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Its reported that many Saga workers will each receive a £10,500 windfall from the merger of the AA and Saga, and bosses of the two companies will receive £millions.

Saga chief executive Andrew Goodsell, 48, who will run the combined business, will receive £104m and AA chief executive Tim Parker, is said to be picking up £40m.

The £6.15bn merger values the AA at £3.35bn - a paper profit of £1.6bn since the 2004 takeover. Saga is valued at about £2.8bn - more than twice what Charterhouse paid for it.

Saga has flourished since Mr Goodsell led the management buy-out from its founders, the de Haan family and its turnover has jumped by 80% since 2004.

Started in 1951 as a single hotel in Folkestone, it now has a database of 7.6m customers and more than 2,500 staff. According to the thisismoney.co.uk website most of them will benefit from the merger, receiving an average of £8,000 cash and £2,500 of shares in the new company.

Mr Goodsell, who will run the organisation from Saga's base in Folkestone, said: 'We have taken a really close look and concluded that there are significant advantages in combining Saga and the AA's experience, expertise, systems and negotiating power, while maintaining their separate and very distinct brands.'

He dismissed union warnings that more jobs would be lost, saying: 'I'm about growing this business.'