Just received a renewal notice for $66.75 - as an AA member for 15 years they have generously given me a loyalty discount of $22.25!
Just wondering if anyone else has an AA membership and if you feel it's worth the value?
AA Membership - Is It Worth It?
kiwipork on 30/10/2022 - 11:26
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Breakdown service under your car insurance policy only covers your car, while AA covers all cars. If you use domestic car hires a lot it might be worth it, as it usually costs about $15/day to add breakdown service when you hire a car.
Yeah my Amex Platinum covers all cars so no point for AA membership for me even breakdown service
You mean all Amex Platinum cards? How do I find out about that please
Amex Platinum Charge and Platinum Edge doesn't have breakdown cover. Believe saxasianguy might be incorrect
Also keen to find out more - I've got the platinum Airpoints and haven't noticed this cover anywhere…..
But who do you call when you need road service? Who does Amex use for this?
Really? I have thought that having a working car was part and parcel of a hire car. Hate to tell any car rental employees, but I'm sure as hell not paying that, and will expect you to provide a new car if it breaks down.
Seriously, I can't see how this wouldn't be in breach of the CGA.
Yeah I agree; if its a failure of a car/part that renders it dead. But thinking about it, I wonder if it comes down to speed of resolution or the granularity of service desired (ie not necessarily total failure of the car)
ie call the AA to replace the flat tyre or get keys out of a locked car etc etc, may take ~1 hour, whereas it might be a day for the rental company to sort stuff out (if at all)Flat tyres, flat battery, lost keys etc won't be covered in the basic rental price. As a matter of fact, these things usually happen due to the driver's fault, not the car rental company's.
@sunshinenz: I worked for a car rental company and flat tyres and flat batteries were 100% looked after by the company. We would get calls for all kinds of things and definitely you should call the car rental company if there was a breakdown.
Never thought they are worth it.
Ive found their service always quite quick in rescueing.
If you travel a lot abroad, and you rent cars often, it is worth keeping it.
Not once, as an ADAC (Germany) member, I had issues in Canada and USA. Every time I contacted the local AAA or CAA they were happy to help.I have had it for about 30 years - lol - and yeah I probably should have cancelled it by now because I hardly use it at all.
Have used it once in the last 2 years to get towed when my car chewed a serpentine belt, and then also have used the rental car discount associated with it. And about 4 years ago I used it to help a mate out who locked his keys in his car.
But asides from that, not much. Way back when I started using it (student with a low rent car prone to failure - both the car and student) I used it quite a bit - even got to know the local AA dude - lol - but since having more reliable/newer cars I have not used it.
Given the price is locked in at what I was paying back then I have just kept it; also my wife is a associate member tied to my account, so she gets it for next to nothing, so that helps to offset the price to a point where its piece of mind more than anything now.
I think its like insurance really, breaking the cost down to a monthly shows its pretty insignificant and have found them easy/pleasant to deal with when needed - asides from when I needed the tow I had to drive the car 2km down the road to get it within the free tow range, which I found really pedantic but I suppose they need to draw the line somewhere - in saying that, I think I recall reading something that said Kiwi's are notoriously over insured so….lol…ymmvI used it a few times and for the time i was at in my life (single mum, junky unreliable car) it was worth it's weight in gold. I couldn't afford to pay for a tow and if I'd left my car on the side of the road there was a high chance it wouldn't be there by the next day…Now if i ever get a flat tire (quite often for some reason) I just get a frazzled looking husband with a jack or trailer 🤣
Specsavers deal makes it worthwhile for me - have to do it anyway. AA Members are entitled to a free eye test (valued at $60), once every two years. https://www.specsavers.co.nz/special-offers/aa
They offer this deal to pretty much every group though. Unions, trade groups, large employers, clubs a and associations. There is a reasonable chance you can get it from another association (I can get it via 4 different places).
For me using it once a year (or even every 2) is worth it. I have AA plus. 5 years ago my vehicle blew up on the Auckland motorway. Like really blew up. Engine gone in a huge cloud of smoke. AA+ allowed that and me to be towed 120km back to my house. Would have been real stuck without it. Since then I haven't used it. But I figure I'm just paying back what would have been a very difficult and expensive situation if I didn't have it. For me having kids is a big factor. Especially young kids and you go on a lot of adventures. When they are older I will probably let it go. They can come rescue me instead.
