<p>Very basic question–I’ve never belonged to AAA (I have roadside assistance through my car), but DS#1 is probably taking a car for his senior year of college and I thought I might get him a membership (it’s a pretty old ratty car!). He happened to get something in the mail this week that’s offering 13 months for $65.50, plus an additional free basic membership (I could cover one of our other kids). Any thoughts?</p>
<p>That’s pretty typical. I pay about $110-120/year for 4 family members. I like the coverage for students especially, since they could also use it if they are in a friend’s car that breaks down.</p>
<p>We did not renew our recently-expired AAA membership ($120+ for three members). We had been members for several years and found it gave us some peace of mind when DD was 6 1/2 hours away at school. She graduated last May and lives across town, so we’re available, if needed, for assistance. She used it only twice during those years away and DH and I have never used it. I absolutely would do it again if DD was a dependent and away from home. Plus, $65.50 for two memberships for a year is a really good deal.</p>
<p>We get roadside assistance from our insurance company for about $16 a year. You might want to check into that.</p>
<p>I’ve use AAA for two years now and am amazed at all the discounts I’ve gotten for hotel rooms and tickets to various attractions. I think that I save enough to almost cover the $50 membership. Occasionally I’ll lock my keys in the car or notice a tire’s air pressure is really low, and they’re always quick to respond, unlike my auto insurance carrier. I dropped my auto insurance’s roadside assistance after waiting over an hour for service on two occasions.</p>
<p>$74 for a basic membership for 2 people (me and my son). I easily save that in travel discounts a year so I feel like it worth it.</p>
<p>I think I pay around $120 for five members, but my 17 year old son is free. They say they are free until they are 19! I’ve used it for a 40% discount from Lenscrafters for the check-up and the glasses, hotels, movies, Amtrak discounts and I’m a map junkie. Anytime I go somewhere I pick up a map and sometimes the book. I’ve been known to wrap travel presents in old maps! That said, we very rarely have used it for actual towing or car problems.</p>
<p>We pay $99 for me, H and D. I use it more for discounts - hotels, shopping, other travel. The few times we had to use it for the car, someone came promptly to help.</p>
<p>AAA saved us from what might have been a ruined vacation when we broke down on a bridge leading to the Philly airport on a Saturday. We thought that a) we’d miss our flight or b) H would have to stay behind to deal with the car, and have to get a later flight (to Florida, during spring break - fat chance).</p>
<p>The AAA guy appeared very promptly, and after putting the car on his flatbed, told the four of us to squeeze into the cab with him so he could take us the rest of the way to the airport. He dropped us off at our gate - we must have been quite a sight as he got our luggage out of the car up on the flatbed! He then offered to keep our car in the AAA lot until we could call our mechanic to tow it to his place the following Monday. We made the flight and had a lovely vacation.</p>
<p>We wrote a letter to the guy’s supervisor about his superior service, and gave him a big tip. Needless to say, we love AAA. (And I’ve been vindicated in my desire to always leave extra early for the airport!)</p>
<p>We’ve been members for over 20 years, and the one service that we have stopped using is the trip tik/map. My kids don’t even know how to read maps any more. Another few years, and the AAA map will be destined to spend time with the plane ticket “books” with carbon paper and log tables.</p>
<p>We got it after our extended warranty ran out on our vehicles. We had roadside assistance with the extended warranty. AAA gives me some peace of mind. We don’t have much discretionary $$, so all the AAA discounts don’t usually apply to us, but it’s nice to know they are there. Price - same as other posters - around $120 for the family.</p>
<p>I recently picked up 4 travel guides, for various areas, and about a dozen maps-- all included in the membership fee.</p>
<p>I think ours is around $100 or so per year. That covers DH and me plus S2 who is in college four hours from home with a ten year old pickup truck for transportation. We never had AAA until he went to college. My insurance paid for my eye exam today but I plan to use my AAA discount when I go to LensCrafters to buy my new glasses.</p>
<p>I pay about $120/year for 2 members (my husband and my son, I rarely drive and if I have a problem, husband or son can come help me), but I have free 100 mile towing - I get 4 tows of up to 100 miles each way per year. It would be about $65/year otherwise.</p>
<p>I also use some of the discounts.</p>
<p>I pay $48 so I can get AAA insurance and basic road service. I have not used road service since I’ve gotten married.I still need the basic membership to get insurance.</p>
<p>$105 for two members with the basic coverage. We could pay more and be towed longer distances, but we also have towing with Geico so that isn’t a big deal. I use the tour books for travel planning, and in most years we recover our membership costs with discounts at hotels and admissions to museums, etc. This past year we had a lot of hotel nights and actually came out ahead!</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the good information. This really is kind of a peace-of-mind thing for me, but I just was not sure if this was a good deal or not.</p>
<p>And I’d completely forgotten about the discounts! (Although I do pretty well with hotel rooms as a govt employee.)</p>
<p>Can somebody fill me in a bit on the maps? I used to <em>love</em> maps! I bought DS#1 a big Rand-McNally multi-page one of our county when he got his license, but I’m sure he’s never used it. I do like a GPS but really miss flipping through the pages when driving a long distance.</p>
<p>I haven’t used the newest TripTicks but I understand that there is a way to log into the website and make them yourself, or order them online. Call AAA and ask about them. The AAA hotel discount often is just about the same as for AARP members or gov’t employees. If you are the kind of person who can keep track of things, there are multiple AAA member discounts when you shop online or at certain stores.</p>
<p>We paid $76 to renew basic, annual membership for our son, AND to add a second membership for our daughter…both of whom, are teen drivers. The primary membership may have been $49 and the secondary membership $27? </p>
<p>Both kids drive cars with liability-only insurance, so AAA was a great way to offer them some security for roadside assistance. In the last two years, S1 has been able to use his card when with friends, whose cars have needed a jump or tire change, as well as for a tow and tire change of his own.</p>
<p>My husband and I have comprehensive insurance on our vehicles… which includes roadside assistance…so we don’t need AAA memberships. We have used one of the kids’ memberships for taking advantage of AAA member discounts when booking hotels, purchasing tickets to events, etc. It’s been a very good investment for our family.</p>
<p>Last year my oldest needed to renew her AAA membership. She had a membership in her own name in the state she was living at the time. Her membership expired and she did not know where she was going to transfer and what state. I priced out the membership in her state (which she knew she wasnot going to stay in much longe)r and our home state. I also priced out the membership in the state she was probably going to end up in. All three had widely different prices and varying level of services for each level of membership. It might be worth checking the membership in his college location if it is a different state.
All that said we just needed to get our S his own membership. It was around $65 a year for the level of membership that had the longer towing distance.</p>