How a AAA Membership Saved Me $130
You too could be the proud driver of a rented Dodge Journey for less! Photo by: Evan Berman
In almost every state, it is required that a driver have car insurance that meets certain thresholds. You are not required to have roadside assistance, though that is a service many chose to purchase. Earlier this year, I purchased a 1-year AAA plan. The cost was $69. There are quite a few benefits (outside of AAA roadside assistance). Let’s take a look and them and highlight how I was able to earn well more than that back in savings this past weekend!
Hotel Rates:
Most hotels have a AAA rate when searching for a room. While there is no guarantee (and often this is not the best deal), always search for this rate and see how it compares to the standard rooms. For example, let’s imagine I will be visiting Chicago on Friday July 14th. Searching Hyatt’s website, the top two options are Hyatt Centric The Loop Chicago and Hyatt Regency Chicago. Here’s what happens when you use the normal rates and then the AAA rates:
Notice that these are not the only hotels with changing prices. Other differences range from $5-$19. It can’t hurt to check the AAA price!
Rental Cars
AA has a partnership with several rental companies but I will focus on Hertz. The following are published benefits:
- Up to 20% off the base rate of rentals
- Free additional drivers
- Free child safety seat
- Waived young renter’s fee
- 10% savings on fuel
This past weekend was another wonderful trip and I rented a car from Hertz. As you may know, prices and demand for Memorial Day Weekend are through the roof. The options were scarce and it appeared I may need to pay as much as $700 for a 5-day rental. Thankfully, Hertz was able to help.
Real Life Savings
I searched various options, including Hertz, Avis, Thrifty, Budget, National, and the travel portals of Chase, AmEx, and Capital One. None of the options were great.
Here’s Capital One:
In the end, I knew about the discounts for Hertz and searched through my AAA site. For the same exact days as the above screenshots, a car was available for $338.36! That is $115.64 less than the cheapest option for AmEx, before factoring in the likely young renter fee of $120 that Payless would charge. Not really living up to that name, is it?
After booking through the AAA website, I got a confirmation email which asked me to add my reservation with Hertz. After following the link and signing into my Hertz account, the rental was showing.
That’s all. No fee for a young renter. Not add-ons for certain services. Just the agreed-upon rate that was significantly less than the other options!
Summary:
I ended up saving well over $100 from an annual plan that costs $69. Whether or not you value the service that AAA provides, it might be worth signing up for a year. You may be surprised just how much you can save!
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