If affordable travel is your goal, then Costco Travel is what you should explore. Costco Travel is an American travel and tourism business that offers affordable vacation packages, flights, cruise vacations, rental cars, all-inclusive resorts & cruises, and hotels.
Costco Travel packages automatically add flights and display the best hotels at your destination.
If you are a new off-season traveler, then you should explore the “Build Your Own Trip” feature. Costco Travel allows you to plan your holidays with hotel bundles and cruises.
Today, I am sharing why I have been using Costco Travel to book rental cars and holiday packages since 2021.
Costco Travel:
Costco Travel launched in December 1997. Costco Wholesale headquarters is in Issaquah, Washington. They have offices in Texas and Oklahoma.
CostcoTravel has served millions of customers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
The Costco Travel Visa Credit Card offers 3% cashback on online bookings.
Executive members also earn a 2% annual reward.
Costco Travel offers the most affordable hotels, car rentals, and flight packages. It works as an all-in-one travel agent.
To make things easy for its customers, CostcoTravel has introduced membership plans.
Costco Travel Membership:
Costco Travel offers two types of membership. Both types offer different benefits and cost different prices.
- Personal Membership: Costco Travel offers two personal membership cards. The Gold personal membership card costs $65, and the Executive personal membership costs $135.
- Business Membership: Costco Travel offers two business membership cards. The business card costs $65, and the business executive card costs $135.
Note: The major benefit of executive cards is that you get 2% additional annual reward.
Which Membership Best Fits Your Budget?
As a traveler, you always plan your holidays and itinerary based on your budget. With Costco Travel Executive membership offers a 2% annual reward that can be up to $1000.
For example, if you book a Costco trip worth $4,000, then your Executive Membership card will generate a reward of $80.
Additionally, the Executive card member enjoys the package upgrades and travel perks.
Costco Travel Features:
Costco Travel offers some of the exciting features to its travelers, which include theme parks, guided tours, rewards, travel insurance, etc.
Here are the notable features of Costco Travel:
Costco Travel Deals:
Costco Travel offers exciting deals to its members. Some of the popular travel deals include family fun trips, Kirkland Signature deals, all-inclusive resorts, cruises, and hidden gems.
Destinations:
Costco Travel serves its travelers in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, the Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Europe, Fiji, Mexico, and Tahiti.
It also offers exciting packages for African safaris, guided locations, Disney adventures, Walt Disney World, and Universal Orlando.
Build Your Trip:
You can build your own trip with Costco Travel.
It allows you to choose hotels, cities, and interests to plan your next trip. Hyatt, Hilton, IHG, and Marriott hotels offer their services. You can also choose national parks and hockey gateways.
Cruises:
Costco Travel is known for its cruise packages. Costco Travel cruises travel to Africa, Alaska, Asia, Australia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, Hawaii, North America, Panama, South America, and Transatlantic.
You can easily book from Miami, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, and Vancouver.
Costco Travel works with multiple cruise lines such as Azamara, Carnival Cruise, Celebrity Cruise, Cunard, Disney Cruise, Holland America Cruise, Norwegian Cruise, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Seabourn, Trafalgar River Cruises, and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises.
Rental Cars:
Costco Travel is a popular platform to book rental cars. You can use its “Low Price Finder” to book rental cars. It also helps you book Budget rental trucks.
Theme Parks and Specialty:
With Costco Travel, you can enjoy Disney theme parks and cruise lines.
Walt Disney World is a popular choice for Disney lovers. Tourists also book African safaris, Evan Evans, and Universal Orlando Resorts.
Costco Travel Packages:
Costco Travel packages are the first thing that you will notice on its website.
You can book exciting travel deals, but if you are not satisfied, then choose packages.
Benefits of Costco Travel Packages:
- Vacation Packages: Costco Travel vacation packages include hotels, resorts, and flight tickets. It also offers airport transfers, meals, and guided tours. In short, you get an all-inclusive package with the vacation deals. When booking Costco Travel packages, you can also include rental cars.
- Themed vacations: Costco Travel packages are known for their Disney, Universal, and African safaris. It is easy to book all-inclusive themed packages to save time.
- Vacation Cruises: Costco Travel serves 12 cruise lines. They offer all-inclusive cruise packages.
Pros of Costco Travel Packages:
- Affordable: Costco all-inclusive travel packages are affordable.
- Time: You need not visit multiple platforms to book different services.
- Advisories: Cosco Travel shares travel advisories to make your trip comfortable.
- Partial payment: you can make partial payment when booking packages.
