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Costco Car Rental

csxjohn

csxjohn

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
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Location
North East Ohio
Resorts Owned
Tropic Shores Resort, Bluegreen points
I think I read it here but can't find it.

My daughter is a Costco member and with her membership we reserved a car for this coming Jan in my name.

I won't have any problems not being a member myself will I? She will not be with us.
 
So far we have never been asked to show our Costco card when picking up a rental car.

The Costco online account is in my name (although both dh and I have Costco cards). I always make the car reservation in his name and he picks the car up. No problem, but again they've never asked us to show the card. I'm not saying this won't change, or that some locations might ask.
 
At budget they asked for my costco card once 3 years ago. No other rental company has asked me to show it though.
 
Thank you both, I will try to look into the rules further if I can.
 
csxjohn said:
I think I read it here but can't find it.

My daughter is a Costco member and with her membership we reserved a car for this coming Jan in my name.

I won't have any problems not being a member myself will I? She will not be with us.
Click to expand...

We've never been asked for our Costco card.
 
I asked dh, just to be sure, since he's the one who usually picks up the car. He said he couldn't remember, he might have been asked once, years ago.

If I remember correctly you didn't use to have to input your Costco membership number when you made the reservation. Maybe that is when they used to ask to see the card upon pickup.

There are some locations now, Alamo in some places, that use a self serve kiosk for pick up so you never show a person anything.
 
I've used my Costco membership to reserve a car for my son. He was not asked at all for any sort of membership. It asks for the name on the reservation, so if it had to be a member, I'd think it should be flagged at that point.

I've never been asked either for my card. I really doubt the front end staff care much.
 
Budget in downtown Boston asked to see and even swiped our Costco card on a car rental. Alamo has never asked for it. Though I understand now if you try to make the reservation direct on Alamo.com using a Costco contract ID, it now asks for your membership number. I guess a lot of people were using the codes but weren't members and were booking direct to circumvent making the reservation through CostcoTravel which you can't do unless you have an active membership.
 
I think you can do better than Costco.

We just rented a new BMW 5-series car from Sixt in Charlotte for a week long vacation, unlimited mileage (we went to Myrtle Beach), for only $298 all taxes included. That price was cheaper than the economy cars at the big rental companies. The only downside is having to take a shuttle from the airport to offsite rental.
 
Past 2 years we have rented about 10 times through Costco, was asked to show Costco card once. I don't remember where it was.
 
I rent through Costo often but use my Costco AMEX card to pay in order to take advantage of their great insurance discount program. But since paying is the last thing we do, I doubt that the Costco banner has anything to do with it. The reservation should be in your name and with Costco the 2nd driver is free. I'll miss the Costco AMEX card when it expires, am wondering what they're replacing it with.
 
smmatrix said:
I think you can do better than Costco.

We just rented a new BMW 5-series car from Sixt in Charlotte for a week long vacation, unlimited mileage (we went to Myrtle Beach), for only $298 all taxes included. That price was cheaper than the economy cars at the big rental companies. The only downside is having to take a shuttle from the airport to offsite rental.
Click to expand...

Maybe. I've consistantly found Costco to be cheaper. Right now we have a reservation cor two weeks on the Big Island (Budget) fullsize cor $363. This price has gone down several times since I first reserved. Last drop, today, was $40. Rental is for April, so I'll keep checking.
 
Score: Autoslash 4 - Costco 1

In my last 5 auto rentals (Denver, Kauai, Maui & Honolulu), Autoslash was cheapest on 4, Costco on one.

There is still time for prices to drop on 3 of these, so the score might change. One nice thing about Autoslash is that they alert you when they find a cheaper price, offering you the chance to switch.

Another nice thing is that you can have more than one ongoing search...say for an economy car and for a larger one.
 
Thanks for the additional replies.

So far Costco is the cheapest for where I want to rent.

The small print on my agreement says a Costco card will be required at the time of rental. My daughter, who is the member, is looking into adding me to her membership. At the time of making the reservation on line, Costco asked for her name and membership number then who would be picking up the car, making me believe she could get it for anyone.

I have some more research to do but in the meantime will make another reservation on my own to make sure I have a car when I need it.
 
dgf15215 said:
'll miss the Costco AMEX card when it expires, am wondering what they're replacing it with.
Click to expand...
I thought I read Visa, thru Citibank.

We've often rented cars thru Costco and as someone else said, rarely have been asked to show a Costco membership card.
 
smmatrix said:
I think you can do better than Costco.

We just rented a new BMW 5-series car from Sixt in Charlotte for a week long vacation, unlimited mileage (we went to Myrtle Beach), for only $298 all taxes included. That price was cheaper than the economy cars at the big rental companies. The only downside is having to take a shuttle from the airport to offsite rental.
Click to expand...

Sixt can be all over the place on prices. I rented from them two weeks in a row at DFW for good prices. A couple of weeks later they were twice the price of other companies and I've never found them cheap there again. Booked a month long rental for the same place and they were once again the cheapest. Costco is pretty consistently cheapest in the long run, particularly if you keep checking back for price reductions.

Sheila
 
sfwilshire said:
Sixt can be all over the place on prices. I rented from them two weeks in a row at DFW for good prices. A couple of weeks later they were twice the price of other companies and I've never found them cheap there again. Booked a month long rental for the same place and they were once again the cheapest. Costco is pretty consistently cheapest in the long run, particularly if you keep checking back for price reductions.

