Member Benefits: March/April 2010
IF YOU'RE GOING...
- Protect your home from the unexpected
- Savings
- Milestones
- Postcard
- Travel Planner
- News Flash
- Your Car
- Spotlight
Protect your home from the unexpected
Buying and maintaining a home can be a monster undertaking, but you don't need to stand alone when big problems are afoot. A home insurance policy from AAA provides up to 150 percent of your home's value to help you rebuild after a catastrophic loss. We even give you up to $3,000 in emergency funds for expenses if you're forced out by a flood—something no other insurer offers. Don't own? No problem. We have policies for renters and rental properties, too. Either way, when you're covered by AAA, you'll find yourself—and your home—on solid footing.
This March, get a home insurance quote from AAA and we'll plant a tree in your honor. Visit AAA.com/homes.
SAVINGS
Let TurboTax file your return
Here comes another April 15, with one of the only two things in life that are certain. But doing your taxes doesn't have to be stressful—not if you use TurboTax. AAA members save 25 percent on Intuit's online federal tax packages and 15 percent on all download products. Offer does not apply to CD products. For more information, visit www.csaa.com.
For other exclusive member savings, visit AAA.com/discounts.
MILESTONES
Getting on track: A rail travel timetable
1825
England's Stockton & Darlington Railway starts the first passenger railroad service using steam-powered trains.
1865
Geo. Pullman builds the first fancy U.S. sleeping car, upgrading BYOB (bring your own blanket) services.
1869
Golden spikes at Promontory Summit, Utah, complete the transcontinental railroad across the United States.
1964
Japan's "bullet train," the Shinkansen, rushes riders between Tokyo and Osaka at speeds up to 130 mph.
2009
Businessman Warren Buffett invests $44 billion in Burlington Northern Santa Fe, raising hope for a new golden age of railroads. —Megan Mansell Williams
AAA members save 10 percent on Amtrak passenger fares with three-day advance reservation. For more information, call (800) 872-7245 or visit AAA.com/discounts.
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee has noted 890 sites around the globe "considered to be of outstanding value to humanity." AAA Travel is a member of the World Heritage Alliance for Sustainable Tourism, and Postcard will highlight a different site in each issue.
Forget King Tut and camels. The pyramid at Chichén Itzá is plenty awesome, a marvel of Maya architecture built around the year 1000, rising nearly 100 feet above the jungles of Yucatán in southeastern Mexico. Known as El Castillo (The Castle), it draws huge crowds at the spring and autumn equinoxes, when the afternoon sun sends seven triangular shadows slithering down to join a giant serpent's head at the bottom, like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie.
Stand at its base and you'll see why Chichén Itzá is considered one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. The ruins of the once great city stretch over six square miles and include platforms, temples, carved pillars, a sacred cenote (waterhole) almost 200 feet across, and a vast ball court where, some archaeologists suspect, the captain of the losing team was ritually decapitated. (Perhaps sore loser comes from Maya times.) Visitors can also explore an observatory in which early astronomers charted the stars, moon, and planets to create astonishingly accurate calendars. One of these, the Long Count, predicts the end of our era on December 21, 2012. After that, who knows? Better visit Chichén before it's too late.
The seven-day AAA Sojourns Yucatán Eco Adventure tour includes a visit to Chichén Itzá. For details, call (888) 586-4222 or visit AAA.com/sojourns.
March
SAVE Through April 1, book a three-night/five-day Disneyland Resort package through AAA and receive two extra nights free.
PLAN AHEAD Discover geysers and hot springs on our six-day Iceland Summer package departing July 7.
DON'T FORGET Travel insurance from AAA protects your cruise or tour package against unforeseen setbacks such as illness.
April
SAVE Through April 30, book a select Royal Caribbean cruise through AAA and receive a complimentary spa treatment.
PLAN AHEAD Reserve now for our 10-day America's National Parks tour including visits to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Mount Rushmore (August 11–20).
DON'T FORGET Hertz provides AAA members with free use of one child safety seat for every car rental. Reservations required. AAA.com/hertz.
Let AAA help you get where you're going safely and on budget. Call (888) 586-4222 or visit AAA.com/viago.
NEWS FLASH
Mobile alerts on member discounts and travel deals
Sign up for AAA mobile alerts to receive weekly text messages on travel deals, exclusive discounts from various partners such as T-Mobile and Banana Republic Factory Store, and fun things to do from VIA magazine. To sign up, visit AAA.com/txtalerts.
YOUR CAR
Safety is no accident
By Eric Smillie
You'd think an idea like the seat belt would take hold quickly, but it was 79 years from the first patent for one in 1885 to the device's adoption by U.S. carmakers. Passenger protection has since accelerated, thanks in part to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which in 2009 celebrated 50 years of safety studies. (It is partially funded by AAA.) David Zuby, the institute's senior vice president for vehicle research, gave us a crash course on its work.
Q What effect do your safety tests have on manufacturers and the public?
A The tests help consumers choose safe vehicles and give carmakers a standard for competition.
Q How has attention to auto safety changed over the last five decades?
A For a lot of the last century the industry thought that safety didn't sell. Since the 1980s, the opposite has proved true. Carmakers now add safety features in advance of the law and they invent new features on their own.
Q What are you studying now?
A Whiplash, collisions with poles and trees, and side impacts—in which a large vehicle's front end can do a lot of harm to passengers of smaller cars.
Q What new features can we expect?
A More side air bags and better headrests. And crash avoidance tools that warn of objects ahead and steer around them automatically. Car computers may even begin to communicate with other cars to avoid hitting them.
A safe car helps you survive a crash—and AAA auto insurance gets you going again. For details, call (800) 922-8228 or visit AAA.com/viainsure.
SPOTLIGHT
Battery service and recycling
Think your car battery might need to be replaced? If you have trouble starting your car or recently needed a jump start, you may be right. Contact AAA and we'll send a technician to test the car's electrical system and determine the condition of the battery. If it does need replacing, you can buy a new battery on the spot, have it installed, and enjoy a member discount of $25 along with a three-year free-replacement warranty. And don't worry about the old battery—we'll recycle it. Call (800) 222-4357 or visit AAA.com/battery.
This article was first published in March 2010. Some facts may have aged gracelessly. Please call ahead to verify information.
