I used to be a AAA travel agent in southern california!
AAA forms partnerships with tour operators, Disney, different transportation carriers etc and agents are told to sell those products. AAA travel agents, about 6 years ago when I left anyway, are NOT paid commission but a salary so a really good agent doesn't make near as much as she/he would on commission. Therefore they lose the really good agents, they can't keep 'em. This was a common complaint with our clients. AAA agents are graded, and their salary increases are given, on how they meet QUOTAS of those preferred products and how much commission income they bring in for AAA. So they will whip out the preferred vendor's AAA partner brochure and sell from it. Unless you ask I kinda doubt most of them will be out looking for the cheapest code or whatever. It's really not the poor agents fault but the way they are forced to go because of management's decisions. They don't have time and they've got to meet those quotas! Needless to say I came to hate it because I actually wanted to help people! So I left . . .
Last week I walked into our local AAA and asked for brochures from a couple of tour operators to Hawaii, both of whom I know a lot about. The one that is my favorite, I've travelled with them before myself and sold tons from them - I was told was not a tour operator that was "preferred" by AAA anymore. I asked why and she didn't know. Leads me to believe that the
travel agency is still set up to sell the vendors that AAA has negotiated better commission structions with because I KNOW the one I like does a much classier job with comprable price to the consumer!
Anyway, yes AAA is great for road service, maps, trip tiks, even some travel products if you know what you want and it's one you have to go through an agency to book. They are also great for people who do not want to do the work themselves - you do get a discount - it just might not be as good as hunting down the codes and booking the components yourself. Also good for their discounts as sometimes that's all that may be available (no codes). But don't count on them searching out any codes for you - it's not the Disney product they are supposed to sell and it would cut the commission!
Can you tell I still need to vent about this
!