- Rewards: You get a 2% reward as an executive member and a 3% reward for using the Costco Travel card.
Cons:
- Limited Options: Costco Travel Packages are limited to US-based or popular destinations only. They lack Asian countries and Australian trips.
Costco Travel Flights:
The facts about Costco Travel flights are that they are part of a package. You cannot book standalone flights using Costco Travel.
Here are the benefits of the Costco Travel Flights + Hotels package:
- Save Time: A Costco Travel package combines flights with hotels. You can also include car rentals in such packages. You can book everything in one go.
- Earn Frequent Flier Mileage: When you book flight trip packages with Costco Travel, you also earn frequent flier mileage.
- Rewards: A 2% annual reward is available for executive members.
Limitations of Costco Travel Flights + Hotels Package:
- High Cancellation Fee: Costco Travel charges $200 as a package cancellation fee. It can be more for costly flights. It is better to book flights directly with the carrier.
- Cost: The price of flights in packages costs you more than booking the independent flights.
- Limited Airlines: Costco Travel works with a limited number of airlines.
- No Way to Redeem Frequent Flier Mileage: Costco Travel does not consider frequent flier mileage to book packages.
- Customer Service: Costco Travel’s customer care support comes with long waiting.
How to Book Flights with Costco Travel?
Here are the simple steps to book flights with Costco Travel.
- Go to the Costco Travel website.
- Choose the “Packages.”
- Click on “Add Flight.”
- Choose destination, flying from, dates, rooms, age, and class.
- Click on “Search.”
I searched for a hotel with a flight and car rental in Santa Barbara. I am flying from New York and planned my trip for 7 days.
The Costco Travel search displayed 6 results, and the best one was Mar Monte Hotel, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt. It costs $2,235, including flights and hotel.
When I booked this package, I earned $39.11 towards my Executive Member 2% Reward. It also offered me to earn 3% cash back rewards if I use the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi to book the package.
Is It Good to Book Flights and Hotels with Costco Travel?
The cost of $2,235, including flights and hotel for Santa Barbara, may feel costly to many. So, I decided to check with Costco Travel alternatives to find out if it is affordable to book flights with Costco or not.
I run the same search on Skyscanner. It turned out that the cost of flights from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to Santa Barbara was between $368 and $588. Where $388 is the cheapest, $368 is the affordable, and $588 is the fastest return flight option.
I decided to deduct $588 for the fastest flight from the $2,235 Costco Travel flight and hotel package. The result showed that the hotel itself costs $1,647.
Now it was time to find out if the hotel costs less or more.
I was overwhelmed to know that the cost of 7 nights at Mar Monte Hotel was $794. It means I end up spending $1441 on flight tickets. It is more than two times what Skyscanner offered.
Result: My research showed that it is best to book flights and hotels from Costco Travel alternatives. But you will not get an all-inclusive package with Skyscanner.
Costco Travel Hotels:
Cosco Travel hotels are the most popular part of their business. It allows you to book hotels with or without flights and car rentals.
All you need is to choose a destination, dates, rooms, and age to search for the hotels.
For example, you can book the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Waikiki Beach package, which costs $3,491 and offers resort credit, a digital Costco Travel card, a four-night stay in a Guest Room or Kaiulani Room, and an Executive Member's annual 2% reward.
Pros of Costco Travel Hotel Booking:
- Time: It saves time, as you can book a hotel or a hotel with a flight at the same time.
- Cost: It is all-inclusive. You also get search options to find price drops.
- Partial payment: Similar to Costco Travel packages, you can also pay a partial payment when booking hotels.
- Rewards: 2% annual reward for executive members.
Cons:
- Limited Hotels: Costco Travel deals with a limited number of hotels.
How to Book a Hotel with Costco Travel?
- Go to the Costco Travel homepage.
- Click on “Hotels” to open the booking window.
- Choose a destination, dates, and rooms to search for hotels.
- Choose a hotel and make the payment.
Costco Travel Insurance:
Costco provides travel insurance. It does not sell travel insurance but collaborates with Zurich Travel Insurance to deal with it.
Costco Travel Insurance includes:
- Trip interruption
- Delays
- Cancellation
- Baggage loss
- Medical expenses
- Rental car damages
Costco Travel Cruises:
Costco Travel offers cruise tours and packages. You can choose a destination, cruise lines, departure date, and duration to search for the best cruises.
Note: Cruise holidays are often costlier than flight and hotel packages.
Costco Travel deals with 12 cruise lines to offer the most affordable yet luxurious cruise experience.
