AAA - What will they do for you if you break down or have a flat?

[Liz]

My BIL recently signed up for this service. We are traveling to Disneyland together in a few days, each in our own vehicles. We're trying to decide if we should rent a car or drive our own. We like to rent just so we don't have the worry of the car breaking down, but sure could use the $$ if we drove our own car. BIL says since they have AAA if our car broke down since they'll be with us we would benefit from it too. Any thoughts?

 

[olena]

Send a PM tp Mickey's Sunshine. She works in their Roadside Service Dept. I'm sure she can answer your questions. ...

 

[Serena]

I think your BIL should double check the rules before you try this. In this state, they would help his car, or your car if he was driving it. But not your car just because you both were going to the same place.

And, just from personal experience from this weekend. If you are worried about your car, rent one. My transmission decided to go out on saturday.

 

[TEENEE]

If you have a flat they will come out and change the tire for you. If you need to be towed they will tow you, I can't tell you how far they will tow you for free, that depends on your coverage. You would be responsible for the repairs. Your BIL is covered not his car, any car that he is travelling in is covered.

If your car is dependable I would drive it to save money. If not I would rent a car.

Hope that helps.

Where's Chris, she's the AAA expert.

 

[Mickey's sunshine]

I'm here Teenee. Thanks Olena - yep I work in road service for AAA of Florida.

Here is the thing - each club of AAA has their own set of rules and you have abide by the rules os whatever club territory you are in at the time of the breakdown. To the best of my knowledge, as long as your BIL is there with the vehicle and places the call then it should be covered. It would be here in our territory, FL, GA, & TN. So I would just make sure he is there with the the car. I dont see why there would be a problem. Please feel free to PM me if you have any more questions or ask them here, I will check back on this thread later on.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We joined AAA when we lived in Montana because of the long drives. Once when I had a flat tire (only about 1.5 miles from home), I called them on the cell phone. They called back in about 20 minutes to tell me to just get it fixed and send them the bill. They didn't have any service to change the tire in the area I was in. I fired them after that. What's the point? My husband walked from our house to the car to help me out since I had the baby in the car with me and it was winter. Right after that we bought all new tires for the van.

 

[Ellen aka Snow White]

AAA - What will they do for you if you break down or have a flat?

In our case - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! We had a flat tire about 7 miles from our home - after driving all the way from WDW. We called AAA from our cell phone - the operater could not figure out where we were! I gave her very specific directions from several different ways - major road names - and she could not locate us to send us service. She put me on hold and never came back - I came straight home and canceld our membership.

 

[DisneyMim]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents in here. We've been AAA members for years and have had both good and bad experiences. I think it depends on where you are, who you talk to, etc. In my humble opinion it really is hit or miss. One thing I do want to warn you about is that, as someone else said, be careful of what kind of coverage you have. I didn't know this until we had to be towed, but they will only pay for a certain distance, after that you have to pay. So if you happen to break down in an area that is a long way (this is always our luck like the time we broke down in NH) you may have quite a tow charge. Other times AAA just hasn't come at all, although I want to add that one time we had a problem with our car in our driveway. I guess they didn't think it was that big a deal since we were home and not" far from home." Sorry this is so long, but I just want to let you know that experience can differ from place to place. Read up about what is covered and what is not. Good Luck!!!

 

[NancyIL]

Most of my calls to AAA have been for a flat tire. A few times one of our cars has been towed. The standard membership allows for 5 miles of free towing, and after that a per-mile charge. We now have AAA Plus - which allows for 100 miles of free towing.

I'm glad to have AAA for the road service, but I enjoy it most for the travel discounts, the maps and Triptiks, and the Tourbooks. I will always be a AAA member.

 

[Serena]

I've never had a problem with AAA. I have the plus too, I got it upgraded when I planned on going to florida.

Here, not only do they have the road assistance, but they have all those things Nancy mentioned and they have other discounts as well.

Here they have a 30% off glasses at LensCrafters. That one purchase paid for the AAA membership.

Saturday I went in and they made hotel reservations for me at the last minute. It would have been a wonderful room for a great price, but my car didn't cooperate.

 

[Mickey's sunshine]

Ellen, sorry that happened to you. Unfortunately it sounds like you had a real big idiot on the phone!! We have a few where I work too.

I think out in California a basic account only covers 3 miles of towing and 100 for Plus - each territory is a bit different. The majority of the clubs are 5 for basic and 100 for plus.