November 29, 2005

Our New AAA Membership

Having logged over a million miles each, it might come as a surprise to you that we've never had a AAA membership. Actually, it came as a surprise to us...we'd just never really thought about it. Yes, we'd seen the AAA signs at hotels everywhere and once we even traveled with a AAA travel agent but, still, we hadn't thought about membership for ourselves until last week.

We're planning a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee next month and, unlike most of our trips, it's going to involve driving. Usually we fly point to point but, because of incredibly cheaper airfare for flights into Nashville rather than Knoxville, we're flying and then grabbing a rental car to head across Tennessee. (It pays to shop and compare airports; flight prices can be drastically different. Because Southwest Airlines flies into Nashville, other carriers match their low fares so there are good deals to be grabbed.)

Anyway, with all that cross-state driving in the winter, we thought that maybe now was the time to invest in a membership so we bought one online. While all the towing and car coverage (bringing gas, changing tires, unlocking the car, etc.) are neat, the best feature was one that we just used today: the AAA office itself. We went in to the Austin office to pick up AAA books and maps which are free with membership (we had online access to the books but just didn't feel like printing out reams of info.) While we were there, we wound up upgrading our membership a notch so now international guidebooks (which turned out to be Frommer's and Rick Steves!) are free, too...what a deal!

The staff was very nice and helpful, too. We just hope they realize what they've started...with a trip a month, they're going to be seeing a lot of us!

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