Rental Cars and Costco rate

[mmouse50]

I do not live near any Costco but if a 60.00 membership would save me significant money on car rentals I will join. I basically only rent a car around twice a year - usually one is for 7-10 days and over a Saturday night stay, the other is usually 4-5 weekdays (no Saturday night stay). For those of you that do use the Costco rates would you get the membership value on the rental rates alone?

 

[Ralph&Pam]

There are times when I save more than $60 on a single week-long or even a 5-night rental with a Saturday night stay by booking through Costco. I know I’ve saved at least $60 on each of the two most recent 10- and 11-day rentals I’ve done. I also like the free second driver with Costco, although that’s just for security in case DW has to drive the rental car (hasn’t happened yet, but you can never tell). I usually book standard size with Alamo and end up with a full size sedan.

Also, Costco.com might have products you can order for home delivery. I think it’s free shipping for orders >$75.

 

[georgina]

I do not live near any Costco but if a 60.00 membership would save me significant money on car rentals I will join. I basically only rent a car around twice a year - usually one is for 7-10 days and over a Saturday night stay, the other is usually 4-5 weekdays (no Saturday night stay). For those of you that do use the Costco rates would you get the membership value on the rental rates alone?

That's a tough one. When I used to book rental cars before Costco, I always tried a variety of codes and coupon codes to find the best deal. With Costco it is easier. I have sometimes been offered good deals through SW airlines, etc, but I stick to Costco because it is easy. If the rate drops I just cancel and rebook. The free 2nd driver is nice. I'm not positive that you couldn't find good deals elsewhere, but it is more work.

Anyone can check the rates on the costco travel website, you just can't book it without a membership number. So you can check it out, do some comparisons. The rate shown is the total, unlike other sites which only show you the base rate at first. I thought my rate in February was high, but after talking to other people who were renting at the same time it was relatively low.

 

[Bullseye]

If you book Alamo with Costco codes and pre-register so you go straight to your car the only person you see is the attendant at the gate leaving the parking lot. All they want is your renters agreement, drivers license, and the credit card you made the reservation with. They don't check if you're a Costco customer. I have used Costco codes on at least six different trips and never been asked for a Costco card at gate.

 

[rwdavis2]

If you book Alamo with Costco codes and pre-register so you go straight to your car the only person you see is the attendant at the gate leaving the parking lot. All they want is your renters agreement, drivers license, and the credit card you made the reservation with. They don't check if you're a Costco customer. I have used Costco codes on at least six different trips and never been asked for a Costco card at gate.

Yep. I've never been asked for my COSTCO card.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

Also, Costco.com might have products you can order for home delivery. I think it’s free shipping for orders >$75.

Many items are free shipping on their own.

Plus they often have e-gift card sales, and those are delivered through email.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Many items are free shipping on their own.

Plus they often have e-gift card sales, and those are delivered through email.

I forgot about the e-gift card pricing. We buy some of those to use ourselves rather than as gifts, just to take advantage of the savings where we would already be spending the money, like a 5%+ savings on the Apple and iTunes store and 20% on P.F. Chang restaurant gift e-card. Two $50 gift cards for $79.99 at DW’s favorite pan-Asian restaurant can’t be beat.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Costco Car rentals are all over the board in terms of pricing. I also look at the airline sites as if a rental is $5 more than Costco, but I can get 2400 miles on SW for a comparable price, I'll go with the airline.

For our April trip, Costco is well under the other prices I can find, but not quite worth the $60.
For an August trip, Costco is $100 more than I can get with a United code.
For September, it's about $5 less at Costco.

I personally do not think a Costco membership for just car rentals is worth it unless you do many weeks of renting. Our big savings at Costco was dog medicine, that made it worthwhile.

 

[Rich M]

I have said this before on another thread and got ripped for it but if you know someone who has a costco card have them book it for you. I have reserved cars for friends and family multiple times and neither they or I have ever been asked to show my card. I will give you the disclosure of that they can ask for it. If you book Alamo you can do online check in and skip the counter and they only ask for DL and Credit Card and the print out of the check in or you can show your check in on your phone.

 

[kwdw]

I have often found that the Costco rate is the best one I can get for my trip, but not always. I've saved the price of the membership in one rental fee a couple of times. That said - this is quite a gamble - as that is definitely not always true.

I would not get a Costco card just for the potential discount on a rental car twice a year. Some years you might be lucky and break even - but other years the membership may have just cost you an extra $60.

I live near a Costco - and we have figured out that we "break even" on our spending for a year given the price of membership. Only some years can we really say it saved us money. Typically - we save $10-75 on a car rental, probably $20-40 on dining gift cards, find that toilet paper/paper towel bulk purchases let us avoid the feeling we need to check sale prices around town, have small discounts on a handful of our "regular" food items we buy there vs. local stores, and frankly, we enjoy our silly ritual of getting the cheap hot dog/soda deal when we are done shopping.

 

[Amanda999]

OP: You can check Costco rates yourself, and just buy the Costco membership if it is worth the $. (Go to the Costco site, click on travel, and you'll be able to search for a car rental and go all the way to see prices. Then go to Alamo or whatever other travel or car rental site you like, enter other coupons if you have them (like American Express), and see what that price is.) I found that for our April and August trips, the AmEx code lower for April, higher for August. (I know that on Alamo's site you can search with various codes, including Costco and AmEx. Just google for those #s. I don't know about other car rental companies.)

 

[AlohaNow]

You can earn airline points through a Costco rental as well. When we check in at the counter we always provide our SW RR number and receive points for the rental, as all four of the companies that Costco goes through participates with SWA. Never miss out on extra points!

 

[davper]

Yep. I've never been asked for my COSTCO card.

I have had to provide my Costco card once at the gate on the way out.

 

[davper]

Costco is not convenient for me to shop at. But I do maintain a membership for the amount I save on rentals in Florida.