Warning for people who book Budget through Costco

I am at the LV rental facility. I booked a car through the costco website for Budget RAC.

Beware, Budget now requires to see your costco card (or amex costco cc) to verify that you are a valid member in order to get the costco rental rates.

Make sure that you have your costco card if you reserve a car for budget through costco travel.

Luckily I brought along my costco card so I was okay. The couple next to me wasn't as lucky. But after a lot of complaining the manager finally allowed them some leeway (they printed out their reservation but budget still didn't accept the reservation wo a costo card) and gave them the costco rate. I think in the future you may not be as fortunate if you don't bring along your costco card.

Not sure about the other rental agencies but confirmed that budget now checks for your costco card (they have to reply on their system that they verified costco card.).

the budget manager said that people were using other's costco numbers so now they require verification of card to allow discounts.


sorry, I tried to create a new thread in the getting around forum but was unable (vmb said that I didn't have access to that thread). It could be a connection problem, I am using mccarren's wifi and notice some other problems with vmb. anyway, will post when I find a better connection.

 

I rented an Alamo car through Costco last year, sight didn't even ask for my card, so I assumed they'd ask for it at the counter. Nope, didn't say a word about it.

Tried to reserve another Alamo car last week through Costco, this time it asked for my account number and it popped up saying I had to renew my membership. Said it took up to 24 hours to go through doing it online and I didn't feel like driving to Costco. Looked at the Alamo website and it was the same price direct through them.

Long story short, LOL. Apparently Costco is tightening things up some.

 

We had a Budget rental car through Costco last month in Vegas. They didn't ask for our Costco card, but we paid with our Costco Amex so I guess that was enough (which makes sense since that's the card I get into the store & pay with and buy gas with, so....)

If proof of membership is required to keep the prices good & low for members, I say - keep it up

 

Alamo

Had to have my Costco card for my Alamo reservation at the end of February too. Guess they are cracking down on people taking advantage of membership perks who are not really members.

 

You guys talking about Alamo- use their self service kiosks. In n Out in less than 5 minutes and it doesn't ask to see your Costco card, AARP card, AAA card or your library card.

 

They can flag reservations for additional info and redirect you to the counter. They will do it if they think a code is being abused.

 

Thanks for the heads up!

I just booked with Budget thru Costco Travel for my April trip and got a great rate. I would not have even thought about brining my Costco card.

Thanks again!



Matt