For us standard AA membership would not be worth it as we are pretty self sufficient most the time, Do most of my own car and trailer repairs - but what is really worth it for us is AA Plus - The key thing about this for us is if they cannot fix it they will return your vehicle (or trailer/caravan) to your home from anywhere in the country. Where this was a really big benefit to us was when we broke an axle on our caravan less then 5 km from our destination. Because we knew we would only be able to get 1 tow and wanted to still stay where we were going for a few days and knew it was unlikely to be fixable in the short term we arranged our own towing to where we were camping 5km away. Then logged the break down with that as the "safe place" we had got it to. As we knew AA were not able to fix it - as it needed an entirely new custom built axle. When we were finished camping they arranged the transport of the caravan the 300km home where I could arrange my own repairs in my own time - saving a huge amount of $ vs being held to ransom locally at Easter time with tight time frames
I always pay because they help with bikes and cars. My bikes and car are kept to the highest standards but you never know. Leave headlights on or drive over a screw in peak traffic gale force winds pouring rain and $40 a year sounds like a pretty fkn sweet deal to me.
The bike addition is new and flat tyres on bikes are like 2-3 times a year if you commute heavily. I usually ride 5000km a year so it'll definitely come in handy (yes I can self repair but may as well use the service I pay for)
Used it about 6-7 times since 2011 for cars (we had crappy cars and now finally in a late model)
Last time I went in they aren't doing free shakes, just free fries now
I probably make my money back in free Burger Fuel shakes
Free shakes? What have I been missing?
I have had my membership for 2 years now, used the towing service 3 times since so has definitely made it worthwhile for me.
I made $23 back in movie theatre savings with Event Cinemas discounts. That helps justify it. And I’ve run out of car battery once and they came in 30 minutes quite late at night. Saved a call to my parents or friend driving out with cables etc.
I have been with them since 2011, used them a few times. Worth it in my opinion.
Hello! does anybody have a 10% off your next service voucher for AA?
i seem to have lost the one they gave from last year's service
I saw entertainment book had 25% off. Not sure what exclusion are there.
I haven't used any 10% AA voucher so can look it up if you tell me where it is. I don't need it.
To note that the EntertainmentBook is currently (today!) $0.99 for three months, so worth getting it just for the 25% off that Ace310 referenced.
Thanks for the tip. I bought a 3 month sub. How do I claim the discount? Do I just show the staff at the AA front desk the voucher code on the Entertainment book app?
Has someone got first hand experience with insurance roadside as compared to AA membership?
I am with tower insurance and thinking to get their roadside rather than renewing AA membership (4 year member) as it costs only a third.
Just not sure how tower insurance roadside compares to with AA.Insurance roadside assistance is for your car only, AA is for any car you're at the scene with, so it can be for when you hire/borrow a car too.
It can be worth it if you need the towing service where I needed like 3 in a short space of to,e (from one provider to another) But saying that, you can sign up on the side of the road which is what I did , and yes it costs more like $200 but that still less than the towing just one time and then you dont have the annual fees for all the years you dont need it, if thats more than say 2-3 typically I found your better off with the adhoc.
I haven't been a member for a number of years - I've decided that based on the number of times I have broken down in the last 10 years that it would be cheaper overall for me to join at the roadside if I needed to for whatever reason.
Needa buy more burger fuel for free thickshakes!
I decided not to renew mine in 2018, had been with them since 2012 as I saw the only benefit was a breakdown service. So I called my insurance and asked them how much it would cost to add in breakdown service (I think it was breakdown service?? Or was it glass excess - cant remember now as I've always had comprehensive cover) and it was a lot cheaper than having AA after I'd turned 21.
So from then on I cancelled it as I'd never used the other AA benefits like discounts on health checks or whatever the discounts were.
I've only used the AA smartfuel (and am still using) which has nothing to do with having an AA membership or not