Does Aaa Book Your Flight For Free?
Is booking your flight with AAA free?
AAA stands for American Automobile Association, while it is now a federation of motor clubs across North America. It must offer its members emergency towing services, travel information, insurance services, and many other services. However, does
AAA provides a free flight booking service.
The short answer is no; however, let's go through the details of how AAA operates before answering the question. However, as a part of the traveling services, AAA does provide members with trip planning and flight schedules for a nominal fee.
AAA's Travel Agency Services
For its valued members, AAA offers complete travel agency services through its website or local offices. The services that travel agents can offer to AAA members include assistance in booking flights, lodgings, car rentals, cruises, package holidays, train tickets, and many more. They are also able to get special member-only offers as well as enjoy the comfort of their favorite products.
However, it has to be noted that although the travel planning services offered by the company are free for members, there is a charge for the actual services, such as flight bookings, lodgings, etc. These fees assist in covering expenses of booking and actual coordination of the travel plans by AAA on the member's behalf.
While traveling for domestic flights from the USA, the AAA levies a minimal ticketing service fee of about $25-$30 per passenger. It is free for simple domestic hotel bookings, while for other bookings, it costs a few dollars, not more than $10. The actual charges are more specific but are clearly stated before a client hires the service.
Domestic and regional flight bookings attract lower service fees as compared to international flight bookings because the latter involves additional costs and challenges in organizing an overseas trip. The cost range is normally in the region of $ 50 per ticket, though this may vary depending on the complexity of the show.
Does It Mean That AAA Members Receive Cheaper Airfare?
Although AAA does not arrange flights where the exercise is free, members can, however, access special offers which AAA offers on both local and intercontinental flights via the AAA Travel Store. The discounts give a form of rebate on the fares that members are likely to pay for the airfare.
Discounts in the form of flights or airfare can be obtained by using AAA online booking or via an AAA travel agent on the phone. They come courtesy of special agreements and deals that AAA has with certain key airline providers.
It depends on the route and the airline; the range of the given discounts can change within time, yet on average it can reach $20-$50 per flight leg. It means the total roundtrip booking can save almost $100 in airfare, which can cover the service fees AAA charges. Coupons are also given on vacations, flights, accommodations, car rentals, cruises, and virtually anything that one might need during travel.
For the actual airfare, does the AAA member need to buy the tickets through your AAA to enjoy the discount on the ticket price? Yes, I agree but AAA also provides airline affinity credit cards with a rewards program that members can use to book directly with the airline, and though the savings may not be as high as those offered by the consolidators, members do receive some level of discount. AAA Visa card and AAA Mastercard enable members to earn points for every spent dollar, particularly on airfare, which they can use to get statement credits in part payment for the fares.
The use of alternatives to books as a means to avoid paying a lot of money to conduct flights.
Although not free, AAA provides flight bookings with discounts and service fees, which can be a worthy option depending on the particular journey. However, if the traveler does not want to get involved in any form of booking fees, there are a few other tricks up the travelers™ sleeves.
Some of the biggest OTAs in the world, including Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, enable travelers to self-book flights without these extra charges. The majority of OTAs also have vouchers with these options to ensure customers get the best deals on airplane tickets. Airline ticket companies and search engines such as Kayak and Google Flights also help the user to search fares between different airlines and routes to determine the most affordable fare.
Worse still, direct bookings with the airline's website or through its application also eliminate the intermediary and allow the airline to retain every cent of the fare. Most of the leading airlines today also provide their customers with loyalty rewards programs that enable them to gather miles, points, or credits from the flights that can then be used to offset charges from future bookings.
The Bottom Line
Although this is very advantageous to anyone trying to coordinate travel, AAA does not offer a free flight booking service to its members. AAA or an AAA travel agent can also arrange a flight for $25-$50+ per ticket.
However, beneficiaries of AAA membership can make use of the various discounts that are offered to them by the various airlines, and the average saving that is made is between $20 and $50 per flight leg. After adding up the flight discounts and other offers on hotels, car rentals, and packaged services, AAA members can easily offset the nominal service charges that come with a full vacation booking.
For such travelers who are looking strictly for the cheapest fares without any other considerations such as service delivery, then direct bookings with an airline or cheap online travel agency websites will eliminate all intermediary charges. However, for those people who prefer to rely on the support of some big company and who do not want to spend time searching for the best offers for vacations, small service charges are worth all the trouble.