Another 16 million veterans can get these DoD travel deals

Karen Jowers

An additional 16 million veterans are now eligible to use the Defense Department’s discount travel site, under an expansion announced today by DoD’s American Forces Travel and Priceline. 

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 will be 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 increases the number of eligible people to about 22 million.

Who is eligible:

* Active duty who serve in the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard

* Members of the reserve components and National Guard

* Coast Guard Auxiliary active duty

* Active duty and retired U.S. Public Health Service

* Retired military, including those in the reserve and National Guard components who are retirement eligible

* Eligible family members who are ID card holders and sponsored by authorized patrons in the above categories

* Medal of Honor recipients

* Veterans with a discharge status of honorable or general under honorable conditions

* Veterans with VA service-connected disabilities; Purple Heart recipients; veterans who are former prisoners of war; and primary family caregivers of eligible veterans under the VA caregiver program

* DoD and Coast Guard civilians, including appropriated fund (APF) employees and non-appropriated fund (NAF) employees

* Full-time, paid employees of the American Red Cross and USO hired in the United States and serving at DoD installations overseas