AAA Discounts disappearing everywhere

[happily single]

I have been a Gold AAA member for many, many years, but I am growing more and more disappointed with them. I’ve also had several instances over the past year where there were issues with my actual membership and being told members of my family were not covered for roadside assistance. I know several years ago the Disney ticket discount and hotel discount disappeared but Today I went to a Premium Outlet and waited in guest services to receive the coupon booklet, only to learn it is no longer an AAA benefit.

I know there are several other discounts that are no longer offered.

Does anyone have any alternatives to AAA for roadside assistance?

 

[amcnj]

You can check with your auto insurance provider. Many offer roadside assistance coverage as an option.

 

[gottalovepluto]

You may have limited coverage on credit cards that you already have. Here’s a rundown I found.

 

[EsseG]

Better World Club I switched from AAA to BWC several years ago. They contract with the same local auto services as AAA. Very responsive anytime I've called.

 

[seashoreCM]

Did AAA finally pay for the roadside assistance your family counted on or explain in the contract that the assistance did not apply?

 

[happily single]

Better World Club I switched from AAA to BWC several years ago. They contract with the same local auto services as AAA. Very responsive anytime I've called.

Awesome. Thank you. I’ve never heard of them. I don’t renew until December, but I will remember this

 

[happily single]

Did AAA finally pay for the roadside assistance your family counted on or explain in the contract that the assistance did not apply?

No, the first instance was last May. My BF is Muslim and we don’t talk during Ramadan. I was also traveling to Disney when this happened. . He took a trip to Maine and got a flat tire on his very heavy, very large truck. He had his new AAA card showing it was effective in May. Also, when I paid the renewal I sent him the receipt until the card arrived. He called for a tow and was told he wasn’t active. He had to break our agreement of no communication and text me. I called AAA who lied to me. Bottom line is they told me they applied the payment for his card to an expired account my DD21 had. BUT she had her own personal account, so that was lie. They gave BF a free year.

 

[MillauFr]

You can always just pay for roadside assistance out pocket. There is no reason you need AAA for this.

 

[happily single]

You can always just pay for roadside assistance out pocket. There is no reason you need AAA for this.

Try finding a service facility that you can reach at 2am on a Saturday (who am I kidding, I’m never out past 10am)

 

[TwoMisfits]

I love AAA, and don't ever ask for the discounts (except at hotels). They truly are my "keep my car insurance rates super low" service...I have a clean record on insurance and save $250/year for it...and AAA costs me way less than that. I do have towing and car side assistance on my regular insurance (it's just standard), but I wouldn't dream of using it.

Without AAA, I'd have had calls to my insurance 4 times in the last 6 years for roadside assistance...and I can't imagine what my insurance rate would look like from that. And when it's under 32 degrees, and your car dies 25 minutes from home at a homeless shelter on a Wednesday night with your kids in it (who had just volunteered at a Valentine's Party at said shelter) and they come out and replace the battery in under an hour right there for a very reasonable price - the service becomes priceless.

 

[DizMe]

I've always had excellent service with my AAA roadside assistance. I added my daughter, who moved 500 miles away for college last year and it gives me some peace of mind. I've been a member for about 25 years and I do miss the glory days of Disney discounts, but I've used it for hotels quite often. I've also used for a few other things like ice cream and movie discounts, but honestly, I usually forget all about those in the moment and am not really sure what's still available. I know I can check on the website but I haven't done that lately. Anyway, I feel it's worth the small annual fee though I agree that the benefits have decreased outside of the roadside assistance part.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

No, the first instance was last May. My BF is Muslim and we don’t talk during Ramadan. I was also traveling to Disney when this happened. . He took a trip to Maine and got a flat tire on his very heavy, very large truck. He had his new AAA card showing it was effective in May. Also, when I paid the renewal I sent him the receipt until the card arrived. He called for a tow and was told he wasn’t active. He had to break our agreement of no communication and text me. I called AAA who lied to me. Bottom line is they told me they applied the payment for his card to an expired account my DD21 had. BUT she had her own personal account, so that was lie. They gave BF a free year.

I just want to say having the card and it actually being active are two different things.

We got our AAA renewal in the mail a few weeks ago with the new cards (which is normal) and our renewal isn't until 9/27. Those new cards aren't fully active until 9/27 occurs and the payment goes through. One year they advised me ahead of time that the payment method I had on file for our auto-renew was expiring and I needed to take action to update the payment method. Had I not done that they would have still sent me the cards for the new time period but it wouldn't have been an active account with no confirmed payment made.

I would also say why assume they lied to you? They could have been going on the information they had on their screen.

What was the resolution? Did you confirm a misapplied payment occurred? Did they get his card fully active?

