Maybe a year and a half ago I bought a CAA membership. It was one of those things I always meant to get around to doing. I’d receive the sign-up brochure in the mail, look it over and think “Yeah, good idea. I should so do this.”, but I would set it aside and promptly forget about it. Then one night we ran out of gas, with both our kids in the car, on a very chilly, snowy, February evening. One of the first things I heard from my relatives was, “Why the heck don’t you have CAA?” The very next day I went home, looked up the website online and signed up.
A little while later I got my packet in the mail with all the membership info, and my shiny new CAA membership card. I stowed the card in my wallet in-case-of-emergency and didn’t think much more about it. The membership info packet said something about discounts, savings, and partner stores but that wasn’t what I had signed up for, so I didn’t pay it much attention.
I am going to blame my swiss cheese like mom brain for the fact that I didn’t look into this sooner. Much like putting off signing up in the first place, I put off sitting down and figuring out where I could shop and earn rewards with my CAA membership card. But this post is actually all about the deals, and about why YOU should be paying attention to the money you can save with CAA. So what changed?
Well I was invited to take part in this blog campaign, helping to promote how much you can save by using your CAA membership card, and once I opened up the CAA Rewards webpage and started browsing through I was pretty much instantly struck with remorse. Why had I not found the time to look at this sooner? I feel guilty thinking of how much money I could have saved since becoming a member.
The hotel and attraction discounts I expected. I was already well aware that many hotels offered a discounted rate for CAA Members, something I couldn’t help but notice over the years as I made hotel reservations. But I was floored by the many non-travel related partners on the list, and also by the number of online retailers. Places I shop at all the time. The Body Shop is on this list! The Body Shop! I order from them all the time! I should have been earning 8% back in CAA Dollars®. The Lego Store? Cineplex? Walmart, Tiger Direct, Dell, Starbucks?! What have I been missing out on?? My brain is exploding with all the possibilities!
The other exciting thing I noticed? Look at this map of local partners for Windsor, Ontario….
Not only does it list local stores (Lens Crafters, Payless Shoes, Kernels Popcorn, Roots, NAPA Auto Parts, Banana Republic, East Side Marios and MORE) but it also lists places in Michigan. My CAA card works stateside? I’ve been a member for well over a year and hadn’t clued into this yet. How could I not know this?
So my goal for this the remainder of this month is to thoroughly explore the CAA Rewards site, check out the special member only deals, and earn some CAA Dollars while doing a little shopping for back to school necessities (Um… Lego is a necessity, right?). I’ll report back in a few weeks and let you know how I made out. In the meantime go check it out for yourself!
So am I the only one that’s been living under a rock? Are you a CAA Member? Did you already know how much you could save with CAA Rewards, or is this a big revelation for you too?
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by CAA. As always my words and opinions are my own.
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