Costco doesn’t just sell cheap hot dogs, rotisserie chicken, and 30-roll boxes of toilet paper to its legions of customers. The big-box retailer also offers vacation packages to destinations around the globe, from 5-star hotels in New York City and Las Vegas to all-inclusive resorts in the Dominican Republic, to cruises in Asia and Australia.
Costco isn’t the only wholesale club offering vacation deals. BJ’s and Sam’s Club also sell travel packages to their members. But should you buy a bundled vacation deal from a warehouse club?
Here is a look at the advantages and disadvantages of purchasing a vacation package from Costco and other wholesale clubs.
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Pro: Convenience
Not a fan of planning your own vacations? A wholesale club offers one-stop-shopping for travelers — with just the click of a button, you can purchase a ready-made trip, including hotels, airfare, and rental cars. This takes the guesswork out of planning a trip.
“Booking a travel package through a wholesale club can mean cutting down on the endless planning and searching process that a lot of travelers face,” says Katy Nastro, a travel expert at flight deals site Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights). “Busybodies who hate the endless searching and just want a selection of options to choose from can find shopping through a wholesale just as satisfying as the in-person store samples.”
Con: A limited selection
Wholesale clubs don’t offer as many options when it comes to hotels, flights, cruises, and rental cars as travel sites like Expedia, Orbitz, Kayak, and Travelocity, nor can they match the unlimited selection you get when planning a trip yourself. As a result, “Not every airline, hotel, or car rental company you prefer may be included” when you buy a vacation from a wholesale club, Nastro says. For example, Costco doesn’t offer rental cars through Hertz, and Sam’s Club doesn’t offer flights.
Pro: Savings
Vacation packages from wholesale clubs are often less expensive than booking with hotels, airlines, and rental car companies directly, a 2021 Consumer Reports study found. For example, a recent Costco package for a four-night stay at the all-inclusive Riu Palace Antillas in Aruba, including flights, cost $1,454 per person, a 15% savings.
Some wholesale clubs also offer extra rotating promotions. BJ’s, for instance, currently offers customers a BJ’s gift card of up to a $500 value on qualifying cruises.
Con: Limited travel assistance
Purchasing a vacation package from a wholesale club means you’re cutting out the middleman, but that also means that you must work with the company’s customer service if a problem arises during your trip. That could prove cumbersome if you encounter an issue.
Nastro offered this example: “Say you booked your package through Costco Travel, yet you missed your connecting flight. Instead of working with the airline on this issue, you must work first with Costco Travel, which can sometimes be a pain, especially if the wholesale club travel provider's customer service wait times are lengthy."
Pro: Better cancellation policies
According to a recent study by Consumer Reports, warehouse clubs may have more lenient cancellation policies and fewer fees for rental vehicles than those offered when booking directly with a car rental company. For example, Costco car rentals have no cancellation fees, including rentals from Enterprise; however, if you were to book a prepaid rental car with Enterprise directly and cancel the reservation more than 24 hours in advance of the scheduled pickup time, the company would charge a $50 cancellation fee.
Con: You need to have a club membership
You need to be a member to take advantage of travel deals from Costco, BJ’s, or Sam’s Club. Membership prices vary by store, with some offering cheaper entry-level memberships and more costly, higher-tier memberships.
That said, you can receive deals that offset some of these initial costs, if you know when to buy one. Places like Costco often offer deals around Black Friday, where you can receive a digital gift card when you sign up.
Bottom line
If you don’t mind having a limited selection of travel options and limited customer service, you might save a significant amount of money on your next vacation and enjoy the convenience of one-stop shopping by purchasing a travel package from a wholesale club.
Related Content
-
How Lower Interest Rates Will Help the Housing MarketLower interest rates will give the industry life again as they will likely create more demand and more incentives for developers and thaw a static market.
-
Six Year-End Strategies That Will Better Prepare You for Your 2024 TaxesA little effort now can save you tons of stress in the coming months.
-
Do You Feel Like Somebody’s Watching You? It's Your CarWhat's worse, you gave your vehicle manufacturer permission to watch you — no matter what you're doing. What are the car companies doing with that information?
-
I Won’t Be Handing Out Gift Cards This Christmas. Here’s WhyGift cards are usually considered a safe bet at Christmas, but in these strained times, how can you be sure your gift won't go to waste?
-
Quicken Launches New Tool to Protect Your Financial Documents: Is it Worth It?If you're looking for a secure place to store your financial documents, Quicken's LifeHub offers you an easy and affordable way to do so.
-
CPI Report Casts Doubt on Rate Cuts in 2025: What the Experts Are Saying About InflationCPI November Consumer Price Index data sealed the deal for a December rate cut, but the outlook for next year is less certain.
-
Quiz: Test Your Financial LiteracyTry your hand at these three questions designed to gauge your knowledge of the ABCs of personal finance. In a survey, only 43% of Americans answered correctly.
-
How to Get the Maximum Social Security Check in 2025
The maximum Social Security check is $5,108 in 2025, up from $4,873 in 2024. Even if you don't qualify for the maximum monthly benefit, you can still increase your payments.
-
The Best Ways to Use Your Year-End Bonus (and the Worst)'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation' shouldn't be anyone's go-to for financial advice, but it does remind us how not to spend a holiday bonus.
-
Never Talk About Money? For Women, That Can Spell DisasterHow can you plan for retirement when your husband holds the purse strings and talking about money is taboo? Help is at hand for this common problem for women.
