Why You Should Upgrade Your Costco Membership if You Use Costco Travel

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A regular Costco Gold Star membership not only gets you in the door of the warehouse club but also gives you the ability to use the Costco Travel portal to save a pretty penny on your travel costs. This is an increasingly popular Costco perk, but one not everyone is using yet.

If you’re one of the folks saving money through Costco Travel but you aren’t yet an Executive member, consider upgrading. Why? Because Executive members get an annual Costco Reward equal to 2% of their eligible Costco purchases each year.

And guess what? Costco Travel purchases are included.

2% of a four-figure vacation is a lot of money

By the time you add hotels, airfare, and the rental car, even a long weekend can easily top $1,000. And when you’re booking a major vacation or honeymoon, you could be paying 10- or 20-times that.

At either end, 2% actually adds up pretty fast. Here’s what it looks like in real numbers.

Data source: Author’s calculations

A single vacation package of $3,000 would earn enough of a reward to cover the $60 upgrade cost. So any other eligible Costco purchases you make during the year would be pure savings.

And a larger vacation? You’re talking about some serious savings. In fact, 2% of a five-figure honeymoon trip would be enough to have a lavish night out on your first anniversary. (And nothing makes for a more romantic night than frugality, my friends!)

Stacking with Costco Travel’s discounts

Folks who aren’t familiar with Costco Travel may not realize what a gem of a service it can be. My research into Costco Travel shows you can get some great discounts on hotels, flights, and rental cars.

Indeed, the smallest savings I found was 7% — but the highest was 15%. And, as the table above shows, even small percentages add up fast when we’re talking about big numbers to start. (Just for a quick reference, 7% of $10,000 is $700, and 15% would be $1,500!)

So, even before you include the Executive Reward, you’re already saving a few hundred bucks. Then you’re adding on the 2% from the Reward, and now you could potentially be saving up to 17% on your trip.

But wait, there’s more.

Costco Travel typically codes as “travel”

According to reports, Costco Travel purchases will either show up on your credit card as Costco Travel, a travel agency, or as the travel provider (such as Budget, Delta, Hilton, etc.). Either way, this should count as “travel” for the majority of travel rewards credit cards.

In other words, you can still get your bonus rewards on travel purchases even if you book through Costco Travel. Depending on how you value those rewards, this could mean another 6% or more off the effective cost of your vacation.

I’ll add the required caveat here that this may not work for all travel cards. For example, U.S. Bank doesn’t typically count “travel agents” as an eligible part of the travel category, according to Reddit users’ experiences. You’ll want to check your card’s terms or ask your issuer directly to be sure.

Must use Visa or Mastercard

One thing to note is that Costco’s silly credit card policies extend to Costco Travel. Specifically, you’ll need to use either a Visa or Mastercard credit card to make your Costco Travel purchase. (In-store purchases in the U.S. only allow Visa credit cards, so this is at least a bit better.)

This still leaves plenty of great travel rewards cards to choose from, though, so don’t worry about getting some solid rewards here. Especially when you stack it on top of the Costco Travel portal discount and your newly upgraded Executive membership’s 2% Reward.

Thanks to all those savings, you’re nearly ready to pay for the next vacation!

Top credit card to use at Costco (and everywhere else!)

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