Most lists of veteran discounts get one thing wrong: they sort by rating. A front desk, a register, or a ticket window never asks your rating. It asks for an ID card, and which one you carry decides what you get. A veteran with any service-connected rating, a Purple Heart, or former POW status has had commissary, Exchange, and MWR access since January 1, 2020, and books the military resorts at Rate III, with a Veteran Health Identification Card that shows the status under the photo. A veteran rated 100%, including temporary and TDIU ratings, can get the DoD ID card that opens Disney's Armed Forces Salute, Universal's Freedom Pass, Hale Koa Rate II, USO centers, and ID cards for dependents; a VHIC opens none of those, and Disney says so in writing. Space-A flights alone need a permanent and total rating. This tool takes your status, rating, the IDs you hold, and your state and returns the perks you can prove today, what one more ID would add, the myths your ID does not unlock (airline bags, Florida tolls, Blue Star Museums), the toll and airport-parking rule for your state, and the federal benefits a 100% rating turns on, each with its source and the date we opened it.
What brings you here?
How this tool works
The ID rule. Every perk on this page carries a list of the IDs and documents that prove it (a VHIC, a DoD ID card, a DD-214, a VA letter, a veteran-designated license), in the order of what each one opens. A perk is "unlocked today" when you ticked one of them; it is "get this ID" when you qualify by status and rating but hold none of them; it is "your ID does not unlock this" when the program limits it to a group you are not in (active duty for airline bags, DoD ID holders for Disney Salute). The verdict reports the first two numbers and names the single ID that would add the most. That is the whole product: the gatekeepers sort by ID, so we do too. The search box at the top of your results looks across every program, including the ones you do not qualify for, and gives the reason and the closest thing you can get instead.
The three data layers. The national file holds 220 programs: the DoD and VA rules for commissary, Exchange, MWR, the military resorts, Space-A, and the parks passes; the travel programs (TSA, CLEAR, Amtrak, airlines, rental cars, hotel chains, cruise lines, ski resorts, museums and zoos, golf); the retail, wireless, auto, banking, insurance, tax, and moving programs; and the federal benefits a status turns on. The state layer is read live from Best State for Veterans (parks pass, hunting and fishing, DV plates and registration) and is never copied. The local layer holds toll-authority and airport-parking rules by state, most of them "no," each with the statute or the authority's page. Every row carries its sources and the date we opened them; a verified row was read on the program's own page, the statute, or the DoD or VA page; reported came from a second-hand page or one that would not state every detail; not yet verified means we found the program but could not open its page, and the row shows the question to ask.
The dollar rule. The estimate adds only verified, non-myth rows you can prove today that carry a numeric amount, applied to the spend you entered in the drawer, and it counts one program per spend type: one home-improvement store on your home-improvement spend, one wireless carrier on your bill, one clothing brand on your clothing spend, one vehicle rebate if you are buying a car, and your best attractions first up to the number of visits you entered. The commissary row applies 14.9% to your groceries, which is the Defense Commissary Agency's published 21.3% U.S. rate net of the 5% surcharge and the card fee. Items that only pay if you choose to use them (a paid security lane, a particular bank account) show their value on the row and stay out of the total. Lodging rows count toward the perk total but add no dollars unless a sourced comparable rate exists. WeSalute-gated rows add nothing unless you ticked the membership. The figure is labeled an estimate at your spend; it is never "savings you are owed."
What this isn't. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice, it cannot see your records, and programs change their terms without notice. Disney and Universal publish each November, the resorts re-rate each October, retail programs change quarterly, and reader reports move the local layer; each row carries its refresh cadence. Data stamp: .