What’s the advantage of Costco Journey?
When Cathi White books a visit, she at all times checks Costco Journey first. For over a decade, she has booked a spread of holidays with the wholesale retailer, from theme parks to island getaways along with her household.
“Locations like Disneyland are very, very costly, however they’ve at all times bought some form of deal going,” mentioned White, 50, who lives in Indianapolis.
On a visit she booked by way of Costco to Grand Cayman in 2019, she estimated she saved $2,000 by utilizing the service.
Very like packs of paper towels or jumbo jars of mayonnaise, Costco Journey can provide customers offers on the whole lot from cruises to rental vehicles. However vacationers and journey specialists say the service has some limitations as effectively.
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How does Costco Journey work?
Costco Journey gives a spread of choices for vacationers trying to e-book a visit. “We use our purchasing authority to barter the very best worth within the market, after which move on the financial savings to Costco members,” the service mentioned on its web site.
These embody curated trip packages to pick locations all over the world, which can embody combos of flights, lodge stays, automotive leases and extra, based on Assistant Vice President and Common Merchandise Supervisor Chris Hendrix.
“In these bundled packages, our consumers vet and hand choose every resort and element. … We restrict our choice to make sure the highest quality and worth,” he mentioned in an e mail.
Join a Costco membership
What are you able to e-book by way of Costco Journey?
Vacationers can even e-book cruises, rental vehicles and construct their very own journeys to varied U.S. cities, reserving lodge stays or bundling them with flights and automotive leases, based on Hendrix. These making bookings can accomplish that on-line or by telephone, and the service has reservation brokers that may help vacationers earlier than, throughout and after their journey, he mentioned.
Can Costco Journey change a journey agent?
Brian Ayers and his spouse booked a Costco Journey bundle for his or her honeymoon in Greece partly due to the comfort. The 2019 journey, which took them to Athens, Santorini and Mykonos marked his first time in a foreign country, and he mentioned it “was going to be a lot too complicated for us to measure it out, simply because reserving ferry instances and motels, there have been simply so many decisions.”
Even when their plans hit a snag after a ferry was canceled, leaving them “hanging out on the ferry station for a few hours,” the 29-year-old mentioned, Costco Journey was a useful middleman. Ayers, who lives in Lewisville, Texas, and works for a semiconductor chip producer, referred to as the service, which confirmed with the ferry supplier that their tickets could be legitimate on the subsequent one out there.
Nonetheless, Kerry Mooneyham, proprietor of Midwest Journey Options mentioned reserving by way of Costco Journey is just not the identical as working with a journey agent that can provide extra customized steering.
“You are going to have the identical cruise whether or not you e-book it instantly with Carnival, you e-book it with Costco, otherwise you e-book it with me,” she mentioned. “The cruise is strictly the identical. … It is behind the scenes that we do issues to make it higher.”
She mentioned reserving with Costco Journey could make extra sense for some journeys than others.
“I feel possibly while you’re not precisely certain what’s the best choice for you is mostly a time when you need to be reaching out to an skilled that understands the variations between cruise A and cruise B,” Mooneyham mentioned. “But when you understand precisely what you need, that is a time the place you may solely be , you understand, ‘What’s the very best worth for me?'”
Nonetheless, Hendrix mentioned the corporate has greater than 1,000 Costco Journey workers with specialists in varied focus areas, together with cruises, Hawaii and Europe.
However vacationers could not at all times discover what they’re on the lookout for. Hendrix mentioned Costco solely gives automotive leases with Avis, Alamo, Funds and Enterprise, for instance, and it has a restricted collection of motels and lodge manufacturers. Sure locations might also not be out there for his or her trip bundle and build-your-own-trip choices.
Are you able to e-book flights with Costco Journey?
“Flights can be found as a part of our trip packages or our build-your-own choices,” Hendrix mentioned. Nonetheless, vacationers can’t at the moment buy flights alone by way of Costco Journey.
Do you need to be a Costco member to make use of Costco Journey?
Sure. Vacationers have to be lively Costco members to make use of the service. Relying on the tier, Costco memberships value between $60 and $120 per 12 months – earlier than any relevant gross sales tax – based on its web site.
“A lot of our packages provide Costco Journey members an unique Costco Store Card for his or her journey buy, which they obtain as soon as their journey is accomplished, and can be utilized within the warehouse or on-line at Costco.com,” Hendrix added.
Costco Govt members additionally get an annual 2% reward – as much as $1,000 – on qualifying purchases made by way of Costco Journey.
Join a Costco membership
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Is Costco Journey a very good deal?
Some vacationers have discovered vital financial savings utilizing the service. Ayers booked a 2022 journey to Spain with Costco Journey after pricing the journey out themselves.
“The associated fee for simply the airline tickets would have been the price for all the Costco bundle,” he mentioned, which included flights, motels and extra.
White additionally famous that resort charges have at all times been included when she has booked by way of the service. When attainable, Hendrix mentioned Costco Journey’s consumers work to incorporate these charges “or negotiate the waiving of these charges.”
And regardless of its budget-friendly status, White has booked luxurious motels equivalent to the Ritz-Carlton by way of the service.
When she does not e-book with Costco, she mentioned it is often simply as a result of they do not have what she’s on the lookout for. “However they do have a tremendous choice,” White mentioned.
Nathan Diller is a shopper journey reporter for USA TODAY primarily based in Nashville. You may attain him at [email protected].
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