Did you know that you can book travel at a discoutn using your Costco membership?

Go to the Costco website, www.costco.com. Click on Travel.

I have booked rental cars, and hotels. There are only 2 hotels that honor the discount, Wyndhams, and Best Westerns. I got a rate of $139 per night at the Boston Wyndham. Give it a try. I also got a Florida rental car (a Dodge Neon) for $16 a day last year. It pays to try.

I booked a trip to Mexico a few years ago. It was rather amusing seeing someone holding up a Costco sign at the Cancun airport (airport transfers were included).

Sams Club offers this as well and I have gotten good rental car rates. I haven't tried it for anything else although I know that they offer flights and packages as well.

It's definitely worth checking, but so far I have not found it to be useful. I guess it depends on where you're going.

Tinathetoad - do you know what the going rate at the Boston Wyndham was for the same dates? Or what car rental specials were going on in FL when you got that deal?

I ask because I looked into the car rental for Las Vegas last month. The deals they offered were nothing special. They were comparable to the rates that most of the car rental agencies were offering on their web sites. But Dollar had a deal at the time for a convertible for $28/day which was way less than the full size car rate for most companies, and not a whole lot more than the economy and mid-sized cars for most companies.

I will continue to look at Costco for future trips, but have so far been unimpressed.

I never think of using it, but I was shocked last year when booking a Wyndham Hotel in San Diego and whining to the guy on the phone about the high prices, including the minor AAA or Senior discounts. Finally HE asked if I had a Costco Card, and when I said yes, the price dropped something like 20% -- much better than the other discounts.

On the other hand, I also tried to look at their rental car rates and couldn't match others I had found.

yes, the rate for the hotel is normally $199 per night.

The rental car was $23 per day.

You just have to keep checking, and know your product and prices

Oh - one other question. If you book the hotel this way, is the reservation cancellable? The Wyndham Chicago is not available for the dates I'm going, so my reservation attempt didn't get far enough for me to know that.

yes, the reservation is able to be canceled. It is just like using a AAA card.

I use it when renting cars in Canada. It is a better discount than AAA.

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Another deal for Costco members until April 3 you can purchase Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005 for $4.99 after the $10.00 instant rebate and $20.00 mail in rebate. You can also register for the mail in rebate on line and it's so easy! This is also available at Costco.com!

I got mine!

Utahtea

utahtea - Sounds like a fun program! What does it offer beyond sites like Mapquest and Yahoo maps?

jlm_mi,

With Micrsoft Streets and Trips you can put in different speeds for different roads. We have a motorhome and usually drive between 55 - 65 MPS on the interstates, but when we travel in our car I can put in 75 MPH. for customized times.

You can choose routes to avoid. You can quickly add multiple destinations. You can download free up to date road construction info from the web. It shows one way streets. You can find restaurants, hotels, ATM's, gas stations, campgrounds & much more. It's a lot faster than online site. We can use it on our lap top computer while we are driving and aren't connected to the internet. We can use this program with our GPS. I can get an idea of how many days I need for a trip by plugging in how much time or how many nights I want to spend in different areas. It also has a cost estimater.

This program is GREAT! I've been using 2001 version for 4 years. I though for a total of $4.99 after rebates, it was well worth getting the updated version.

Utahtea

BTW, I do not work for Microsoft

I have used Costco and Sams Club for discounts on car rentals. The travel packages initially look good, until you realize they are priced per person. I always price everything out separately and compare to their package and theirs is always higher than I could book it myself.

Utahtea, I am going tomorrow to purchase the Streets and Trips software. Thanks for the tip!

Just tried using Costco for a rental car in Atlanta and it was only accepted at a few agencies, which were not the least expensive. I checked travelocity and orbitz. Ultimately, I got the best rate through contacting the rental car place, itself.