Du'ers who are Costco members, how's that working for you?

[OriginalGeek]

58. Sort of

It's been several years so I don't remember the details but I rented a car through them once. I flew to Maryland and picked up the car at the airport and it was cheaper than the regular public Hertz or Avis site (can't remember which one but it was one of the big name car rental places).

All I remember for sure was I was impressed by the price and ease of use and if I ever need to rent a car again I will use them again.

I know people who book cruises through them but not sure if it's enough of a savings to give up control of your booking - I like to book through the cruise line websites and they will talk to me if I have questions. If you book through Costco you are using them as your Travel Agent and cruise lines (well, Carnival anyway as that's all I've done) won't deal with you directly if you booked with a TA. Any issues or questions must go through the TA and you have to hope they handle it.

Now, thousands of people every day have perfectly good trips that are handled by their TAs and they love them and that's fine. I just prefer to go though the website and then use my PVP (A personal vacation planner - they are like Travel Agents but they work for Carnival and are a level above the random customer service agent you'd get by calling the 800 number.) I look at the site and figure out what cruise I want, pick my cabin and then call my PVP and he makes it all happen.

As long as everything is normal, you don't need either TA or PVP but if you want to make changes or something comes up there are so many rules and penalties to deal with it's nice to have someone inside who can explain things and get you the best deal and make sure your needs are met.


I've looked a couple times for flights and what-not but I don't remember ever seeing a deal better than just booking with Southwest straight up and I don't fly enough to really know if it would be useful to go through them over the long haul.

But man I love their cheap lunch - I eat there a few times a month just because it's cheap and pretty good. Bottle of cold water from the machine for a quarter (I usually spring for 2 lol) and a couple slices of pizza or a hot dog or both and it's still cheaper than even the McDonald's across the street.

Kirkland beer is usually a good deal too. I don't LOVE it but it's good for stocking up the beer crisper when you know folks are coming over. I've read that their liquor is often good name brand with a Kirkland label on it but I haven't tried it yet.