How to get the Military Appreciation Edition

Office WatchLast updated: 17 July 2018

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Microsoft has a ‘Military Appreciation Edition’ of Office 2007 for qualified purchasers but there is one more qualification you need … patience.

Ever since we wrote about the Office 2007 Military Appreciation Edition (MAE) we’ve received messages from military and former military who’ve had trouble getting a copy.

In-Store

In theory, any military ‘Base Exchange’ store (aka PX, BX, NEX, MCX or CGX) can stock and sell Office 2007 MAE.

However like any civilian store or chain, not all stores sell everything because of demand, floor space, cost or many other factors.

You could ask your PX to get stock in, or trying ordering online. However ordering online has its own curiosities.

Online

Aafes.com is the online version of the ‘PX’ store and, according to Microsoft, sell the Military Appreciation Edition. However, supplies of the MAE are erratic.

Numerous Office Watch readers wrote saying that a search for Office 2007 Military Appreciation Edition on the AAFES site returned the message “the Item Key you have entered is not available for online ordering.“

Enquiries to AAFES about this two week ago got a reply saying “We will no longer get this item in.”

However, there seems to have been a change of heart because the MAE is now available from AAFES.com

“Item Number: X663C

Microsoft Office Standard 2007 Military Appreciation Edition

Price…$49.99

This item is shipped directly from our supplier. Your account will be charged at the time order is placed. Please allow approximately 14 days for shipment, plus an additional 7 days for delivery.

Delivery of this product is limited to the contiguous U.S. (CONUS).

”

If you tried to get Military Appreciation Edition online and failed, try again now (as at the end of January 2009).

We had a report that the MAE will be delivered to Hawaii, see below.

Should the MAE go ‘out of stock’ again the best option seems to be a polite message to AAFES asking them to restore the product to their available items. After all, the Military Appreciation Edition is only available online via AAFES and if they won’t/can’t stock it then their customers have no other retail option.

From Microsoft’s point of view, the Military Appreciation Edition is a ‘good corporate citizen’ loss-leader (and we think they deserve more credit for this acknowledgment of US military service) however the low price means Microsoft isn’t highly motivated to maintain a lot of MAE stock.

Note: Office Watch does not have access to the aafes.com site and we are relying on the information from readers about the online ordering status of the MAE.

Office for Mac

Alas, there seems no indication that the Military Appreciation Edition is available for Macintosh users.

Hawaii

To from Hawaii reports …

” Online order works for Hawaii also (even though it says CONUS) – I just got mine yesterday thanks to you.

My local px store did have it before but at a higher cost and now they can’t even get any restock – they said to order online. it also came Fedx 2nd day free. “