AARP has featured travel discounts as a member benefit for many years, and those travel deals remain an ongoing focus. Most longstanding deals carry over each year, with only minor changes, so there are few surprises this year.
Hotel. The AARP hotel discount program focus is now on modest discounts at four large multinational hotel brand “families” plus Best Western and two independent brands:– Choice Hotels: Up to 10% discount at most Ascend, Cambria, Clarion, Comfort, EconoLodge, MainStay, Quality, Rodeway, Sleep Inn, and Suburban units.
— Hilton Hotels: Up to 10% discount at most Conrad, Curio, DoubleTree, Embassy Suites, Garden Inn, Grand Vacations, Hampton, Hilton, Homewood, Home2, Tru, and Waldorf Astoria units.
— Radisson: Ten percent discount at Blu, Collection, Country Inn, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson, and Red.
— Wyndham: Ten percent discount at most Baymont, Days Inn, Dazzler, Dolce, Esplendor, Hawthorn Suites, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, La Quinta, Microtel, Ramada, Super 8, Trademark, Travelodge, Tryp, Wingate, and Wyndham units. Plus, TripBeat vacation rentals, “up to” 25%.– Best Western: Five percent to 15% discount at most locations, covering 10 BW sub-brands.
— Independent: Extra Holidays 20% discount; Motel 6, 10% discount; and Studio 6, 10% discount.
Airline. For years, the only useful AARP airline deal has been for round-trips on British Airways, renewed again for 2021: discounts remain at $65 in economy and in premium economy; $200 in business class. Although $65 isn’t a big discount, it applies to any economy fare, including the lowest flash sale fares, and $200 off a flash-sale business class fare can be attractive if you’re trying to escape the cattle car.
Rental Car. AARP continues to offer various discounts on rental cars, mainly from the Avis family. On Avis and Budget rentals, members receive discounts of 10 to 30%, a no-fee additional driver, discounted GPS at $6.99/day, a $5,000 collision damage liability cap, and slightly above average liability coverage. The deal at Payless is a 5% discount and a no-fee extra driver. AARP also offers Zipcar annual membership at a 43% discount plus a $40 credit.
Other. AARP continues to offer various percent-off, dollars-off, and other promotions on tour packages and cruises with Collette, Grand European, and Vacations by Rail. It also provides up to 20% off Medjet enrollment and 12% discounts at Park Ride Fly airport hotels.
You can book AARP deals through the AARP website, at aarp.org/benefits-discounts, where you link through to special AARP pages on each supplier’s website. You retain whatever loyalty program benefits you’re due for booking “direct.”
Overall, my take on AARP discounts remains as it has been. You can often do better with special promotions, flash sales, opaque deals, and such. But when you can’t find anything better, use an AARP deal as a reliable fall-back position.
— With hotels, these days booking direct gives some important benefits, but you don’t have to give up the AARP discount when you book direct: Most chain websites show AARP rates.
— Use the BA discount when BA offers a competitive fare and schedule. It’s especially useful when you can knock $200 off a highly reduced business class fare. Although BA’s current business class product lags its big competitors, you can get the deal on an American flight code-shared as BA.
— The parking discount lets you knock a few bucks off of a service you’d probably buy at the regular price, anyway. Ditto the membership discounts on Medjet.
— The tour/cruise discounts are good when the package you’re considering is a competitive deal without the discount, which then becomes pure gravy.
You don’t have to belong to AARP to get some of the deals it features: Many are available through other sources, including individual company loyalty programs, AAA and other large organizations, and senior discounts that don’t require any membership. But at the current “flash sale” rate of $9 per year on a five-year term, AARP is an easy way to get a useful range of deals.
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