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The Amazon military discount is a promotion Amazon.com has given around Veterans Day for its Amazon Prime service. But did you know Amazon.com and the Amazon Prime services offer plenty of other benefits to military members, military veterans and military families? These Amazon military benefits might help you at your upcoming duty station, give you accessible entertainment options wherever you're stationed, and could even help you get a job as a military veteran or military spouse.
Amazon Military Discount
In the past, Amazon has offered a military and veteran discount on its Amazon Prime service around Veterans Day in November. That perk, first given in 2019, knocked $40 off the regular price of an Amazon Prime annual membership, bringing the total at the time to $79.
While the company did not renew that Veterans Day discount for 2020 or 2021, there's always a chance it will offer it again in the future. For now, however, Amazon.com does not have a military or veteran discount.
Related: Amazon Prime Announces Big Military Discount for Veterans Day
Amazon also offers a Prime discount for students using verified .edu email addresses and verified recipients of some government assistance programs, not including VA disability payments or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients.
Amazon Prime Military Shipping
Thanks to regular moves around the world, free shipping to all 50 states and APO/FPO boxes is a major benefit to military shoppers. The huge variety of goods Amazon carries and the free shipping included in the Amazon Prime annual membership make using Amazon especially compelling for military members.
There are a few gotchas, however. Typically, shoppers can expect items marked as "Prime" to ship for free. But that doesn't mean all products can be shipped to all locations, regardless of who they are being sent to. For example, many sellers simply won't ship liquids, chemicals or very heavy or bulky items marked as Prime eligible to locations in Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. territories or overseas. Items containing lithium ion batteries also frequently cannot be shipped to those locations because they are put on an airplane to get there and could pose a safety hazard.
How can an Amazon Prime military user tell if something won't ship to their address? Unfortunately, there's no easy way to do so without adding it to your cart and going through the checkout process. If an item is blocked from being sent, the user will receive a notice at checkout that the "item cannot be shipped to this address."
Amazon Prime Streaming Overseas
Amazon Prime's streaming service offers thousands of TV show episodes and movies, including original productions. But thanks to international rules and licensing rates, which vary by country, streaming services like Amazon Prime do not show all content in all locations overseas. Instead, Amazon actively blocks most content from streaming internationally, with the exception of some military base locations.
One way some military members and families access Amazon Prime content while OCONUS is by using a VPN service to log on to the internet. Those services, however, are also often blocked by sites like Amazon.
Amazon Military and Veteran Hiring
Another Amazon benefit has nothing to do with shopping, shipping or discounts -- it's all about veteran and military employment. As the second-largest employer in the U.S., Amazon is home to seemingly limitless jobs for all kinds of education levels.
The company also has an employment outreach arm designed just to onboard military veterans, service members transitioning out of active duty, and military spouses looking for work-from-home employment.
Amazon participates in the Pentagon's SkillBridge program, which lets military members work in civilian intern or apprenticeship roles during their final 180 days of active-duty service. It also hosts fellowships in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. And in 2021 Amazon rolled out a tool known as Project Juno to help relocating military spouses shift their jobs to a new location.
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