For example, this Costco Travel deal for The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua is only available on stays of five or more nights. COSTCOTRAVEL.COM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nEven when you do find availability, you should always price-check what you can find by booking directly or through your credit card travel portal and hotel programs.<\/p>\n
After booking our fantastic stay at TRS Coral just north of Cancun through Costco, I looked at booking through Costco again in 2023 when planning our annual beach vacation.<\/p>\n
While Costco had a deal available for the same resort, we happened to be booking when the resort chain was having a Mother’s Day sale for anyone booking directly. We were able to try out a new TRS resort closer to Playa Del Carmen, TRS Yucatan; we saved more than $100 on an even nicer suite than Costco Travel offered by booking directly (even when considering the Digital Shop Card we would have gotten by booking with Costco).<\/p>\n
Something else to consider when booking hotels through Costco Travel is loyalty program rewards and elite status. There are a lot of hotels available to book through Costco Travel that are part of major loyalty programs, from Hyatt Honors to Marriott Bonvoy to IHG One Rewards and more. But booking through Costco Travel \u2014 just like booking through most other third-party services such as Expedia \u2014 means you likely won’t earn loyalty rewards, elite night credits or have any elite night benefits honored.<\/p>\n
You’ll also have to use Costco customer service if you run into any issues rather than going directly to the brand. This is especially important when considering booking a vacation package that includes flights, given the higher potential for delays or cancellations.<\/p>\n
Why I love Costco Travel<\/h2>\n I am typically a staunch proponent of booking directly, but Costco Travel is an exception. I’ve found that the benefits I can get by booking some trips via Costco outweigh the cons (some of which include having to go through Costco for any customer service help or occasionally losing out on elite night credits).<\/p>\n
Digital Costco Shop Cards<\/h3>\n My favorite thing about booking trips through Costco Travel is the Digital Costco Shop Card I get after booking. The card’s value varies from trip to trip (generally depending on how expensive the package you book), but you can get hundreds of dollars back to use at Costco.<\/p>\n
The Digital Costco Shop Cards can be used for Costco warehouse purchases (a game changer with grocery prices so high due to inflation), but you can also use them toward future Costco Travel bookings. And remember \u2014 Costco doesn’t just carry bulk grocery items. You could use a Digital Costco Shop Card to buy a new flat-screen TV for movie nights and game days, a new outdoor patio setup ahead of summer or even Costco Pharmacy prescriptions.<\/p>\n
I admittedly don’t use Costco for groceries often (buying in bulk doesn’t make a lot of sense for someone who lives alone), but I have used shop cards to help pay for Christmas presents and future Costco Travel trips. I’ve actually been looking into using my most recent Digital Costco Shop Card on a new pair of AirPods and a new TV mount for my living room.<\/p>\n
Deals on non-points hotel stays and all-inclusive resorts<\/h3>\n When I’m looking at booking a hotel stay at a brand like Hyatt or Marriott, I generally choose to book directly in order to earn elite night credits and points. However, when looking at properties not part of a major loyalty program, Costco Travel is often a go-to anytime I can find a deal.<\/p>\n
Costco Travel has a nice deals section, and I usually look there first if I’m not sold on a specific destination for a getaway. While deals found on Costco generally have a narrow booking window, I’ve found that many offer a lot of flexibility for the actual trip dates.<\/p>\n
A few examples of limited-time deals for January include Hotel Wailea from the example earlier in this guide, all-inclusive resorts in Mexico’s Riviera Maya, and Disney and Universal theme park packages.<\/p>\n\nCOSTCOTRAVEL.COM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSimplifying group vacations<\/h3>\n I’m often the travel planner in my friend group (which makes sense, considering what I do for a living), but not everyone is an avid points and miles user like myself. For group trips where we’re splitting the cost of hotel rooms among multiple people, it often doesn’t make sense to use points and miles to book.<\/p>\n
Costco Travel vacation packages offer a way for all of us to save money, and it makes narrowing down potential destinations and hotels easier. Rather than everyone having to spend hours researching ideas and prices from across the internet \u2014 which might be my idea of a fun Wednesday night but isn’t for some of my friends \u2014 I typically just send them to Costco Travel to see if any of the featured deals catch their eye.<\/p>\n
Having reservation information for multiple aspects of a trip, such as a hotel and rental car package, makes sharing and saving the itineraries a breeze.<\/p>\n
Bottom line<\/h2>\n Whether or not you currently have a Costco membership, you shouldn’t dismiss Costco Travel as just another online travel agency.<\/p>\n
If you know where to look and are willing to price-check the deals you find, you can save a lot of money with Costco Travel deals. I’ve personally had a lot of success booking friends getaways to popular destinations like Mexico through Costco. Using the service has helped me save on other expenses with the Digital Costco Shop Card I’ve gotten with my bookings.<\/p>\n
For me, the $60 annual membership fee to Costco has been more than worth it to utilize Costco Travel.<\/p>\n
*Upon enrollment, accessible through the Capital One website or mobile app, eligible cardholders will remain at upgraded status level through Dec. 31, 2024. Please note, enrolling through the normal Hertz Gold Plus Rewards enrollment process (e.g. at Hertz.com) will not automatically detect a cardholder as being eligible for the program and cardholders will not be automatically upgraded to the applicable status tier. Additional terms apply.<\/em><\/p>\nRelated reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Costco isn’t just the place where you can buy toilet paper in bulk, inexpensive gas, cheap hot dogs and gift cards. You can also book great trips via the company’s online travel agency, Costco Travel. I know, I know: At TPG, we’re often staunchly against booking travel through third-party sites, as there can be tradeoffs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-71457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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