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I researched flight hotel and car rental for a very special anniversary "dream" trip with my husband who has miraculously survived 4th stage cancer.

We trusted AAA to book the trip based on our planned itinerary rather than booking online with different companies to minimize spreading our sensitive credit card info around online.

Once we met with the agent we learned later, after agreeing to use their service that AAA books ONLINE with third parties and provides sensitive customer credit card information to them.

We wanted to prepay for our trip months in advance so that so that

we could pay off the credit card balance and enjoy our trip debt free.

The AAA agent lied at the time of booking - she told us that the car rental and flight were paid for and did say that the hotel would not agree to prepayment until one month before our arrival. She sent us off with printouts of our reservations and we didn't think to question her.

When the lodging didn't charge our card on time I became concerned and went down to the AAA office to ask if they had any confirmation from the hotel - The AAA staff were unspeakably rude and acted like I was intruding on their time by asking about a confirmation.

We are one week away from departure and the AAA agent sent me an email stating that she had rebooked our car rental - yes, THE car that we we were told was paid for!!! I called to ask her why it wasn't prepaid as she promised and she then said that they don't do that.

THEN, she said, "well I DID get you a discount when I rebooked it."

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight....yeah, thanks for nothing. My original itinerary actually had better pricing as I used my AAA card to find best online pricing AND there was NO $70 agent fee, OR Useless travel insurance: there's an additional $110 bucks down the toilet.

We will NEVER AGAIN Rely on AAA for travel services.

As members, we've found that they do offer good discounts with participating businesses, but there is no reason to fist over your hard earned money to some numbskull sales rep when you can book a trip yourselves: working with AAA is like going out to dinner and finding out that you have to cook the steak yourself but you get to pay 3x the price of food for using the kitchen, AND you have to tip the wait staff.

Big waste of your money.

Research is your best friend - check individual pricing against package deals sometimes they are not always deals so you're better off cross checking different flights, hotels and car rentals.

Book in keeping with your likes: We like non-stop flights and are willing to pay a bit extra for the convenience of not having stop overs.

"Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me."

NEVER AGAIN

Reason of review: All of the above.

AAA Travel Cons: Pricing extreme, Multiple mistakes, Supervisors unavailable, Fees due to agent error, Agent lying.

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Guest

You could not be more wrong . Your advise is wrong on so many levels!

Guest

I am a Travel Agent with AAA in another state and it broke my heart to read what you and your husband went through. After going through what must be a frightening experience and only wanting to relax and enjoy a nice vacation that you worked hard to get I'm sure the last thing you wanted to do was worry about your finances and if your hotel and car rental was booked.

As an agent our jobs are to take the worry and stress away from you, to do the research to do the planning and come up with the best plan for your vacation to make it worry free and easy so you can relax and unwind. We do use contracted vendors for some of our vacation packages as we are a entity that sells travel and are not an owner of property, air, rentals or a cruise line, however with that being said, we contract discounts for members with these companies such as Hertz, Best Western and Holland American to give you the best pricing. The agent you worked with did not do the package correctly because you can book a package and pay 100% of it to include car and hotel, the only thing you would be responsible for upon pick up would be taxes on the vehicle as they are not included and any resort fees at the hotel if applicable.

I'm sorry I cannot help you as my AAA is a different AAA and owned by a different company however here is what you can do for a resolution.

Instead of contacting the office that employee works at, contact the corporate office. Ask to speak with the Director of travel or ask for their email for feed back. All AAA members receive a survey when they travel, complete this and let AAA know what happened, they do take the time to look at member feed back and they take this very seriously. We want our members to be happy and to come back to us time and time again.

I hope you will give or travel services another chance and I hope your husband is doing well.

Dana

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1118911

Dear Dana,

Thank you, for being concerned enough to write. It is very much appreciated and I will certainly share this with my husband.

Unfortunately, the experience we were subjected to is not rare among AAA employees.

More often than not, the customer is not their first consideration rather, a legitimate credit card batch, IS.

You are the exception to this dismal state of affairs. Perhaps you'll open your own booking agency as you seem to have integrity that is lacking in the AAA community.

We made the best of our trip although we discovered that we could have booked it entirely through prepaid credit cards rather than paying agent fees for uninvestigated (unvetted) accommodations. Our cabin was outfitted with beds that had their original mattresses = incredibly uncomfortable with lumpy hard spots, assuring no more than an hour of sleep per night, the floor had old varathane that was peeling and stuck to our feet - disgusting!

We were there a week and paid in full and in advance for this nightmare. NEVER AGAIN!

I can research and pay for our next trip with out paying an extra agent fee or travel insurance - both rip-offs, AND get MUCH better accommodations.

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