Costco has built a devoted following by pairing low prices with rich member perks, and nowhere is that more evident than when you start layering Costco membership rewards with Costco Travel. With the right setup, a single vacation can quietly earn you multiple rebates: a 2 percent annual Executive reward, elevated cash back on your credit card, and occasionally a bonus Costco Shop Card from the travel department itself.

Understanding exactly how those pieces fit together in 2025 is the key to turning every trip into a mini rebate engine. For a broader explanation of how Costco membership tiers, travel benefits and rewards programs connect overall, see our Costco Membership and Travel Benefits explained guide.

How Costco Membership and Rewards Work in 2025

Costco’s rewards structure starts with the membership itself. A standard Gold Star or Business membership opens the door to Costco Travel deals, but it is the upgraded Executive tier that unlocks the extra 2 percent annual reward on qualifying purchases, including eligible Costco Travel bookings.

The Executive upgrade currently adds an extra annual fee on top of the base membership and pays up to a capped amount in rewards each year, delivered as a certificate tied to your renewal date. That certificate can be used in warehouses or converted into a Costco Shop Card, which becomes particularly useful for stacking travel savings.

Executive members do not receive a better base price on Costco Travel products. Instead, they earn more back on what they spend and may see extra amenities such as room upgrades or resort credits selectively offered on certain packages. The 2 percent Executive reward applies only to qualifying portions of travel sold directly by Costco Travel, which typically includes the core elements of vacation packages, cruises and rental cars, but not ancillary taxes, government fees, gratuities or add-ons that are processed by third parties.

Alongside the membership rewards is a second layer: the Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi. Any individual or business member can apply for this co-branded card, which doubles as your membership ID and attaches a robust cash back program to everyday spending. Taken together, the Executive membership and Costco Visa cash back effectively create two parallel reward streams you can point toward the same trip, on top of any one-off promotional Costco Shop Cards that Costco Travel occasionally offers with specific packages or cruises.

The Three Main Reward Streams You Can Stack

When you talk about “stacking” Costco rewards on travel, you are usually referring to three distinct buckets. First is the Executive Membership 2 percent reward, which accrues on eligible Costco Travel purchases as long as you are an Executive member on the date your travel begins. That 2 percent is calculated on the base cost of qualifying components and is subject to an annual cap, after which further purchases will not increase your Executive reward until a new rewards year begins.

The second bucket is the Costco Anywhere Visa Card reward. In 2025, the card earns 3 percent cash back on eligible travel purchases, including Costco Travel, 2 percent on purchases made at Costco and Costco.com, 5 percent on gas at Costco, 4 percent on other gas and EV charging up to a combined annual cap, and 1 percent on everything else. Purchases accumulate rewards throughout the calendar year, and Citi issues a single reward certificate after your February billing statement closes. That certificate can then be redeemed for cash or merchandise inside a U.S. warehouse.

The third potential bucket sits within Costco Travel itself. Many featured packages and cruises come with a digital or physical Costco Shop Card as a booking incentive, often delivered after you travel. These Shop Cards function like stored value cards that can be used in warehouses, at gas pumps, and on many Costco.com purchases.

In some cases, you can even apply them as partial payment on future Costco Travel bookings when you book by phone. While these promotional cards do not multiply like ongoing rewards, they can be worth hundreds of dollars on larger trips.

How Stackable Rewards Work on a Real Trip

Consider a couple booking a $4,000 Costco Travel package that includes flights and a week at an all-inclusive resort. If they hold an Executive membership, that single purchase is eligible to earn a 2 percent reward, or roughly $80, attributed after travel is completed and eventually appearing as part of their Executive rewards certificate. The exact amount will reflect the qualifying portion of the package price, so taxes and certain third-party charges may not count toward the calculation.

Now layer in the Costco Anywhere Visa Card. If they charge the same $4,000 trip to the co-branded Visa, it earns 3 percent cash back in the card’s travel category because Costco Travel counts as eligible travel. That is another $120 in rewards, which will be added to all of their other annual card spending and eventually paid out in the form of a Citi-issued certificate the following February. In total, the couple has now generated roughly $200 in future rebates from a single trip, before even considering gas rewards, restaurant spending on other days or other card categories.

Finally, imagine this specific resort package is advertised with a promotional digital Costco Shop Card, say $200 per booking, issued after they return. That Shop Card becomes a third layer of value. They might use it to stock up on groceries at their home warehouse, subsidize a next trip booked through Costco Travel by phone, or offset the cost of luggage or travel gear.

Stack all three together and a $4,000 vacation might produce something like $400 in combined value across different reward instruments, without any special couponing beyond choosing the right membership tier and payment method.

Executive Membership: Maximizing the 2 Percent Travel Reward

For frequent travelers or families planning big-ticket vacations, the Executive upgrade is often justified by Costco Travel bookings alone. The 2 percent Executive reward applies to eligible Costco Travel purchases such as vacation packages, cruises and rental cars reserved through Costco Travel.

You must be an active Executive member when travel begins to qualify for the additional rebate. After the trip is completed, the reward may take several weeks to appear in your running total, so timing is important if your membership renewal is approaching.

The reward calculation excludes a range of non-commissionable items. Government taxes and fees, gratuities, resort charges, baggage fees, trip insurance and certain third-party add-ons will not count toward the 2 percent. If you have questions about what is included, it can be worth asking a Costco Travel agent to break down the components of your booking so you can mentally estimate which portion of the total will be eligible for Executive rewards.

