diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d84de8567..9781fa9d7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 ## 0.4.0 (unreleased)
 
+FEATURES:
+
+* builder/amazon/ebs: Ability to specify which availability zone to create
+  instance in. [GH-536]
+
 BUG FIXES:
 
 * core: Won't panic when writing to a bad pipe. [GH-560]
diff --git a/builder/amazon/common/run_config.go b/builder/amazon/common/run_config.go
index b21999260..8025cf0f0 100644
--- a/builder/amazon/common/run_config.go
+++ b/builder/amazon/common/run_config.go
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ type RunConfig struct {
 	SubnetId             string `mapstructure:"subnet_id"`
 	TemporaryKeyPairName string `mapstructure:"temporary_key_pair_name"`
 	VpcId                string `mapstructure:"vpc_id"`
+	AvailZone            string `mapstructure:"avail_zone"`
 
 	// Unexported fields that are calculated from others
 	sshTimeout time.Duration
@@ -83,6 +84,7 @@ func (c *RunConfig) Prepare(t *packer.ConfigTemplate) []error {
 		"subnet_id":               &c.SubnetId,
 		"temporary_key_pair_name": &c.TemporaryKeyPairName,
 		"vpc_id":                  &c.VpcId,
+		"avail_zone":              &c.AvailZone,
 	}
 
 	for n, ptr := range templates {
diff --git a/builder/amazon/common/step_run_source_instance.go b/builder/amazon/common/step_run_source_instance.go
index 4aeab217c..5d26f8c69 100644
--- a/builder/amazon/common/step_run_source_instance.go
+++ b/builder/amazon/common/step_run_source_instance.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ type StepRunSourceInstance struct {
 	SourceAMI          string
 	IamInstanceProfile string
 	SubnetId           string
+	AvailZone          string
 	BlockDevices       BlockDevices
 
 	instance *ec2.Instance
@@ -51,6 +52,7 @@ func (s *StepRunSourceInstance) Run(state multistep.StateBag) multistep.StepActi
 		IamInstanceProfile: s.IamInstanceProfile,
 		SubnetId:           s.SubnetId,
 		BlockDevices:       s.BlockDevices.BuildLaunchDevices(),
+		AvailZone:          s.AvailZone,
 	}
 
 	ui.Say("Launching a source AWS instance...")
diff --git a/builder/amazon/ebs/builder.go b/builder/amazon/ebs/builder.go
index 376a90e2b..f646d694f 100644
--- a/builder/amazon/ebs/builder.go
+++ b/builder/amazon/ebs/builder.go
@@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ func (b *Builder) Run(ui packer.Ui, hook packer.Hook, cache packer.Cache) (packe
 			SourceAMI:          b.config.SourceAmi,
 			IamInstanceProfile: b.config.IamInstanceProfile,
 			SubnetId:           b.config.SubnetId,
+			AvailZone:          b.config.AvailZone,
 			BlockDevices:       b.config.BlockDevices,
 		},
 		&common.StepConnectSSH{
diff --git a/website/source/docs/builders/amazon-ebs.html.markdown b/website/source/docs/builders/amazon-ebs.html.markdown
index 7248a2e2d..58d1dbcd7 100644
--- a/website/source/docs/builders/amazon-ebs.html.markdown
+++ b/website/source/docs/builders/amazon-ebs.html.markdown
@@ -120,6 +120,9 @@ Optional:
 * `vpc_id` (string) - If launching into a VPC subnet, Packer needs the
   VPC ID in order to create a temporary security group within the VPC.
 
+* `avail_zone` (string) - Destination availability zone to launch instance in.
+  Leave this empty to allow Amazon to auto-assign..
+
 ## Basic Example
 
 Here is a basic example. It is completely valid except for the access keys: