When You Should (and Shouldn’t) Book Your Trip Through Costco
The Costco Gold Star membership is well worth its $60 annual price (especially if you join while the retailer is offering a store promo gift card ) thanks to savings at the store and at the pump. (The Executive Membership—$120 per year—also includes 2% cash back and other discounted services.) But what you may not realize is that both membership tiers also give you access to the retailer’s domestic travel services, which can save you a significant amount of money to rest. Of course, as with any travel booking, you should always shop around and compare prices to ensure you’re getting the best deal.
When Should You Take Advantage of Costco Travel?
Are you looking for a holiday package?
The highlight of Costco Travel are vacation packages that include a combination of hotels, flights and ground transportation, as well as experiences such as museum and tour tickets, spa credits and free meals. Keeping your entire itinerary in one place is convenient and helps you see all-inclusive pricing for your trip. Costco recommended packages for various popular destinations and resort areas such as Cancun, Jamaica, Las Vegas and Orlando. Reddit users on r/TravelHacks are reporting mostly positive (and valuable) experiences with Costco Travel packages.
The Costco Travel search engine allows you to create a reservation from the following options:
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Holiday packages (depending on destination)
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Hotel + flight
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Hotel + flight + car
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Hotel + car
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Hotel only
If you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for, you can also call and talk to someone directly.
Are you going on a cruise or visiting a theme park?
Costco offers reservations on 11 cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Princess, as well as packages at Disney and Universal theme parks. Cruise packages are often (though not always) comparable to or cheaper than booking through the cruise line itself, and usually include extras like ship credit and Costco gift cards. Theme park packages may include perks such as a fifth free hotel night, waiver of resort fees, transportation and early park entry.
Do you want to save money on car rental?
A Costco membership is one of the most reliable ways to save on car rentals, with up to 30% off base prices. Reservations made through Costco also include a second driver and free cancellation at no extra cost (plus periodic vehicle upgrades), and you can attach your loyalty number to your reservation. Note that Costco contracts with Alamo, Avis, Budget and Enterprise, so if you prefer a different rental company, you’ll have to book elsewhere.
Costco members also get lower gas rates when you fill up at a Costco station, further reducing your car rental cost.
When not to book with Costco Travel
There are a few situations in which Costco’s travel services are unlikely to provide an advantage.
You are booking a separate flight or hotel stay
Costco Travel does not only make airline reservations. You can add flights to many travel packages, although not all airlines partner with this service, so you’ll still have to book elsewhere.
While you can search Costco Travel for a basic hotel reservation, you may not always find options that aren’t part of a travel package, such as a hotel plus transportation and benefits like waived resort fees or early check-in and late check-out. However, even these basic packages can save you money compared to booking a hotel directly or through any other booking engine, even if you don’t use any additional services.
For example, when searching for a hotel in New York for March 7–11, the results included only vacation packages. But four nights at the New York Marriott Downtown includes private car transfers to and from JFK Airport, plus a room upgrade, a $40 Costco gift card and a “destination fee” food and beverage credit, daily using a Citi bike and dry cleaning – came out to $1,371.69. The same hotel stay, room only, is priced at $1,664 plus taxes, fees and a $28 destination charge per day on Priceline and similar booking sites.
As with flights and car rentals, only a limited number of hotel brands (Hyatt, Fairmont and Swissôtel) contract with Costco Travel, so again, you’ll want to compare options if you have a specific hotel in mind or just want the cheapest option. a free room.
You don’t need or care about extra benefits
As described above, the benefits of a travel package don’t necessarily cost you extra money, and you can actually save money on your trip overall, even if you don’t use them. However, in some cases they can potentially increase the cost, so you should evaluate the store if you don’t care about them.
Do you want to use or earn loyalty points?
If you can only find a hotel reservation through Costco Travel, you likely won’t earn loyalty program points and won’t be able to take advantage of any status upgrades or benefits on your reservation.