San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Cashing in on discounts for travel, meals, museums
One of the perks of turning 65: All the discounts that start coming your way.
Most of these discounts are available from restaurants, forms of public transportation and even grocery stores. In many cases, you don’t even have to show your ID — though, of course, if someone asks to see it, you don’t actually look your age.
The discounts are designed to make life easier for those who may have retired from gainful employment and therefore are living on fixed incomes.
Perhaps the best way to unlock these discounts is to join AARP, the national organization that strives to help older adults improve the quality of their lives as they age. AARP membership includes literally hundreds of discounts, as well as a host of other benefits and perks.
Members can join any time and start enjoying benefits at age 50, which is roughly 1215 years earlier than other opportunities. AARP members gain access to these discounts simply by flashing their membership card.
Victoria Borton, AARP’s vice president of lifestyle products and services, said the organization looks to broker discounts for members in categories it knows are important to those members. Sometimes these discounts are evergreen; other times they might be associated with a particular holiday.
“In the past, we’ve had 1800FLOWERS offer discounts for AARP members in conjunction with Mother’s Day,” she explained. “It’s important for us to have discounts in the categories people need and want.”
Most AARP discounts apply to national chains — many of which have outposts here in the Bay Area.
Among them: Discounts on housebranded products at Walgreens, 15 percent off at Denny’s, savings at Exxon/ Mobil gas stations, reduced rates for phone and/or cable service with AT&T and lower monthly payments for home security service from SimpliSafe.
As Borton explained, AARP also has negotiated discounts with numerous travel companies such as airlines, cruise lines and hotels.
“As more and more [older adults] are getting vaccinated against COVID19, we’re seeing huge interest in this area and are happy to offer discounts that can help,” said Borton, who is based at AARP headquarters outside Washington, D.C.
Here in the Bay Area, older adults can find discounts at grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters and many publicfacing attractions around the region.
The California Academy of Sciences, for instance, offers a senior discount for daytime admission and memberships. Though pricing varies, the