$2500! Not a great deal even for a 20 year old. What gives?

I doubt that it's intended to be a "bargain".

MTV

Its a prestige membership for the wine tasters.
WW

NRA is only $1000. Hmmm

Sounds like it's aimed at those that are bad at math. I hope they figure gas needs with a little more discretion. It reminds me of the time share thing, where you pay for all the rest of your vacations up front

It promotes safety, as you have to live a long, long time for it to pencil out.

I know we had this conversation once before but I cancelled my AOPA because I was sick and tired of them calling me weekly wanting money. Not all of us that fly have money laying around to give away especially these days. I realize what they do and it takes money but wow.

Avid,

I don't know what you did to get them to "call you" several times a week. I've been a member for over 30 years, and they've NEVER called me. Now, about once a month, I get an email from the Safety Foundation, with some new safety related program (free). If I have time, I generally go through them. Some are pretty good.

But, I'm amazed when folks say they are bombarded with solicitations from AOPA. I'm not.

Maybe they just realize after all these years that I'm not going to send them any money....

MTV

They don't bug me either. I checked the Scottish box on the questionaire. The NRA is the one that gave me a rash, they sent me all my dues back in solicitations so I cancelled. I'm planning on winning the Skylane that AOPA is giving away this year, that's my dream plane.

Avid,

The calls might be connected to the first letter of your last name? Surveys, renewal notices and other solicitations seem to be on a different schedule, some get the surveys, some never do. Email solicitation was heavy at times. Don't even want to know what people get these days with the constant battle against user fees. In 6 years I was called maybe a total of 8 times, mostly for renewal and solicitation of ASF Cards, which we bought twice, together with donations to the Aviation Safety Foundation.

The last years membership came for $25.00 (reduced price, because I had failed to renew in time) as a result of a followup call from them.

With the raise in dues and the AvWeb Salary debacle + the Wine club, VIP Memberships + reduced own flying activity I decided not to to continue.
ASF Material is interesting and I liked the online courses and quizzes, as well as the sometimes entertaining forum which allowed promos.

Calls were stopped after a friendly conversation with Zach at Membership Services, getting the mailings to stop took a lot longer (up to 8 final notices for renewal per year, within 6 months of membership expiration and countless other mailings) but once off the list, you're off the list.

I think the recent FAA shutdown is a big move towards user fees, hence I prefer to wait what's left to play with, after our politicians are done deciding how much money we should all spend on AvGas and other luxury items.

If an online only membership was actively promoted, I'd probably join up again.

--jj

AOPA does have an online only membership, at least all you get is e-information. Most of my students go this route now. No print magazine, and if you put them on auto renewal, the only solicitations you get are a notice that they're about to auto renew you, and a notice that they just did.

Pretty simple, actually.

MTV

When I renewed my AOPA membership, I asked about the online discount and didn't get anywhere at first. About the time my membership was going to cancel, I called up again and the kind lady told me that they use the "friends and family" rate for the online discount. If you want to go this route, you may need to ask for that.