Priceline and US Department of Defense Launch Military Travel Booking Site

Online travel agency Priceline and the United States Department of Defense have partnered up to create a travel site for U.S. military personnel.

Dubbed “American Forces Travel,” this new site is open to current and retired military personnel to find hotel, flight, car rental, cruise deals and negotiated prices on vacation homes, apartments and packages with an up to 60 percent savings.

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The main difference between American Forces Travel and the regular Priceline site is that military users will be able to book deals, flights, rental cars and hotels with the names of the travel suppliers fully disclosed. Regular Priceline users are not able to see things like the name of the hotel with the “opaque” pricing set up on the travel site.

About 6.5 million active and retired members in every branch of the U.S. armed forces will have access to 1 million hotel deals in more than 71,000 destinations worldwide on American Forces Travel. Department of Defense civilians in the U.S. and abroad can also sign up.

Medal of Honor recipients, American Red Cross and USO paid personnel serving outside of the USA can also be eligible. Family members of these groups will also have access to the site.

To use the site, all you have to do is verify your eligibility with the Department of Defense through a secure process.

The commission created through American Forces Travel will be used to support quality of life programs within different branches of services like Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs on military bases. The DoD and Priceline would not disclose that percentage.

Members of the military “have dedicated themselves to service and deserve our thanks and our respect. To honor that service, we have negotiated deep discounts for personal travel, across flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises and more," says Brett Keller, CEO of Priceline.