Originally Posted by
squeakr
If you join it under 50 you get what's called an associate membership. But only one person have a couple needs to be over 50 to join.
There's also confusion hear about joining AARP versus an AARP rate. We've never been asked to show age proof or AARP cards one claiming this rate, but I'm guessing at some very uptight hotels my question you if you look under 40 and produce an AARP rate. No personal experience, but just guessing that it might occasionally happen.
You're exactly right. Evidently AARP was sued for age discrimination and lost, so they have the associate membership now. And the membership covers a +1.
As for using it... I put the AARP number into the Honors system once and it saved to my account. It does validate something; perhaps not the whole number, but at least the number of digits.
I've never been asked for the card when I've stayed but always have it handy just in case.
The rates are rather good. Similar to the prepaid rates, but you don't need to prepay. Most have a 24 or 48 hour cancel, and yes I'm guilty of making multiple reservations before I decide which to keep. I haven't checked MVP rates for a while, but AARP was similar (less than $5 difference) last I checked.
And OT, but since we're talking about AARP. They do have a nice discount with BA, if you happen to fly them.