Military discounts are often a business's way of saying thanks to those who serve.
One of the perks to being in the military is the wide availability of discounts to those who serve or have served. Often, these discounts are at better rate than other discounts offered to the public, and they can last year-round, meaning that you don't have to change your plans to take advantage of them.
Vacation
Military personnel can often see large savings on vacation costs, which tend to be a major expense for many families. Many major cruise lines, including Norwegian Cruise Line (ncl.com) and Holland America (hollandamerica.com), offer discounts to those in the military. Discounts can sometimes vary depending on status (such as active duty, retired or reserve), and can usually only be booked by calling the cruise company's reservation line directly, or by booking through a travel agent.
Theme Parks
Many theme parks show their gratitude to the military through free or discounted tickets. Disney World (disneyworld.com) offers military personnel various discounts on ticket prices throughout the year, as well as offering military personnel the option to stay in Disney's Shades of Green resort (shadesofgreen.org), which charges guests based on their pay grade.
Anheuser-Busch theme parks (which include Busch Gardens and Sea World) have a Here's to the Heroes program (herosalute.com). Military personnel and up to three dependents can register to receive free one-day passes to select Anheuser-Busch theme parks.
Finding Military Discounts
The easiest way to find out if a specific company has a military discount is to call and ask. However, if you'd rather browse all military discounts available, service newspapers are often a good resource. The Navy Compass (navycompass.com) and Army Times (armytimes.com) both have a section of their website devoted to military discounts. Both allow you to browse through all discounts, or by categories.
Airline Tickets
Military rates are available on some tickets from airlines such as American Airlines (aa.com) and US Airways (usairways.com). These rates can't be found through their online systems, however, and you must call their reservation line to check on the availability of tickets for each flight. This means that you usually must have a specific flight in mind, and cannot simply ask about all flights with a military rate.
Tags: Anheuser-Busch theme, Anheuser-Busch theme parks, discounts those, Military personnel, military personnel