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Discount Airfare for Military???


tab1220
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  • 2 months later...
Anyone know of any airlines who give these types of discounts???

 

 

continental does. Click under "products and services" and you'll see Travel for military and govt personnel.

 

SWA does for their full fare flight, but you have to call them

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A good way to save is show your ID and up to 5 checked bags with no fee. Saved us 160 on each leg of our last flight. This is any time even when not on orders. It works on continental and AA. Others to maybe but that is all I know first hand

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  • 2 weeks later...

Delta and Us air also check bags for free for military personnel. Delta did not allow us to check for free returning from Europe-but we were not on orders. Also-we have discovered we are allowed to bypass pat downs and body scanners if hubby shows his ID card even when not in uniform.

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  • 4 months later...
A good way to save is show your ID and up to 5 checked bags with no fee. Saved us 160 on each leg of our last flight. This is any time even when not on orders. It works on continental and AA. Others to maybe but that is all I know first hand

 

Do you know if this is applicable to retired personnel as well?

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I believe it applies only to active duty and their dependents. On the Continental website, it states 'active us military personnel'. It doesn't matter whether your traveling on orders or leisure. Dependents receive this benefit when traveling with the military member. Unfortunately, retired members are not eligible.

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  • 6 months later...
I believe it applies only to active duty and their dependents. On the Continental website, it states 'active us military personnel'. It doesn't matter whether your traveling on orders or leisure. Dependents receive this benefit when traveling with the military member. Unfortunately, retired members are not eligible.

 

Us retirees never die, we just fade away. Most civilians have no idea what color shows whether we're active or retired. :D

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If you are near or on a base, a visit or call to the Informatiom, Tickets & Travel (ITT) may be worth a few minutes of your time. They are able to access the airfares for major airlines offering the military discount. Or you could always go free with Space A :D

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

My husband is Canadian Army. I'm not sure about airfare discounts, but in Canada Westjet offers unlimited checked bags for the military member even when traveling for personal reasons. However, he has never been waved through security... in fact we usually budget extra time since about half of the time explosive residue is found on his bags which prompts a more thorough search. We were pleasantly surprised in the US that he was also eligible for military discounts on attractions and occasionally the discount was extended to me even though I don't have military ID of any kind.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Anyone know of any airlines who give these types of discounts???

Most airlines offer a "military fare." It is a reduced fully refundable fare that is usually a little more than a discounted non-refundable fare. I have used it for those times where I wanted to book in advance, but I don't know whether my leave will be approved.

 

Other than that, I haven't paid for checked bags since airlines started charging for them. I have only ever been asked for orders once in addition to my ID card (I believe it was on Continental). I produced a copy of my leave form and they considered that to be an order.

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  • 9 months later...
  • 4 months later...

I believe, but am not certain, that United offers a membership called "Veterans Assistance" for a fee of around $60. where a booking on their website gives 5% off to the veteran and a spouse. Am planning to check when I have a little more time.

 

Thank you to all who served!

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  • 1 month later...

Be careful with "military discounts". I have done a good bit of research and found that airlines (as well as some hotels), will have a "military rate" vs an actual discount. I tried something one day on a popular hotel chain's website and they were going to charge me an extra $20 a night under their military fare! (It was cheaper under their 'best rate' fare.) Anyways, when military personnel are on orders, they get per diem. Hotels know this (don't know about airlines) and sometimes will even adjust UP to meet their per diem. Not all hotels do this, mind you...but since the government is paying for it, they will sometimes sneakily do this. (In all fairness, they will also adjust the price down too, if their per diem won't cover it.) So always, ALWAYS double-check what their regular or 'best rate' fares are vs the military rates.

 

Anyways, but I have found on the airlines, that only a certain number of seats are what they call 'military fare' and they seem to do the same. Unfortunately, I have found that it is just cheaper to book through the airline itself online. Every time I have called, they've told me that either no seats available under military fare or that it costs more. (So, in other words, in case my husband got last minute orders, we could pay more for the "privilege" of getting a refund, etc. Anyways, Southwest has been our best bet so far and we have never had to pay for bags. AirTran (owned by Southwest) has also been good to us. Once, when we were flying back from Orlando, the Disney hotel charged us for our bags. (You can go to a separate check out line and Disney will take your bags for your flight, etc.) Anyways, they were not supposed to charge us and I kept telling the lady that, but she charged us anyways. (I explained that AirTran didn't charge us on the way down, showed her our military IDs, didn't matter.) So we explained this to the customer service agent about what happened. (I believe AirTran wasn't charging anyone for bags at that time as well.) Well, when my husband was explaining things, she asked for his ID, saw he was military...and apologized to us for our problem. Then she surprised us with free upgrades to business class seats! :-)

 

Also-we have discovered we are allowed to bypass pat downs and body scanners if hubby shows his ID card even when not in uniform.
Honestly, that should never happen! (Everyone should get checked out the same for safety reasons. I am surprised they did that!) We have been able to go through a shorter line, or actually even through the airline personnel line after showing our IDs, but we ALWAYS have had to go through the scanners, etc. Last time, we also had to be patted down and I even had to have my hands swabbed.
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  • 10 months later...

Most airlines aren't giving a military fare but the larger airlines will allow active duty to check luggage for free. On American, if the active duty passenger is in uniform and there is space available in first class, they will upgrade them free of charge.

 

At our home airport, when my son is flying back to base they have him go through TSA in the first class line (and me too when I get a pass to go to the gate), but he still needs to go through the scanner. He can show his military ID in place of a DL.

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The only benefit that Delta gives, is you don't have to take your shoes off to go thru security. That's it! Our bag was 52 pounds, and they were happily going to charge us an additional $100 - til we pulled it aside and took 2 pounds out!

Edited by wrcjr98
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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Many times I have called into the airline to ask about discounts. Many don't out a gateway for military members traveling for liesure, probably to cut down on he hassle of people who are ineligible trying to book military rates.

 

About half the time you can get a discount by calling, but I have noticed you can get better fares by using travel sites like cheapo, priceline, etc.

 

Now, a nice little trick for US military ID at the airport, if you check in with a person, not using the E-ticket, and you are friendly, polite, they may be able to bump you and your spouse (if not traveling with children) to 1st class for free (granted there are seats available and the person is in a good mood) this has worked about 50% of the time. Some airports will allow you to use thier employee security checkpoint wih a valid military ID, I used this on a couple of my Yellow Ribbon trips.

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