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AAFES offers gasoline discount

Customers who use their Military Star exchange credit card at Army and Air Force Exchange Service gas pumps will get a discount of 3 cents per gallon on gas.

The discount is in effect at 15 installations. Officials expect to have the technology in place to apply the discount automatically when those credit cards are scanned at another 177 facilities in the continental U.S., Alaska and Puerto Rico by Tuesday.

“I encourage drivers, during the first week or so of this new effort, to touch base with the attendant at their local gas station to ensure the software upgrades have taken effect before fueling up,” AAFES spokesman Lt. Col. Dean Thurmond said in announcing the discount. “As is the case with anything technical, we expect a few glitches could occur during the first few weeks of the program.”

The 15 installations where the discount is already available are: Redstone Arsenal, Ala.; Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz.; MacDill and Patrick Air Force bases, Fla.; Fort Gordon and Robins Air Force Base, Ga.; Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho; Scott Air Force Base, Ill.; Minneapolis-St. Paul Joint Air Reserve Station, Minn.; Columbus Air Force Base, Miss.; Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.; U.S. Military Academy, N.Y.; Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa.; and Laughlin Air Force Base and Joint Reserve Base Carswell, Texas.

Customers who use their Military Star Rewards MasterCard at on-base gas stations receive two points in rewards for every dollar spent. Rewards include cash back. So in essence, customers using the card receive 2 percent in rewards for gas, in addition to the discount of 3 cents per gallon.

Customers who do not pay off their credit cards each month are charged interest for the balance, which may offset any rewards or discounts.

There are four locations at which “technological constraints” will prevent the 3-cents-per-gallon discount “until additional functionality issues are addressed,” AAFES said in a statement. The locations are the Harmony Church Shoppette, Fort Benning, Ga.; the Brooks City-Base Service Station, Texas; McGhee Filling Station at Fort Campbell, Ky.; and the Bellwood Shoppette at Fort Lee, Va.

Officials expect to be able to provide Military Star Card customers the discount at those locations by Aug. 27.

Officials hope to extend the Military Star gas discount worldwide, but they do not have a timetable for the expansion.