Joined AARP a year ago for a hotel discount. I hate the junk mail that seems designed to scare seniors but my husband seems to enjoy some of it. It probably does pay for itself. A friend uses it all the time for restaurant discounts.
Sirius only if it’s crazy cheap. We use Apple Music instead
I joined and left AARP. It was a tedious process to leave and they still send me junk mail. I don’t own a car so no Sirius for me!
Just cancelled Sirius and will debate going back at a later date. Good reminder we are paying for 2 cars (on auto pay) and appears our lack of savviness on auto billing and the high rates - subsidized the rest of you 
We mentally can’t join AARP yet - even though we are very qualified - only way they will get me right now is if they offer a discount at a salon to keep the gray out of my hair !
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I’ve never noticed any junk mail from AARP. I wonder why I don’t get any.
My biggest problem with SXM is that there is no actual folk music channel available in my car (there might be one on the app, I don’t know.) There’s The Coffeehouse which offers acoustic versions of rock songs and Outlaws where you have to wade through a heck of a lot of Willie and Waylon to get to Emmylou.
Thanks to all for all this insight into three totally unrelated questions!
I was out at a meeting all today, so I haven’t had a chance to read them all, but will consider all the wisdom here for each of these topics.
Thank you.
I would re-up with Sirius, but I CANNOT stand the commercials. The “Kars for Kids” commercial is bad enough, but when “adult” issues etc are also discussed, and your child asks you about the specific terminology, I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth it.
At the risk of getting a post hidden, one frequently played commercial on the CNN channel discussed “ED”. When queried by D (not of college applying age) as to the meaning, I said it referred to “Early Decision”! 
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Commercials on SXM? I guess I seldom hear them because I listen mostly to the music channels. If I’m listening to MSNBC and they start a commercial break I take a quick tour of my presets and by the time I get back the ads are over.
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That’s exactly what I do. I really enjoy Sirius radio.
I use the site ‘retailmenot’ for coupons…
Most definitely on the CNN and MSNBC channels (probably others). I wish there were a way to block them out, but no.
If you are listen on the app, you can forward through the commercials if you are behind on the listening, much like watching a show on the DVR. When listening on the app, I just pause what I am listening to for a few minutes, and then fast forward. If in the car, I station surf and then head back in a bit.
I love my XM and don’t even know what radio stations I have locally. I have had XM for 11 years now; it came with a trial when I bought this car.
We’ve had XM/Sirius since it came out and have it in five cars. When I rent a car, it has to have Sirius, so can’t live without it (bit dramatic, I know), but don’t like the local stations or fussing with my phone even though we have apple car play and all the fancy stuff in our car stereo systems…I found there’s actually a lot on there when I got out of the rut of listening to the same 3 channels like the ol’ days of FM radio. Been exploring lately and found a few new/different music and talk channels, also listen to Stern and comedy channels at times, depending what’s on. Don’t do news channels on the radio…guess I like my vehicle space to be conflict free.
I can take or leave radio in the car and seldom drive longer distances. I got Sirius for a year with a new car in 2017, then had a couple of six month extensions at ridiculously low prices, then I cancelled. Signed up again last summer for three months for free, no credit card required. Then a month or so ago got an email offering a year for $60, free upgrade to HD or something, and a free Echo Dot 4th gen. They were promoting playing Sirius via Alexa. Why not, I thought.
So now we have Dots in the living room and bedroom, which are fairly close to each other, but I no longer have to yell. One or the other will always hear me. And I listen to golden oldies while running errands.
What’s AAT?
I’ve kept my AARP membership though not sure why b/c I typically get better discounts through other options (typically military discounts, DH’s employer discounts etc). Sirius we also dumped after the constant hassle to get the $25 for 6 mo deal (and agree- NEVER give them your credit card, and their billing policies are horrible- they bill in arrears or something). As for coupons, please PM me for links to companies that give varying rebate rates. I’ve gotten, over the years, probably over $1500 and its free money!
As people mentioned, most of the AARP discounts can also be attained if you have AAA. There was/is a specific AARP benefit for those flying on British Airways [Member save $65 off World Traveller (economy) and World Traveller Plus (premium economy) or $200 off Club World (business class) fares]. This is down from $400 a few years ago. I have occasionally used it but I don’t think you can use it in all fare classes.
I have never found Sirius worth the fee, but I have an extensive Spotify playlist and listen to audible and podcasts as well when driving.
I have Sirius on all three vehicles. Despite being a persistent customer since 2008, I call every year and just say I want to cancel. They end up making an offer. I still say I want to cancel. Then they make another. By the second or third offer they usually have discounted the product 70% and I renew.
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An update: I’ve gone now nearly two weeks without Sirius, and I’m not going through any withdrawal symptoms at all.
Perhaps I’ll renew one day, but I am perfectly fine with listening to the local NPR station. I guess that’s what got me thinking: why would I pay to hear the national broadcast of NPR on Sirius when I get the local station for free (or perhaps a voluntary donation).
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We have Sirius because I live in a black hole of decent radio stations. If you can get NPR on your commute, then I would be ok with that.
Agreed.
It’s also great for traveling. We did a trip across the US a few years back with Sirius, and it was nice to be able to listen to a station without having to find a new station every so often.
A long road trip is probably when I will re-up with Sirius (at massively discounted rates, courtesy of the advice in this thread!)
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If you have CarPlay and Amazon Prime, there is lots of free music on Amazon Music.