There are two different year-round Microsoft 365 discount offers available to US and Canadian military in all branches.
Office-Watch.com talked about these Military Appreciation offers before, going back more than a decade. There are TWO different military related discounts – the Military Appreciation Edition and the Home Use Program.
Military Appreciation Edition
The Military Appreciation Edition (MAE) has been around for a long time but in 2016 there was a big change to Microsoft Office 365 annual plans (‘subscriptions’) with a trap for the unwary.
Military Appreciation Edition is available to any current or former US Military with ‘PX’ privileges either in-store or at https://www.shopmyexchange.com/
The normal Military Appreciation price for Office 365 Family/Home (the 6 user edition) is $69.95 (civilian retail is $99.99). That’s a good year-round price.
Occasionally there are even better discounts like this back in Dec. 2019, so it’s worth checking online.
https://www.shopmyexchange.com/ at 1 Dec. 2019 with $49.99 price for Office 365 Home.
The trap is Microsoft will renew at full retail price for the second and later years. The workaround is to make sure you get another MAE discounted product key and use that to extend your Office 365 plan.
If there’s a real good price available, you can lock in that deal for up to five years ahead. Buy more than one MAE product, use each of the product codes you get to extend your Microsoft 365 Family plan up to five years.
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Military Appreciation discount is only available for Microsoft 365 Home, not Microsoft 365 Personal or Office 2019
The Military Appreciation discount is only available to the US and Canadian military.
Home Use Program for US Military
The Home Use Program HUP is a way to buy Microsoft 365 (no longer for Office 2019) cheaply if your organization has an appropriate Microsoft Office volume licence.
The US Military (like many other government agencies) has a Software Assurance licence so qualifying personnel can get Microsoft 365 cheaply. Unlike the Military Appreciation Edition, the HUP should renew at the same discounted price.
The discounts are about 30% of retail
Microsoft 365 Family usually $99.99 Home Use Program price approx.. $69.99
Microsoft 365 Personal $69.99 HUP price approx. $48.99
See Get cheap Office 365 for employees with the Office Home Use Program
A 30% discount on Microsoft 365 Home is a good year-round price but gets occasionally beaten by regular discounting. Microsoft 365 Personal isn’t usually discounted by much and rarely, if ever, by 30%.
How to get the HUP discount for Microsft 365
See Home Use Program for Microsoft 365 – who can get it and how? for details on how to get it.
You’ll need a ‘Program Code’ to confirm eligibility (in addition to your work email address). That code is different for each branch of the military … check in your organization for details.
Other countries
Many governments and military around the world have Microsoft Office licence agreements. It’s possible that military personnel for other countries can also get a Home Use Program discount. It’s worth asking and if it’s available, please let us know, so we can spread the word.
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