Sheila
Click to expand...

As I stated, in my case Costco is the lowest price by a long shot. When I checked last week they went up $40. I'm glad I booked when I did.

I found a deal giving me $50 worth of coupons for joining Costco through MyPoints.

I figured I'd join rather than have a hassle over the rental if they ask for a card. I upgraded to the upper level, was told if my rebate falls short of $55 to bring the check in and they will make a new one for $55.

The CC they use here is an American Express that has no annual fee and a cash percentage rebate depending where I spend.

This solves my original question.

My rental will be in Phoenix for 11 days starting on Jan 9th. With the NCAA football championship game on the 11th, I think cars will get scarce the closer we get.

Thank you all for your comments.:clap:
 
This is a second times I rented a Budget car thru Costco. The contract indicated I will have 2nd drive included. However, when I get to the Budget counter at FCA airport. The information printed on budget contract (given to DH) indicates no addition driver is allowed. The lady at the Budget counter told me that a spouse is automatically covered as 2nd driver at no charge. Last year , when we visited Yellowstone and rented a car thru Budget at SLC airport, they did not listed my name as a second driver .

It make me wonder why the contract does not listed my name as a second driver . Have you ever ran into the same situation like me .

We have no incident on this trip so, there will not be an issue this time . However, I am curious to know if only DH and my son on the trip and DH is a main driver, will my son automatically cover as a second driver w/o additional charge .

I would like to know your thought about it. Thank you
 
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uop1497 said:
This is a second times I rented a Budget car thru Costco. The contract indicated I will have 2nd drive included. However, when I get to the Budget counter at FCA airport. The information printed on budget contract (given to DH) indicates no addition driver is allowed. The lady at the Budget counter told me that a spouse is automatically covered as 2nd driver at no charge. Last year , when we visited Yellowstone and rented a car thru Budget at SLC airport, they did not listed my name as a second driver .

It make me wonder why the contract does not listed my name as a second driver . Have you ever ran into the same situation like me .

We have no incident on this trip so, there will not be an issue this time . However, I am curious to know if only DH and my son on the trip and DH is a main driver, will my son automatically cover as a second driver w/o additional charge .

I would like to know your thought about it. Thank you
Click to expand...
There are many times my name has not been listed on the rental contract but I've been covered as an additional driver.
 
uop1497 said:
This is a second times I rented a Budget car thru Costco. The contract indicated I will have 2nd drive included. However, when I get to the Budget counter at FCA airport. The information printed on budget contract (given to DH) indicates no addition driver is allowed. The lady at the Budget counter told me that a spouse is automatically covered as 2nd driver at no charge. Last year , when we visited Yellowstone and rented a car thru Budget at SLC airport, they did not listed my name as a second driver .

It make me wonder why the contract does not listed my name as a second driver . Have you ever ran into the same situation like me .

We have no incident on this trip so, there will not be an issue this time . However, I am curious to know if only DH and my son on the trip and DH is a main driver, will my son automatically cover as a second driver w/o additional charge .

I would like to know your thought about it. Thank you
Click to expand...

It could be due to state law. I believe it was Cali a few years ago we rented, non Costco, where the spouse is automatically a second driver for no charge.

As you state my confirmation say second driver free. I will need my wife driving if we end up at that big football game in PHX in Jan.
 
I had a member PM me, doesn't want to post. She had a problem in Orlando when her son rented a car for her through Costco, same situation as me.

They refused to give her the car because she did not have a Costco card so she had to negotiate a shorter rental for a higher price. It got resolved when she got out to the car and talked to a manager.

This is exactly what I did not want to happen to me. I'm convinced cars are going to be scarce in PHX on Jan 9th so I don't want to take any chances.
 
csxjohn said:
I had a member PM me, doesn't want to post. She had a problem in Orlando when her son rented a car for her through Costco, same situation as me.

They refused to give her the car because she did not have a Costco card so she had to negotiate a shorter rental for a higher price. It got resolved when she got out to the car and talked to a manager.

This is exactly what I did not want to happen to me. I'm convinced cars are going to be scarce in PHX on Jan 9th so I don't want to take any chances.
Click to expand...

What you might want to do is check autoslash. You can use the existing reservation you have through Costco for them to check against. If they find any better rates they'll email you. You could then book through them with no worries.
 
Luanne said:
There are many times my name has not been listed on the rental contract but I've been covered as an additional driver.
Click to expand...

Hi Luanne,
How do you check whether or not 2nd driver name is covered on the contract with Budget. The print out (in my case) clearly show no additional driver is allowed.

Please advise.
 
Luanne said:
What you might want to do is check autoslash. You can use the existing reservation you have through Costco for them to check against. If they find any better rates they'll email you. You could then book through them with no worries.
Click to expand...

I will sign up with them. I check them once and they only showed one rental company and it was twice as much as what I already have.

thank you.

Just went back and they are only showing Sixt with the cheapest price $ 564.26. I can't get the site to show me the car sizes but what I have reserved is a Toyota Corolla size car for $344.

When I get a minute I'll fix it so they can track my ressie and let me know if it goes down.
 
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