The chairman of the AA and his three sons are all members of the RAC's exclusive Pall Mall club and are set to land windfalls of #35,000 each, it emerged last night.
The revelation comes as the war between the two rival motoring organisations stepped up a gear.
The AA launched a damning advertising campaign in the national press against the RAC's cash bonus to their 12,000 full members.
Edmund King, a spokesman for the RAC, criticised the AA's ''bizarre attack'' on the RAC's club when its own chairman, John Maxwell, and his family, enjoyed the benefits of full membership.
He said: ''When your head office is in Basingstoke I suppose they needed somewhere a bit nicer to entertain people. So it is very strange they should criticise their own club.''
The RAC was looking at all categories of its full members and had not yet decided whether Mr Maxwell, as an honorary member, would benefit from the windfall, which is the result of a #450m deal to sell its roadside rescue service to a US company.
The AA defended the membership of Mr Maxwell and his three adult sons, saying it was ''irrelevant'' because they were private citizens.
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