The “biggest travel hack of them all” might just be having a AAA annual membership, and it costs less than your Netflix account.
TikToker Monae (@more.monaee) shared in a viral clip just how stunned she was at all of the useful services and discounts the company provides for only $114.50 per year. She stated that while she drives a high-mileage used vehicle that required help from the company’s roadside assistance on several occasions, it’s only a small portion of the benefits she’s received.
Monae begins her video by discussing the AAA perks she receives when it comes to automotive help: “It makes me so mad knowing how wrong I was about AAA. I drive a used car with 200,000 miles on it. So yeah, I’ve had to use their roadside assistance before.”
1. Discounted passport photos
But then she began to get into all of the travel benefits associated with the membership, including discounted passport photo pictures along with getting your passport itself expedited free of charge (included with the membership): “But tell me why for $114.50 a year, you can get your passport photos taken for $5, get your passport expedited, and get it even faster.”
2. Discounted Disneyland tickets
And if you’re going on a trip and want to save money on Uber, AAA memberships feature a couple of days of free airport parking, not to mention discounted (for adults) Disneyland tickets: “You can park at the airport for free for two days with the Triple A membership. You can go to Disneyland for…the price of a child ticket.”
3. Help filing taxes
With each new benefit she rattles off that comes with one’s AAA membership, she populated her video with a green screen associated with these perks. Monae continued to discuss benefits users can enjoy if they’re relocating long distances or if they need assistance with filing their taxes: “If you’re moving across the country, you can get a deal on that too. I think Triple A might actually be the modern-day Jesus because they’re helping us with our taxes.”
4. Curated road trips
And if you’re a big fan of road trips and don’t have the time or are overwhelmed when it comes to planning a trip on a series of lonesome highways, AAA has your back, Monae says: “They also have loads of pre-planned road trips all across the entire United States and even into some other countries.”
She continues, “Oh, they also give you a discount on rental cars with Hertz rent-a-car and that is literally just scratching the surface of what this company does, for such a cheap membership fee. Amazon is not giving you that. Call me crazy but this might be the biggest travel hack of them all.”
@more.monaee #greenscreen I just found the best travel hack and you probably alrewdy have it. #aaa #travelhack #besttraveldeals #creditcardpoints #travelsecrets #valuebasedtravel #valuetravel #gooddeal #travelsecrets #budgettraveltips #youhavetoknowthis ♬ original sound – Monae | How To Travel smarter
Viewers weigh in
There were other memberships folks said were worth having, like one person who wrote, “Same with AARP!!! You can get a membership at 18! I save like $40/month on my phone bill and a ton of restaurants and travel.”
Someone else echoed this sentiment, writing, “AARP and the AAA combo is so clutch .”
However, one user said these benefits aren’t universal and that they vary from state to state: “Used to work for them, please make sure you check your local AAA membership benefits! Some states are separated into ‘clubs’ and offers different types of packages along with their membership.”
Another benefit of AAA for younger customers? Not having to pay the under 25 fee when you’re renting cars. That is, according to this TikToker, and the verbiage on the AAA site: “I got AAA when I was 18 so that I could rent a car without paying the under 25 fee. during Covid, I sold my car and I was just driving rentals for an entire year, new car every week.”
And if you’re a T-Mobile customer, apparently you can get AAA for free as well, one customer said. Check out how to apply for that by clicking here.
As for help with taxes, AAA does advertise that it indeed offers members services for that, which you can learn more about here.
Home and moving discounts, like Monae said, are also listed on AAA’s website, and if your airport has a The Parking Spot location at it, it looks like you can make good on those two free days of parking as well. And if you wanted to go to the most magical place on earth, AAA could help you save some cash by having a membership—not to mention the slew of hotel and other discounts you can secure by signing up for the service.
The Daily Dot has reached out to AAA and Monaa via email for further comment.
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