I haven't had to have my car towed since the 1980's. I'd never pay for AAA just for a flat tire coverage. I'll change my own flat tire and I've taught my daughter how to change her own flat tire.
Newer cars aren't having spare tires come with them. I know you can pay for the spare tire package in at least some but I'm not positive it's all. Honestly the amount of people that would pay for AAA
just for the sole purpose of someone coming out to change their tire is probably fairly miniscule but I can't deny that it's becoming more and more common for cars to not have spare tires. On the flip side more tires are being made to drive with certain limited problems that can help get a person to a tire or mechanic shop.
Funny story- my car jack was bolted down in my trunk. Sorry didn't have the tools to unbolt it when my car got a flat in the middle of the road and had zero clue that's how it was in my trunk. Thankfully a police officer stopped and I was able to call my husband who wasn't far away who came and he came and used his jack. The very nice police man actually helped my husband out so the job would get done faster.
The 2 times I've fully had my car towed it was completely inoperable. There wasn't anything I could have done on my own.
I did call AAA when I couldn't get my car to shift into gear and I had no idea what was going on but I ended up googling how to get my car to shift manually. In the gear shift area there was a hole with a plastic covering. I was able to move that aside and use an old school tire pressure guage like this:
and used the circled part of my picture to push down on the mechanism to shift. I then cancelled the call with AAA (it was about 10mins total from the time I had called them). I then drove my car to my mechanic and had the shifting solenoid replaced (which ended up being the problem). My car is a 2002 I have no idea if what I did would even work on a newer car.
The other time I locked my keys in my car and only had my phone with me (wallet and purse was inside the car). I know how they do it with my car being a coupe but it does require having some things available to me. The college dorm room parking lot was sadly lacking in the materials I needed.
The other time my mom locked her keys in her trunk, etc.