Is American Forces Travel a Scam? That is one of the main questions we will be addressing throughout the duration of this unbiased review.
American Forces Travel (AmericanForcesTravel) is a joint service initiative partnered with Priceline® that provides access to a wide selection of discounted rates on hotels, air fare, rental cares, vacation packages, cruises, and more.
Available to those in active military, retired military and eligible family members, American Forces Travel reflects an inception date less than a year ago.
To find out more regarding American Forces Travel and whether this service provider is reliable for you, we invite you to continue reading.
What is American Forces Travel?
American Forces Travel, also known as ATF, is a new Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) program arising out of a joint service initiative.
The combined efforts of multiple service branches compose ATF.
The military branches supported through ATF are as followed:
- National Guard
- United States Army
- United States Marine Corps
- United States Navy
- Department of Defense
- United States Air Forces
- United States Coast Guard
Among the type of travel offers one can expect at AmericanForcesTravel.com would be discounted hotels, flights, rental cars, cruises, and vacation packages.
Supposedly, on average, a traveler is said to save around $240 per person through ATF.
It should be noted that American Forces Travel does not promote their operation as one that can save consumers hundreds of thousands of dollars, but rather a legitimate, run-of-the-mill type of joint service initiative that can save you money overtime.
Eligibility Requirements
- Department of Defense civilians
- Active-duty members and their families
- Medal of Honor recipients along with their families
- 100% disabled veterans along with their families
- American Red Cross personnel serving outside the US and their families
- USA paid personnel serving outside the US and their families
American Forces Travel states that non-active members and veterans who retire without full benefits may be eligible later in 2019.
To find out if you are eligible, you must visit AmericanForcesTravel.com where you’ll be asked to provide your last name, last 4 digits of your social security number along with your date of birth.
According to ATF, Priceline® does not play a part in the verification process while they offer up to 60% off hotel deals and up to 80% off select cruise deals.
Domain Insight
AmericanForcesTravel.com was registered on July 27th, 2018 by Ryan Pratt from the organization: Commander, Navy Installations Command.
WHOIS Registrant Contact
5720 Integrity Dr Bldg 457 BLDG 457
Millington, TN 38055-6500
Phone: +1.619 793-2015
Email: rpratt@raven-solutions.com
According to SimilarWeb, AmericanForcesTravel.com reflected a global rank of 231,615 with a US rank of 51,645 as of March 17th, 2019.
Over 87% of the sites traffic derives from visitors within the United States while nearly 37% of all their traffic originates from referral, social media and e-mail based sources.
Who is Behind ATF?
AmericanForcesTravel.com is a joint service initiative that doesn’t really provide specifics regarding who is operating behind the curtain.
As reported above in the WHOIS report, an entity known as Ryann Pratt of Navy Installations Command is the entity responsible for the creation of AmericanForcesTravel.com.
Whether there is an executive board overseeing ATF or a different business model in employment we are unable to verify for certain.
American Forces Travel Reviews
Most review portals that we came across, such as NerdWallet, for instance, had reviews composed in a tonality that suggested that American Forces Travel was legitimate.
What we found peculiar though would be how consumers go on to quickly state that ‘American Forces Travel is a scam,’ or how the rates reflected through ATF weren’t that much better than competing service providers.
American Forces Travel Complaints
Troubling consumer reviews can be found at Military.com.
Shared below are a few of the most relevant complaints we found:
“I said it last week and I am saying it again…SCAM”
“Just like the Goverment Vacations web sit they really don’t offer any discounts…just another scam..”
“I just did my own comparison for an upcoming trip we have planned to Hawaii. Without exception I was able to find better prices for the same exact accomodations and rental cars on other sites and apps. I found the best hotel rates when I called the specific hotel and asked for a military discount.”
Is ATF Worth It?
American Forces Travel may be able to provide you with online savings that you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else, but the consumer feedback surrounding ATF is not good.
While most review portals are convinced that ATF is legitimate, the negative reviews and complaints pending against ATF is concerning and makes us feel that American Forces Travel may not be the best option for our readers.
Several consumer reports state that the pricing of ATF between competitors does not vary much while some are convinced that it is a predatory site incepted to take advantage of those who have served for our country.
Regardless, for the time being until more positive consumer reviews can be documented, we do not believe ATF to be “worth it.”
American Forces Travel Scam Review
American Forces Travel appears to be a legitimate joint service initiative that is backed by legal entities although the community feedback surrounding ATF is concerning.
Supported by Priceline®, American Forces Travel may be able to save you money on your future travel arrangements although we advice comparing them to competing service providers.
For the time being we are not ruling American Forces Travel to be a scam, but if more negative reviews and complaints start to surface from verifiable consumer feedback, we will happily adjust our ruling.
