AAA - paid for itself in one hotel stay.

[Elkins45]

AAA is a great deal if you drive a beater. IMO one 25 mile tow on a Saturday night cost me $330, paid cash. This was 2014 prices.

Just recently I needed a tow, and there was no tow guy in my service area, so the next guy got the job, I was on the county line.... AAA hooked me up.

My parents had a starter gone out, thought it was the battery so they called for a jump start, they have State Farm and used the roadside assistance... they could not find anyone, this was in a town where a major interstate and state highway runs though......and in fact I know there are two tow companies in the town with ¨towing¨in their names.

I thought you just called whoever you could get and then presented the bill to your State Farm agent for reimbursement?

 

[grammatoncleric]

Hopefully not posting in the wrong forum - if not mods please move. Figure its auto related as its an auto club.

Have always slapped the roadside assist on my insurance policy which is just under $2/month. While my ID.4 has roadside assist courtesy of VW CPO unfortunately they will only tow to a VW dealer even if flat tire so I need a side policy just in case (flat tire mostly). Received a promo mailing from AAA to get their basic level plan (Classic) for $37.50 for the first year which also includes up to two household members, for both of us to drop roadside off insurance it saves us a few bucks a year and of course I trust AAA more than dealing with Progressive. Well we have a trip planned in October so curiously I decided to check what our hotel would be with AAA rate - ~$51 cheaper so on top of the couple dollars we are saving it has already paid for itself after just one weekend getaway.

Going to check into some of the other perks. My dad swore by AAA and was a 30+ year member but I never really saw the value in it until now, I always figured roadside assistance is roadside assistance no matter who you get it from but I am a convert. If I can extract more value out of the program via discounts I will probably upgrade to one of their better plans.

One of the better promo mailings I have received, one of the weird times it was really not junk mail.

Next time book it as Federal Government travel discount. In 20 years of booking for work as a fed I was only asked once to present either my travel orders or my CAC. About 15 years ago hotels were forbidden to make a photocopy of the CAC as a proof that the reservation discount code is valid. So they all just dropped the need to ask.

 

[andrew_j]

I liked them until the membership spikes after teaser rate.

I am actually happy with the Progressive roadside assistance that is around $15/car. Up to 20 miles of tow and they are responsive.

 

[zzyzzx]

I thought that the AAA hotel discount is only like 10%, so I rarely ever use it because I can't stack that on top of a sale.