Yup. The produce which used to be top notch now looks kind of sad… employees are not very helpful either.
kjofkw, A friend just used the Costco vacation package to visit Ireland. $3600 for two for one week.
This family has used Costco for many trips and have no complaints.
Our Whole Foods is lovely. I don’t shop there regularly since things are more pricey but it is very well run, newish. I think the pricing is better since Amazon took over and haven’t noticed much change in products/quality. I only shop there on occasion for specific items though, not my larger weekly shopping trip.
@kjofkw YES. We’ve used Costco for numerous trip. Sometimes for the whole package - like an upcoming visit to Maui with extended family. Other times for pre and post cruise transportation and hotels. They are very easy to work with, very responsive and there is never any pressure.
If there’s a problem Costco travel will assist. On our last Maui trip, D and her H rented a separate car - thru Costco. They were guaranteed a particular type and a second driver was included without additional charges. When they arrived at the rental counter the agent started giving them trouble. Supposedly their class of car wasn’t available. They would need to upgrade. Oh and the additional driver wouldn’t transfer forward. After a few minutes of back and forth D said ‘wait just a second, let me get Costco on the line’. Boom - a car appeared, no extra charges, no additional problems.
Yes, we often book cars with Costco. When we’ve had problems, if I can’t handle it when we are traveling, I give Costco travel a call when we get home and voila, it’s all fixed with an apology from Costco and the car rental company!
After comparing prices for car rentals quite a number of times and Costco consistently being less expensive, often don’t even check anymore; just rent from Costco. I may miss out occasionally but it always works smoothly. We haven’t used any other Costco travel services though.
Car rental agents can be bad. They make a commission if you buy extra insurance or upgrades so some of them get pushy. If you need an upgrade, negotiate it at the desk with them rather than doing it online in advance. They’ll be happy you did and may throw in extra perks.
I hate when they get pushy or use scare tactics and I’m all woozy from the plane and can barely hear! Last summer, I drove around in a rental car for two weeks and they had never put my name down - they put down H’s name twice. Yipes…jet lag.
P.S. We usually go through Costco but I check Southwest too and it’s sometimes better.
“They make a commission if you buy extra insurance or upgrades so some of them get pushy.”
Just keep repeating “no thanks” in a polite yet firm way. Works for me. 
Yes! One agent was so awful though and kept pushing us on insurance, something called “loss of use” that we’d be liable for if the car was in an accident and had to be repaired, even if the accident was someone else’s fault. She said the only car insurance company that covered that for rental vehicles was USAA and when I told her that we had USAA she finally piped down.
That was years ago and many credit cards now cover “loss of use” if you charge your car rental with them. It’s worth it to read the fine print about your credit card perks every so often. Also, sometimes they won’t be honored unless you have a print out that proves the benefit - especially for extra insurance coverage. Pulling up the benefits while in you’re using spotty wifi in some subterranean rental cavern is too tricky.
. They make a commission if you buy extra insurance <<<<<<<
Costco’s citi card doesn’t cover damage to any other car but your rental BTW. It is not comprehensive cover.
99% of the time, damage happens to the rental car, not anything else.
I use a credit card that provides primary insurance. Most cards, if they offer insurance, are secondary to your own auto insurance, which often leads to everyone trying not to pay. But some of the cards that offer primary insurance are expensive.
I actually find autoslash gets great rates on rental cars.
Anyone recently take a Costco travel package? the reviews are all over the board and hard to decipher. Im looking at Ireland and at Scandinavia.
^^^ took a pre and post cruise package in French Polynesia. Loved it.
I think a lot has to do with the local tour operators and how they run their business. The Costco travel rep mentioned that they LOVE to work with their FP operators because they do a great job and are dependable.
A lot of people use Costco to book Disney cruises. They get a costco gift card for a pretty large %.
I’m tempted by the Costco Saver, it doesn’t care you around every minute and we could venture out on our own.
We took a Celebrity Cruise on the Baltic Sea about 18 months ago. The quotes from Celebrity and Costco were exactly the same, but by booking through Costco we received a $1,350 Costco gift card.
We haven’t taken any packages through Costco, but have booked our cruises through them. As the earlier poster said, the cruise price/cabin etc was exactly the same as we would have gotten with the cruise line directly, but Costco added in a few extras - photos etc plus a Costco cash back card.
My D and her BF did a airfare/ hotel package to Mexico through Costco. They saved some money and like others have mentioned got a Costco cash card back.
My sister wanted a certain hotel in Fiji that was sold out at the hotel. She was able to book the hotel through Costco.
On a smaller scale, we have booked hotels through Costco and gotten good deals. I generally do better through USAA for car rental. We also usually prefer to go through Travel Insured rather than Costco for travel insurance.