We invite you to share any insight, feedback or experiences you may have below!
I booked a hotel and got a confirmation number. Then called the hotel to confirm that my dogs would be okay for the room. The person who answered said my confirmation number was not a legitimate number and hung up on me when I said I got it from Armed Forces Travel (which redirects as American Forces Travel aka AFT). I do think this website evaluating them as a scam but not even stating their acronym correctly is generally speaking unprofessionally is also pretty weird. But I am troubled that there is no confirmation email that I received about the room and only had the conf number because I printed it out when I made the reservation. That was the only way to find the room again to cancel the reservation when I wound up in emergency surgery. And they make it very hard to figure out how to cancel a reservation or find a reservation. This seems highly suspect to me, which is why I am now wondering if they are a scam. But I was sent to the sight off of legitimate morale and welfare command sites.
Corrected:
I am a victim of a terrible scam by nolo and have filed complaints with BBB.org, FTC, and Priceline CEO. I am a senior citizen and retired veteran who cannot get past the spam on armedforcestravel.com. I want the person who created the fraud with the CEO of Priceline to be prosecuted by Judge Merrick Garland for scamming people. I also warn others to be careful of any USMC MWR or any joint organizations that may be taking your military wages, retirement, or disability money for vacations. Military veterans can never afford vacations and people don’t join the military for family vacations. Only scam sites like military.com. As a Vietnam vet, I lost the war due to the bad politics and contracts of the USMC MWR and D.I.D. Drones and AI may be good for the military, but admirals, officials, and bureaucrats sure do take vacations. This is the end of my Reddit rant.
Original Comment:
terrible nolo scam ad emaiked them bbb.org usdij ada acces complaint ftc cimplaint priceline ceovdont car3 about retired vets famil8es etc period coukdnt get past spam pipul on armedforcestravel.com aps victim senior abyse age 75 ada ad sdvib sam.giv fema sba lenders googke fed contractir cant ev3n freaking look fir a duscounted fkio hoyse histel hitel room duscount in scamlord slumlird 10x 1989s pruces in a s8mple roon for rent i want that bavy dude who cteated fraud with did and priceline ceo prisacutlted by judge merruck garkand fir scamm8ndmg ppl now not latet
beware of any usmc mwr or any joint bs oeograns steaking yr mwager enluster oay or meager va rwtirement d8sabikity money firget vacations militarr y n vets can never afford vacations n ppl dont narry military at all if u want famiky vacations obly scam sutes see military.com vietnam vet top g7n avionucs usmc 8bstitute miramar we lost war viwtnam d7e to sane bs navy usmc mwr n did contracts screwing ppl vaf ux bad pilitics and no trump ccant fix use drones ai forget ppl for milirary maybe drones dont take vacations but admiraks d8d ifficiaks n buden sure do reddit rant complete
compared prices between military priceline and regular price line for a rental car. regular priceline was 40.00 a day cheaper. Shame on our dod for supporting this rip off of a site. As a disabled veteran I feel cheated that this is the best the dod can offer. a waste of taxer dollars even putting this company and the american military approval behind it.
I used “American Forces Travel” by Scamline— I mean Priceline. It is absolutely a ripoff and the DoD should not be involved with it, much less referring service members and veterans to it. They tried to hold on to a $400 insurance refund from a third party insurer even after the insurer confirmed the refund was due. Furthermore, their “customer service” is an offshore call center, which presents a number of significant issues not the least of which is foreign nationals with access to U.S. service personnel PII.
Called their Customer Service Line at 1-800-468-3578. Wanted to cancel a reservation due to corona virus and had bought travel cancellation service for $9.00. Called them twice.They always put you on hold with the music with no response.
This is an extremely misleading article. It purports to evaluate whether is a “scam” or “illegitimate”. This is very different than saying you can get better deals elsewhere. Military exchanges are not illegitimate or scams because I might be able to find a particular item at lower cost at Costco. If there is anything illegitimate, it is a very misleading article.
I’ve found there are minimal savings with airline fares. However, I’ve booked hotels and rental cars through AFT at significant discounts compared to other travel websites. Moreover, as a military member, I was impressed that money AFT receives from of travel sales is reinvested directly in to military quality of life programs which supports our troops. It’s my understanding AFT is the only travel site with military discounts that does this. I may not always purchase my travel from AFT, but it will be my first choice when researching airline, hotel, rental cars, and cruise prices online.
I recently booked a flight with AFT and initially the fare seemed great. The fee’s became enormous however once I arrived for check in. The airlines spirit and Frontier charged bag fees for carryon’s $50 each (wow) and provided no complimentary in flight accommodations. They were charging $3 for chips and cookies. This is not what I would consider military friendly, especially for retirees!! I will never make that mistake again. If you book with this site beware.