AAA-Discounts?

[montero1]

I was thinking about joining AAA, but was wondering do the hotel discounts, and auto insurance rates cover the cost of the roadside? Their Roadside is considerably more than most roadside companies, but they do tow further, the mid plan covers up to 100 miles.

 

[dogememe]

Their insurance is not cheap, but the customer service is good. I went from AAA before to Tesla insurance because Tesla insurance is way cheaper but they have horrible customer service. I had a question about my policy and I tried to call them and the estimated hold time was three hours. I gave up. But on AAA calling them or doing a claim was a great experience overall despite the tragedy.

 

[JayhawkRoy]

I used KS and MO AAA plan when we owned an RV and when my kids were in college. A couple of times on road trips the extended RV coverage and extra mileage for towing paid off. I went to roadside coverage added to my auto insurance after I sold the RV.

The other discounts (hotel and car rental) never would pay off the coverage cost by themselves.

 

[PandaBear]

AAA discount: better than nothing to be honest, but often times I found better deals on hotels' own discount program or sales on travel sites.

AAA insurance: better than typical, not sure if it is the best but they are better than Geico and State Farm at least in my area on filing claims.

AAA road side assistance: their batteries warranty is no longer good (always try to test and say either the battery is still good or your car sat for too long and void the warranty), but towing is always good to me. YMMV.

 

[DeeSull]

AAA roadside assistance has (had?) the largest network, including a reciprocal arrangement with CAA (Canadian version of AAA). If my car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and needs to be towed, I feel that AAA should be able to dispatch someone faster than other providers.

 

[tedsweet]

in upstate ny rural areas the tows show 10 later

 

[AKhan87]

In the family (my father) we have had AAA since 1999, and I couldn't explain to you, how many times, it has come in handy, fortunately my father has never ever used it himself, but everyone in the family has, I have used the 250 mile tow about 5 times, and countless other tows and it has been worth every penny to have AAA membership, its one of those things, we will always have, especially since I road trip all over the US.

Now, discounts? no idea, never got the membership for that reason. I think I get 5% off at Napa?

 

[snarl]

Check out AAA fuel rewards.

 

[y_p_w]

I remember when it was great when they had road maps that were pretty easy to get. Several locations even had vending machines where you swipe the card and select up to 5 maps per day. They still have them, but they're not quite the same. The really great ones were the California State Automobile Association maps. They were the absolute gold standard where they covered most of Northern California and all of Nevada. They also had a statewide map. They also shared map distribution with the Auto Club of Southern California maps, but those weren't anywhere near as good. I believe other AAA affiliates could get those maps, although they might have mostly distributed major cities.

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/auto-club-s-paper-map-unit-nears-end-of-road-3282593.php

It's pretty nice being able to access DMV services that most AAA affiliates have.

I guess they have discounts and maybe travel services. Maybe not as good as they used to. I remember a local sporting goods store that had a 10% discount for showing a AAA card. Maybe hotel discounts, although I've never been asked to show my card and I think maybe one reservation required entering the membership number. Amtrak used to have a 10% discount (might have been on a 3 day advanced purchase?), but I think that's been over for a while. Not sure about theme park discounts these days. I remember maybe once I got a special deal with Disneyland parking free, but there was otherwise no discount. I think other discounts available to anyone might have made more sense for a family.