Benefits of a Costco Travel Cruise:
- Price: Costco Travel offers some of the most affordable cruise trips. It is the right choice to begin a cruise experience.
- Branded Cruises: You get the option to choose between Buyer’s Choice and Kirkland Signature cruises.
- Rewards: You get a 2% reward with an executive subscription.
Cons:
- Limited Cruise Line: Costco Travel works with a limited number of cruises.
- No price drop: You do not get notifications of price drops.
Costco Car Rentals:
Costco Travel also offers car rental service. 5 car rental agencies, such as Alamo, Avis, Budget, and Enterprise, offer their services with Costco.
Pros of Costco Travel Car Rentals:
- Price: Costco works with multiple agencies to keep the rental as low as possible.
- Free Driver: You get a free additional driver.
- Zero upfront payment: You do not need to make any upfront payment.
- Zero-cost cancellation: You can cancel your booking if you do not need it.
- Rewards: 2% reward to executive members.
Cons:
- Limited Choice: Costco Travel does not work with Uber and leading car travel agencies.
How to Book Car Rentals with Costco Travel?
- Go to the Costco Travel website.
- Choose “Rental Cars.”
- Choose pickup and drop-off locations, dates, and times.
- Click on “Search.”
Note: You must be 25 years old to book rental cars.
Future of Costco Travel:
Costco Travel is offering services to save time with all-inclusive packages.
While there are many alternatives available in the hotel and flight booking industry, Costco still offers the best services to keep the customers happy.
Why Do I Choose Costco Travel?
I choose Costco Travel only when I plan to travel within the U.S. to take my family on Disney trips. Costco packages cost more but offer peace of mind.
Rather than booking hotels, cars, and flight tickets from different platforms, I prefer to use one platform that does all the work for me.
Costco Travel Alternatives:
Now every person needs all-inclusive packages. There are travelers who look for affordable packages with fewer benefits.
Trip:
Trip.com is one of the most popular platforms to book hotels, rental homes, flights, trains, cars, and tours. You can book private and group tours.
Free cancellation and breakfast included are some of the best filters to use when booking through Trip.com.
Kayak:
Kayak.com offers flights, stays, cars, packages, and Kayak AI. It is an easy-to-use platform to book affordable travel deals and hotels. It is known to book vacation packages for Las Vegas, Honolulu, Toronto, Paris, New York, Cancun, Rome, Miami, Punta Cana, and more.
Kayak does not let users book flights on its platform. Rather, it redirects customers to the flight ticket booking sites to book packages.
Expedia:
Expedia.com is another Costco alternative to book holidays. It also offers cruises, packages, car rentals, and flights.
Expedia offers some of the best deals, like Bundle & Save up to $974 with package deals. Its all-inclusive packages cover hotel stays, flights, Wi-Fi, parking, and breakfast.
Skyscanner:
Skyscanner.com is a popular Costco alternative for booking flights. It is known for multi-city flights which are way more affordable than one destination round-trips.
You can choose direct flights and nearby airports and add hotels to your search.
Booking:
Booking.com also offers flights with hotel deals. It is the alternative to Costco Travel for booking airport taxis. You can book apartments, hotels, villas, and resorts. You can book holidays to Germany, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, and more.
Conclusion:
Costco Travel is one of the popular places to book holiday trips, hotels, flights, and car rentals. It is best to book cruise trips.
With the Costco Citi card, you get an additional 3% reward. If you are a person like me who loves to book all-inclusive packages, then Costco Travel and Expedia are for you.
Costco Travel FAQs:
What is Costco Travel?
Costco Travel is a travel agency to book hotels, flights, cruises, and car rentals.
What are the popular Costco Travel packages?
Walt Disney World, African safaris, and Universal Orlando Resorts are the popular travel packages.
What are the popular Costco Travel deals?
Costco Travel offers limited-time deals, Kirkland Signature deals, and all-inclusive cruises.
How does Costco Travel car rental work?
Costco Travel works with third parties Alamo, Avis, Budget, and Enterprise to provide rental car services.
How to find the Costco Travel login?
First, sign up and become a premium member to access the Costco Travel login.
What is the Costco Travel phone number?
The Costco Travel contact number is 1-866-921-7925.
What are the benefits of Costco Travel insurance?
Costco Travel outsourced travel insurance to Zurich Travel Insurance. It deals with all types of travel insurance needs.
How to find Costco near me?
Costco is the parent company of Costco Travel. It deals in wholesale products. You can search online with your location to access the list of Costco near me.
What is the cost of a Costco Travel membership?
Costco Travel membership is $65 for personal membership and $135 for executive membership.
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