 

[shh]

I've been a member for decades - they'd always respond in an hour or less. I've been very disappointed with their roadside service in the past 2 years. We live in a highly populated suburban area/major market: plenty of tow truck contractors/providers: they still took close to two hours each time on 2 service calls the past couple of years - this wasn't during peak morning/afternoon rush hour times either. That's in extreme FL heat each time. Maybe that's considered standard service nowadays, but I'll probably be canceling. When I mentioned the wait times, they really didn't seem to think it was a concern.

 

[whatname]

We belonged to AAA for years, but switched to roadside assistance through our insurance, State Farm. It is significantly cheaper. We have used State Farm a few times and they were prompt and no hassle. We were prompted to switch from AAA when I called them for help with a flat tire and they couldn't tell me when they would arrive, it was going to be quite a while, etc. I finally had a friend come and put on the spare. We really didn't use any other AAA discounts or benefits often enough to justify the cost. I can't remember what the roadside assistance cost is with State Farm but is it extremely cheap. I haven't missed AAA at all.

 

[happily single]

I just want to say having the card and it actually being active are two different things.

We got our AAA renewal in the mail a few weeks ago with the new cards (which is normal) and our renewal isn't until 9/27. Those new cards aren't fully active until 9/27 occurs and the payment goes through. One year they advised me ahead of time that the payment method I had on file for our auto-renew was expiring and I needed to take action to update the payment method. Had I not done that they would have still sent me the cards for the new time period but it wouldn't have been an active account with no confirmed payment made.

I would also say why assume they lied to you? They could have been going on the information they had on their screen.

What was the resolution? Did you confirm a misapplied payment occurred? Did they get his card fully active?

I shortened the story for purposes of typing. The first person I spoke with told me a different story. The second story about being applied to my daughters account was the lie, as she already had an active policy, so that would have made her doubly covered. They made his card fully active and gave him one free year of membership

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I shortened the story for purposes of typing. The first person I spoke with told me a different story. The second story about being applied to my daughters account was the lie, as she already had an active policy, so that would have made her doubly covered. They made his card fully active and gave him one free year of membership

Ah. I'm not sure how it would have made her doubly covered unless you're saying she had 2 AAA memberships? If the payment was applied to her account it would have just created a credit to it (not sure if they keep credits or immediately refund them out). It's def. still possible. IDK I guess I don't see how/why the person would say it was applied to your daughter's account for literally no reason. That wouldn't equate to lying just because your daughter had an active account.

Now as far as different stories yeah that does happen absolutely. I just find it more believable there was a payment misapplied somewhere along the way. But that's my call center insurance company experience talking.

Just my random musings lol

Either way glad it was resolved;year of free membership is nice

 

[Narnia_girl]

We've been AAA members for over a decade and they recently screwed up our account, similar to OP.
In late 2017 our son got married and moved out of our home. When our AAA was up for renewal in July 2018 I called them and asked to have him taken off. They said he couldn't because the payment had already been initiated (direct deposit) but we should call back early the next year.

I made sure I called this year in May (2019) to have him removed. They assured me they would do that. I also asked them to add our teen daughter. When I checked my bank statement they had added her and charged for him. I had to call again and they said they couldn't remove him. This time I didn't accept that and kept pushing. They finally agreed to issue me a refund on his membership since I documented when I called.

After that I let our son know he wasn't covered any longer. He seems surprised because as soon as he got married he had bought his own AAA membership. So it turns out he had double coverage for over a year.

 

[DizMe]

All of these stories are making me uneasy. I've always counted on AAA because of the great service I've had. I just renewed in July so we'll see how it goes, but I will look into getting Roadside Assistance through out regular insurance company, State Farm. We're already paying them an arm and a leg for insurance and AAA seemed like a bargain but I never checked their RA rates since I was happy with AAA and liked using them for DMV stuff.

 

[happily single]

The DMV is definitely a bonus. However, in July I had to renew my registration. There was over an hour wait. Apparently a ton of people use the service now. I remember just 2 years ago when you could walk in with no wait

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We've been AAA members for over a decade and they recently screwed up our account, similar to OP.
In late 2017 our son got married and moved out of our home. When our AAA was up for renewal in July 2018 I called them and asked to have him taken off. They said he couldn't because the payment had already been initiated (direct deposit) but we should call back early the next year.

I made sure I called this year in May (2019) to have him removed. They assured me they would do that. I also asked them to add our teen daughter. When I checked my bank statement they had added her and charged for him. I had to call again and they said they couldn't remove him. This time I didn't accept that and kept pushing. They finally agreed to issue me a refund on his membership since I documented when I called.

After that I let our son know he wasn't covered any longer. He seems surprised because as soon as he got married he had bought his own AAA membership. So it turns out he had double coverage for over a year.

Oh I believe you can be double covered. The OP however said the AAA rep was lying and the reason they said they were lying was because the daughter already had an account. Just because someone has an account already doesn't mean a payment can't be misapplied to it (or something else occur).