Amazon Prime offers discount to US military personnel - both active and veterans

Amazon may have been bitten hard by the US Military's rejection of it in going for the JEDI cloud computing system. While Amazon was assumed widely as a front runner for the system, the US Military finally went for Microsoft instead to design the system.

The company is now actively wooing the military. It has announced special discounts to its Prime membership for both active and veteran military personnel. The discount makes the membership sufficiently cheaper. Amazon has in the past offered such discounts for Medicaid participants, students and EBT cardholders.

The company is offering the membership to Military Personnel at $79 per year as opposed to $119 per year for regular users. The discount is available for a very short period – November 6 to 11 as a part of Amazon's Veteran's day celebration.

Veterans can also mail the company at amazonusprimeveteransday@amazon.com with the following details:

First Name:

Last Name:

Date of Birth:

Current status - Active Duty, Veteran, Retiree or Reserve?

- If a Veteran or Retiree, what is your discharge month and year?

- If active duty, what is your .mil email address?

Unlike similar offers from US retailers such as Target and Kohl's the offer will only be limited to military professionals and not their families.

But how does Amazon determine that only military personnel will get the discount?

It requires these users to fill out a special form for availing the discount. Users will have to get verified three times to avail the promotion.

Amazon has raised the price of its membership steadily over the years from $99 per year to the current $119 per year. But it has wooed different groups in the past – students get it at $59 per year.

However, it remains to be seen how many military professionals sign up. Can Amazon be trusted for the safekeeping of the data of military service professionals?