to codeshare flights operated by our partners.

We welcome active duty military with ID to board the plane in Group 1 along with our customers in First.

Boarding process

Military working dogs

Military and police dogs working in detection, security enforcement and combat must be listed when you book your trip. We waive pet charges for trained active military dogs traveling in the cabin if they’re on official duty and have written documents.

Working dogs trained to attack are not permitted in the cabin and must be checked.

Checked pets

We accept checked pets at the ticket counter for active duty U.S. military traveling on assignment. Fees and restrictions apply.

More support

Giving back.

Our purpose is to care for people on life’s journey, which is why we work to make a difference in the lives of our heroes. We’ve partnered with the Gary Sinise Foundation, George W. Bush Institute, and the Medal of Honor Foundation to make positive change for those who sacrifice for our country.

Honoring American heroes

How you can help

As a member of AAdvantage® you can donate miles to important causes, such as Miles for Heroes. This program helps organizations that provide support to veterans, military members and their families.

• Join AAdvantage®
• Donate to Miles for Heroes

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China to dominate final day of G7, Pope to lead AI discussions

Group of Seven (G7) leaders hold a final day of talks at their annual summit on Friday, with China topping the agenda before Pope Francis puts in a historic appearance to discuss artificial intelligence (AI).