American Forces Travel – Online Travel Discounts

American Forces Travel is a military leisure travel website offering discounts on airfare, cruises, hotels, rental cars, and event tickets.
Advertising Disclosure.

Advertiser Disclosure: Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone. This article may contain links from our advertisers. For more information, please see our Advertising Policy.

The Military Wallet has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. The Military Wallet and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on The Military Wallet are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear, but does not affect our editors’ opinions or evaluations. The Military Wallet does not include all card companies or all available card offers.

American Forces Travel(GetStencil)

Update: As of July 16, 2021, all current and former military members* are eligible to use American Forces Travel. *Veterans must have a discharge status of honorable or general under honorable conditions to be eligible for AFT.

American Forces Travel (AFT) is a leisure travel booking website sponsored by the Department of Defense and intended for servicemembers and veterans across all military branches. Through American Forces Travel, eligible users are able to find steeply discounted rates on airfare, cruises, hotels, rental cars, vacation packages, and event tickets (concert, sporting, theatre).

Launched in 2019, AFT is a Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) program that enables servicemembers and veterans to easily search for and view leisure travel discounts and benefits exclusively available to military members, those affiliated with the Department of Defense, and eligible family members.

Why Should I Try American Forces Travel?

Convenience

American Forces Travel offers an attractive and convenient alternative to in-person MWR facilities and Information Tickets & Travel (ITT) offices located on military installations because it can be reached 24/7 online and offers around-the-clock military traveler support. Additionally, AFT has broader eligibility criteria than in-person MWR sites; therefore, some groups who may not be eligible to benefit from MWR services on-site may be eligible to avail themselves of AFT instead.

Helps to Fund Other MWR Programs

Booking through American Forces Travel also helps to fund other MWR programs, since commissions from each booking are reinvested at no cost to users.

Lower Booking Fees

American Forces Travel has lower booking fees than other commercial travel websites and offers a “best price guarantee.” For cruises, they even offer a 110% best price guarantee, meaning that if you find a cheaper cruise within 48-hours of booking with American Forces Travel, they will refund 110% of the difference.

Exclusive Offers and Military Rates

Unlike other discount travel sites, American Forces Travel has exclusive offers and military rates, which means less time spent calling airlines and hotels inquiring about military offers.

Greater Global Reach

Users can book domestic and international travel to over 71,000 locations courtesy of American Forces Travel.

ADVERTISEMENT

How Does It Work?

The American Forces Travel website is extremely user-friendly, owed largely in part to its partner — Priceline. Priceline.com has been a long-time leader in online travel services — which acts as the service provider. However, not all of the deals offered commercially through Priceline are identical to those on AFT, since Priceline has a specific team in place to negotiate additional deals for military members and affiliates.

In order to book leisure travel through the online platform, users will first have to verify their eligibility, which requires some personal information (last name, birth date, and the last four digits of the user’s Social Security number).

The website will search the DEERS database in order to verify eligibility, so be sure to keep your information in DEERS up to date prior to using the AFT page. After eligibility is established, you’re free to access AFT to search for discounted travel and leisure options.

ADVERTISEMENT

Am I Eligible to Use American Forces Travel?

Currently, AFT is available to military servicemembers and those affiliated with the Department of Defense, including:

  • Active duty servicemembers (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Space Force, and Coast Guard Auxiliary Active Duty)
  • Members of Reserve components and National Guard
  • Retired military (including retirement-eligible Reservists and Guardsmen)
  • Medal of Honor and Purple Heart recipients; former prisoners of war
  • Veterans with service-connected disabilities
  • Department of Defense civilians serving outside the United States
  • Active duty and retired U.S. Public Health Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees
  • Full-time, paid employees of the American Red Cross and United Service Organizations (USO) serving at overseas U.S. DoD installations
  • Officially sponsored, eligible family members (ID card holders)
  • Approved primary family caregivers of eligible veterans
  • All Veterans of the United States Armed Forces with a discharge status of honorable or general under honorable conditions.

However, eligibility criteria are expanding and AFT will soon (specific dates still unknown) be available to all Department of Defense civilians serving within the United States as well as all Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) civilians registered in DEERS.

American Forces Travel should not be confused with Armed Forces Vacation Club, another discount travel option for military members and veterans. AFVC offers discounted hotel and resort stays.

About Post Author

Get Instant Access
FREE Weekly Updates! Enter your information to join our mailing list.

Posted In:

Reader Interactions

Leave A Comment:

Comments:

About the comments on this site:

These responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

The Military Wallet is a property of Three Creeks Media. Neither The Military Wallet nor Three Creeks Media are associated with or endorsed by the U.S. Departments of Defense or Veterans Affairs. The content on The Military Wallet is produced by Three Creeks Media, its partners, affiliates and contractors, any opinions or statements on The Military Wallet should not be attributed to the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, the Dept. of Defense or any governmental entity. If you have questions about Veteran programs offered through or by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, please visit their website at va.gov. The content offered on The Military Wallet is for general informational purposes only and may not be relevant to any consumer’s specific situation, this content should not be construed as legal or financial advice. If you have questions of a specific nature consider consulting a financial professional, accountant or attorney to discuss. References to third-party products, rates and offers may change without notice.

Advertising Notice: The Military Wallet and Three Creeks Media, its parent and affiliate companies, may receive compensation through advertising placements on The Military Wallet; For any rankings or lists on this site, The Military Wallet may receive compensation from the companies being ranked and this compensation may affect how, where and in what order products and companies appear in the rankings and lists. If a ranking or list has a company noted to be a “partner” the indicated company is a corporate affiliate of The Military Wallet. No tables, rankings or lists are fully comprehensive and do not include all companies or available products.

Editorial Disclosure: Editorial content on The Military Wallet may include opinions. Any opinions are those of the author alone, and not those of an advertiser to the site nor of  The Military Wallet.