I Got to Use My AAA Membership Today

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I went shopping after work in St Louis Park, MN, which has a store called Opitz. It’s all great designer stuff marked down to just barely within my price range. Sometimes I find awesome things, and today I got a dark purple corduroy Ralph Lauren jacket for fall for $11. Oh, happiness! I get into my car! It doesn’t start!

Now, I’m getting married in 17 days. I can’t afford my car not starting. And it’s not even that it’s sputtering or starting and dying, it’s making not a bit of noise as it clicks all the way to the right. To my mind, my car is shot and I am screwed. I call my fiance. He says, “Oh, no! Oh, no! Wait, don’t you have AAA?”

Yes, I do. I call AAA and they promise a service vehicle in the next 45 minutes. And she says cheerfully, “Sounds like you’ll need a tow!” Ha ha! Yes, it does!

So then I call my boss and sort of hyperventilate at her about how I’m going to have to be late tomorrow because I work at 6:30 in the morning and buses in the Minneapolis metro don’t really get into full swing until about 7am. She’s cool, but I’m freaking out a bit. I’m hoping it won’t cost more than $500 to fix. Because that’s All I Have. Anything more and no wedding. I contemplate calling my mom, but she’s the only person I know whose mind goes further to worst case scenario than mine, so I decide to wait until later when I know the damage so I can sob at her.

The AAA guy arrives. It was only 15 minutes after I’d gotten off the phone, so that’s something. It was really hot today so I’m sure I looked red and crazed, but he was really nice. I open the hood and show him how it makes no noise. He says, “Your headlights are nice and bright so the battery is working. That’s bad.” Oh, god, no wedding.

He gets in the front seat of the car and says that he might have a few tricks. I am buoyed a bit by his confidence. Then he says, “I don’t know if I should tell you this.”

“What, what???”

“You’re going to be embarrassed.”

“Wait, what?”

“It’s in reverse,” he says, shifts it to park, and starts the car.

So my $55 a year for AAA was worth every penny for this year. I could have hugged that AAA guy. And, phew, I get to get married after all!

2

I’ve used AAA several times. At least three times for mechanical (air shocks died, computer died, and battery died)(And for two of those, I got the same tow driver. He didn’t remember me, though.), maybe more that I’m forgetting.
Twice I called them to pop the lock. Once when my kid was inside, and once when my car was in my own garage. That one was a little embarrassing.

I’m glad you had a simple solution!

3

The last time I used my AAA card, I got 30% off the cost of my glasses and prescription sunglasses. :smiley: I’m glad your problem ended up being nothing major.

4

I once was visiting the Tuzigoot Ruins out in the middle of nowhere Arizona, when I discovered I accidentally locked the keys inside the rental car. No cel coverage, no pay phone, we had to ask the park ranger to use the only land line to call AAA.

The locksmith was there to let us in in less than 30 minutes. I can’t think of a single service or organization I’ve personally encountered that had better or more reliable customer service. Amazing.

5

Oh my. How embarassing!!!

We’re loyal AAA members, since they saved our marriage. Harken back to the early 1980s. We’re on our honeymoon at a beach house in NC. Last day there, we’re loading up the back of the car (hatchback, Dodge Omni). I had the hatch up rooting for something, and grabbed the windex / paper towels sitting there so I could clean the windshield - some salt buildup or something.

As I slammed the hatch, I noticed I had set my keys down when I grabbed the Windex.

The doors were locked.

Had to walk a half mile to the nearest public phone, but AAA was there within the hour.

Then there was the time 3 years ago. We were visiting Niagara Falls (Canadian side) with a group off friends. Went to a restaurant a few miles away from the hotel. Pulled into the parking lot. And the car died. Making lots of funny chirping noises like every chime the thing could make, was trying to sound. And clicking. We called AAA - and lo and behold, they have a reciprocity deal with CAA. Half an hour later, the CAA truck arrived. I took off running toward the front of the large parking lot, fearing they’d decide we weren’t there, but it turns out the driver was there to help another customer. Another American Dodge Caravan, dead in the same parking lot (was there some sort of anti-Dodge field in effect?).

We were lucky - in our case it was corrosion on the battery cables, and the guy was able to jury-rig stuff to get us running again (this was Saturday night - not likely we’d get repairs done the next day!). The other family was not so lucky.

We won’t be cancelling our membership any time soon! In fact we’re considering a road trip next summer (thousands of miles) and will be upgrading to the version with better towing!

It’s also come in useful on some Girl Scout trips. One mom is notorious for locking her keys in her car, usually several hundred miles away. She’s done this twice now. First time, AAA got there. Second time was in a national park, no cell reception, the AAA person on the phone couldn’t even figure out where we were, so god only knows when (or if) they’d have arrived; that was the closest they’ve come to letting us down. Another mom solved the problem that time with a coat hanger helpfully provided by a park employee.

6

AAA is the best service ever. I have the Gold plan and they have saved me plenty of times including a free 93 mile tow in the middle of the night with me sleeping in the flatbed trailer cab. They also give discounts all over the place if you ask. My prescription drug insurance recently got screwed up and I was going to have to pay an insane amount of money when the clerk asked if I had AAA. The prescriptions were half off. Restaurants and other businesses also offer AAA discounts. I have no idea why but it is available all over the place.

7

Similar situation here.

