AAA CEO Gene Boehm: Record holiday travel 'not impacted necessarily by affordability'

Joe Kernen (Anchor) 00:00.270

triple A projects more than a hundred and twenty two million americans will hit the road this holiday season roughly two percent increase from last year join us now is jean bain triple as president and CEO good morning it's good to see you is is that a big game this year or or

Joe Kernen (Anchor) 00:17.830

is that a affordability affected gain gene

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 00:22.430

oh we're seeing records every year coming out of the pandemic so we've seen year after year an increase in travel people want to be with their loved ones you know i'm excited i'm in chicago excited to spend time with my mom and dad celebrating christmas eve tonight so whether

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 00:37.350

it's traveling to go home or traveling to new destinations we think that's a good gain and not impacted necessarily by affordability

Joe Kernen (Anchor) 00:47.470

people are is it at the expense of the airlines would would would you say are more people driving at this point

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 00:55.590

oh absolutely you know eighty nine percent of everyone that's traveling over the holidays is going to hit the road and you know one of the things that i think is helping that is low gas prices so gas prices are at two eighty five a gallon on average you know that's down from

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 01:13.630

three oh four a year ago so people are hitting the road and you know this is a time for us where we really shine we're out there to help people get where they're going we've been doing that for a hundred and twenty three years and actually over the holidays will rescue over

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 01:26.830

eight hundred sixty thousand people on the side of the road i

Joe Kernen (Anchor) 01:31.650

my parents always had a triple A card i've never i wish i had gotten one i never know

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 01:36.210

what to do

Joe Kernen (Anchor) 01:38.400

it takes how long does it take what's the average time it takes if you're out on on the highway you get a flat tire which you know i've had to i change it myself but if there's a lot of luggage back there you need triple A how long what what's the average

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 01:52.510

we we target to get to our members within forty five minutes or less and that varies you know especially when you're seeing large traffic like we expect to see over the holidays with a hundred and nine million people traveling but you know this is this is our time to really

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 02:08.950

shine and you know the important piece of this and i love the clip you're showing there is if you see one of these tow trucks or any emergency vehicles on the slide of the road please slow down and move over unfortunately we've seen fourteen roads heroes killed this year in the

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 02:25.030

line of duty so that's the most important safety advice i can give to everyone out there that's traveling over the holidays do you

Joe Kernen (Anchor) 02:33.670

do you recommend gene i i ride on the rim till i get to an exit i i'm so scared to pull over on a with those those semis flying by that i i need a new rim half the time or the the tire so chewed up that you're not plugging that thing what what is it i mean did you just pull over

Joe Kernen (Anchor) 02:52.270

and take your chances or get as far off the shoulder as you can

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 02:56.070

you know get as far off the shoulders you can if you have ride flat tires get off of the the road just get to the safeties place as possible and then give us a call so we can get out there and rescue you

Joe Kernen (Anchor) 03:09.870

after is this the busiest time or is july fourth when is the busiest time

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 03:15.150

for for on the road holidays are really busy people are looking forward to traveling you know we're seeing record levels of travel not just on the road but we're going to crack eight million people traveling in through the air this is the first time we've seen that level of

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 03:32.070

travel and so you know for those that are going to the airport pack your patients get to the airport two hours before you know you that'll help you with your anxiety if you see some traffic congestion getting into the airport or see longer TSA lines and boy speaking of the TSA i

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 03:49.190

just want to do a shout out to them i really appreciate how hard they work to keep everyone safe during this busy holiday travel season

Joe Kernen (Anchor) 03:59.870

i get nostalgic gene thinking about triptychs and i get it is when's the last time someone came in there and got got one of those things that we used to go page by page when i was a kid and it it would be in green the guys the the triple A people would would show you exactly how

Joe Kernen (Anchor) 04:15.950

you had to go we don't need those anymore we know where

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 04:19.190

cops are we still need them and we still offer them you know we we started offering that in nineteen thirty and you know now it's all digital and so it's even better we can highlight oh it's digital we're triple A members can save money on their journey but you know the most

Gene Boehm (President and CEO) 04:34.110

important piece of this is people are traveling is to enjoy the journey we're here for our sixty five million members to make sure they're safe make sure they get the best value and have a great experience while they're traveling