cvjw
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2005
Are you saying you get 3% for using their Visa card PLUS another 2% for being an executive member?
Yes, you get both. That is why we book with costco
Are you saying you get 3% for using their Visa card PLUS another 2% for being an executive member?
The 2% Executive Membership reward is a relatively new addition. It only applies to the cruise fare portion of the cost (not on port fees/taxes/transfers/insurance).Are you saying you get 3% for using their Visa card PLUS another 2% for being an executive member?
Just did a 2 night cruise that was booked through Costco. We felt like we cheated on our regular TA (who is wonderful, trains with Disney travel, always sends us information head of time and a gift), but when doing this we looked at this lower cost cruise and from our TA we would Get $50 OBC and from Costco we would get $95 cash card afterwords. Started through the process.. Tried to book online but it got stuck with an error, so had to call and wait on hold while they tried to do it, we PIF at the time and when our checkin window rolled around we got online and did our online checkin and booking activities. (a month before the cruise, we received an email from costco telling us it was time to checkin and book our actives). I called at one point to add gratuities to the cruise, the agent referred to the cruise as carnival and once again it was a long time waiting on hold with her to call Disney to figure out how to do it. So for $45 I wasted a bit of time and our next cruise we went back to our Travel agent who does it all for us.
Can I transfer my booking to Costco and get the cash card? Or would I need to cancel it, and then let Costco rebook it for me?
Looking at the opening day prices posts and I noticed that some folks are getting crazy ($500+) Costco Cash and from past experience, TA's usually provide $100-200-ish in OBC. I realize the Costco money can't be used on the ship, but I'm sure there's something I need at Costco. Am I missing something or misunderstanding something as to why more people don't use Costco?
We just booked three rooms through Costco for 2019 westbound PC.
Pros: we will receive almost $2000 in Costco cash cards, plus 2% for executive membership and 3% for using Costco Visa card.
Con: took over 5 hours to book the rooms. We live in California and got up at 5am to start the process. It took about 30 minutes to reach a Costco travel agent, then Disney’s phone lines were busy for almost an hour, finally had to wait 2 hours for a Disney representative to come on the line once we were able to get through.
It did take an extraordinarily long time to book but given what we receive back, I would use Costco again in a heart beat.
We're costco members and I did look at the cash card vs OBC. If we had been able to go on the 3 day this coming summer I wanted to do then we would have booked using Costco. For a 2019 trip I'm going to book darn it, I called the TA. Why? Because I knew the TA was going to be the one spending hours on the phone dealing with opening day madness. This is going to be a 20th anniversary trip for just DH and I, and there are several on board things we'll do as it's just the two of us. (Mixology, palo brunch etc) i just didn't want to deal with booking those things, and the OBC will lower our on ship costs. In this instance that has more value to me.
Now, if we're looking at going again as a family of 4 (When our focus would be more on excursions and doing things as a family) then I'd probably book through Costco. That being said, the length of the 2019 trip is short enough we're also not talking hundreds of dollars difference between the cash card and the OBC.
If you are not in the USA, then the Costco card wont help much. Even if you dont live near a Costco, you can use the card at the Costco.com website.
Please don't get me wrong, I love my DU TA, she's awesome. I was just wondering why folks choose Costco over a TA and vice-versa, especially when looking at the difference in "rewards".
No hummus here, but I do love a roasted chicken every week. The gift cards can be used towards the next cruise, as well, so while it's all going back to Costco, I'm getting more for my money out of it.If you want service, use specific TAs.
Costco works for people who are self service, who like hummus. The difference between OBC and a Costco card is just accounting if you typically soend buckets of $ there anyway.
No hummus here, but I do love a roasted chicken every week. The gift cards can be used towards the next cruise, as well, so while it's all going back to Costco, I'm getting more for my money out of it.