It was just a BAD NIGHT for my mother driving home from a college football game. She’s been paranoid of hitting deer for years. SHE ACTUALLY HITS ONE! So the wind shield is in rough shape but driveable. So we stop at the gas station to gas up and for everyone to get their wits about them.

…she fills the car up with Diesel. :eek:

Wow. So now we’re 55 miles outside of town, not even NEAR another city. So we call AAA. Some guy who lived about 30 miles in the other direction was returning from a job and picked us up in 30 minutes. So at 10:30 when he should be home with his family he drove us the full 55 miles in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION to the wrecking yard, dropped the car off, then drove us HOME. We tipped him a $20, it was almost MIDNIGHT and he still had 80 miles to drive home.

AAA is exceeded only by my Costco membership as things I couldn’t do without.

8

Not knowing how to start doesn’t bode well for your wedding night.

9

Just think, if the car was a manual transmission, you wouldn’t have had that embarrassing problem :wink:
…you’d probably have a different embarrasing problem…

10

Hooray! I admit, when I read the OP’s title, I thought, that might not be a good thing. Glad it turned out well.

I heart AAA. Next week I’m headed to meet our insurance agent to sign some papers switching our home and auto insurance to them. AAA’s going to save me just shy of $1000 dollars a year, all told. Our agent told my husband that we’d need to join AAA to make the switch, and SpouseO was all, “we already are members.”

Yay AAA.

11

I love AAA. I have had to use them a few times, like when I managed to lock every single one of my spare keys in my car, at the same time, during a massive blizzard. I was also locked out of my house. Because of the weather, they were very busy and I was told it could take 2 or more hours. It took about 30 minutes and I was in my car about 5 minutes after that.

I finally convinced my ex-boyfriend to get AAA after years of working in RI and living in western MA. It paid off for him too when his transmission died right next to his work. He got towed all the way back to western MA and I don’t think it cost him anything.

If I ever get another car, AAA will be the first thing I buy for it.

12

Maybe her partner likes it “in reverse”, if you know what I’m saying, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

I’m not sure what I’m saying.

Anyhoo, it sounds like one of those case where embarrassment is totally outweighed by a flood of relief! I have AAA and haven’t had to use it yet but I know I will be very happy to have it when I need to.

13

Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks to bring another copy of my car key with me on long trips and give it to someone else who’s with me. The chances that we’ll both lock our keys in the car at the same time are fairly slim.

14

He’s probably been hugged before and will be hugged again. :slight_smile: I’m glad you had a happy ending, and wish you the best for your upcoming marriage.

I love AAA. I’ve been a member for as long as I’ve been driving. Here in California they have a cool service. AAA, for free, makes a plastic version of your car key. It’s about the size of a credit card. It won’t work in the engine, but it opens the door just dandy. I’ve used mine a couple of times, and the only time it’s failed is when I left my pants (and wallet) in the locked car. Whoops. :o

15

I never have anyone with me. :frowning:

16

Huh? Membership is not tied to a specific car. If you’re a member, the coverage should work for any car you’re driving. In fact you don’t even have to be the driver of the car that’s not working.

As to the post about AAA insurance for auto and home, the auto part is fine, but watch out as the home rates grow each year for you.

17

Hell, all you have to do is be present when the fix-it person shows up and takes the card info. They don’t care. You can even use it for strangers if you want to. I have done it several times for people like party guests.

18

I’m sorry gigi, but on the upside you might meet a nice tow truck driver.

19

I don’t have a car. I rarely drive any more. I don’t leave the house much at all actually, except to go to physical therapy and then I either walk or my sister drives me. When I go to MA, I take a bus and while visiting, I may drive my best friend’s car but he has his own AAA.

Actually, I don’t think I have driven at all since early June and before that it was, I think, April.
I did have a stranger use his AAA (gold or platinum or plus - whatever the highest level is) for me once when my car broke down on Route 20 in MA (a very dangerous road). I was extremely grateful for that stranger. I also got my own AAA after that and I always had it until I stopped driving.
iamthewalrus(:3=: When I locked all my spares in the car, I actually didn’t. There was one in my apartment with my roommate but the house was locked and she was sleeping. No amount of banging or yelling would wake her up when she was sleeping and drunk. As for in the car, there was one in the ignition, one in my coat pocket (I got hot while shoveling so took it off), one in the glove compartment (someone had borrowed it and just gave it back and I put it there because I was lazy) and the last one was in my book bag. All I wanted to do was shovel out my parking spot and managed to lock all but one of my keys in the car. At one point, all those keys were assigned to other people who might drive my car (my mom, sister, best friend, etc.) but somehow, I got them all back around the same time and they all stayed in the car until that snowstorm.

20

Thanks for all the replies and good AAA stories. My boss had a good one- she called AAA because she couldn’t unlock her car on a frozen Minnesota morning. Turned out she was using the ignition key rather than the door key.

I also love that you get a 10% discount with an AAA membership at Target.com. I’ve used that several times, but this was the first time I got to use it for the reason I bought it.

On a bit of a downer note, when I went to start my car yesterday morning the Check Engine light came on. I took it to an imports place because my usual place can’t speak '89 Volvo. Some sort of coil needs replacement to the tune of $175. But y’know what? I got $175! I can afford it. So I still get to get married!

And to all those speculating on the wedding night, well, let’s just say my '79 Volvo has a very skilled mechanic. (Ewwww, I just grossed myself out.)