Because the Executive reward is capped at a maximum earnings level per 12-month period, very high spenders should track how close they are to the annual limit. Once you hit the ceiling, further qualifying purchases will no longer increase your 2 percent reward until the next cycle. In that situation, you would still benefit from Costco Anywhere Visa rewards and any included Shop Cards, but the marginal Executive benefit on additional travel bookings would be zero until your rewards year resets.

Costco Anywhere Visa: Turning Every Travel Dollar Into Cash Back

The Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi is central to any stacking strategy with Costco Travel because it layers card rewards on top of membership rewards. In 2025, cardholders earn 3 percent cash back on restaurants and eligible travel purchases, including Costco Travel, 2 percent on Costco and Costco.com purchases, 5 percent on gas at Costco and 4 percent on other eligible gas and EV charging up to a combined annual spending cap before dropping to 1 percent.

Since there is no separate annual fee for the card beyond your Costco membership, many regular Costco shoppers find that the elevated gas, travel and dining rewards quickly justify carrying it.

From a travel perspective, the 3 percent category is the most important. When you pay for Costco Travel using your Costco Visa, the booking codes as travel and earns 3 percent, even though it is simultaneously generating 2 percent as an Executive membership reward if you hold that tier. In other words, you can safely double-dip: 3 percent as credit card cash back and 2 percent as membership reward on the same Costco Travel purchase, along with any bonus Shop Card tied to the offer.

The Costco Anywhere Visa’s reward structure is calendar-based. Rewards accrue throughout the year and are paid out as a single annual certificate after your February billing statement closes. That certificate can be redeemed for cash or merchandise at a U.S. warehouse.

Officially, you cannot apply the certificate directly against your credit card bill or spend it online, although some members have had success converting the certificate into a Costco Shop Card through customer service, which can then be used more flexibly, including by phone for certain travel purchases.

Using Shop Cards and Certificates to Pay for Travel

One of the less obvious stacking tactics involves how you redeem both your Executive membership certificate and your Costco Anywhere Visa cash back certificate. By default, these are paper or digital certificates meant to be redeemed in a physical warehouse. For Executive members, the annual 2 percent reward certificate can be converted at a warehouse into a Costco Shop Card, which turns your rebate into a reloadable stored value instrument.

Similarly, cardholders can often ask to redeem their Citi-issued cash back certificate for cash and then use those funds to buy a Shop Card, or in some cases work with a customer service supervisor to convert rewards more directly.

Why bother with the extra step? Because Costco Shop Cards can be used against select Costco Travel purchases when you book by phone. If you know you have a significant vacation coming up, it can make sense to convert your annual rewards into Shop Cards and then apply those balances to offset the cost of a new trip. You do not earn additional membership rewards on the portion of the trip paid with Shop Cards, since rewards are calculated on the actual charges, but you have effectively recycled last year’s rebates into this year’s travel budget.

There are practical limitations. Online booking engines commonly do not accept Costco Shop Cards directly for travel purchases, so you may need to call Costco Travel to have an agent apply the card to your reservation. Additionally, Executive and Visa reward certificates have timing constraints.

The Executive reward is tied to your membership renewal cycle; the Visa certificate is produced after your February statement and expires at the end of that calendar year if unused. Savvy travelers coordinate big trips for later in the year so that they can harvest rewards early in the year, convert them to Shop Cards, and then apply them to a fall or winter vacation.

Advanced Stacking Strategies for Frequent Travelers

Once you are comfortable with the basic stacking of Executive rewards, Visa cash back and promotional Shop Cards, you can begin to refine timing and trip structure to squeeze out even more value. One effective strategy is to cluster major Costco Travel bookings into the same Executive rewards year, especially if you are sure you will not hit the annual cap. For example, booking a cruise and a resort vacation within the same 12-month period can push your 2 percent refund closer to its ceiling, making your Executive upgrade fee feel like a bargain.

Another tactic involves using Costco Travel for high-ticket items that do not normally earn elevated rewards elsewhere. Cruises, packaged resort stays and extended rental car bookings can accumulate significant 2 percent Executive rewards and 3 percent Visa cash back, while also potentially coming with bonus Shop Cards. In some cases, Costco Travel’s negotiated rates and included extras already undercut public pricing; when you add stacked rewards, the effective net cost can fall even further below what you might find by booking direct.

Frequent drivers and road trippers can also stack discounts with the Costco Visa’s 5 percent reward on gas at Costco and 4 percent on other eligible gas and EV charging up to the annual cap.

When your trip planning routinely begins and ends at Costco gas pumps, every long drive subtly contributes to a pool of cash back that will land in your hands the following year, ready to be converted into Shop Cards or spent outright to fund future adventures. If you combine that behavior with regular travel spending through Costco Travel, your annual rebate haul can become a meaningful piece of your travel budget.

The Takeaway

Costco’s travel ecosystem is more layered than it looks at first glance. At the surface you see competitive packages, cruises and rental car deals. Behind the scenes, however, Executive membership rewards, Costco Anywhere Visa cash back and promotional Shop Cards can quietly compound on top of each other. A single well-chosen trip can generate a cascade of value: a 2 percent Executive rebate on qualifying travel, 3 percent credit card cash back on the purchase, and possibly a generous Shop Card for booking through Costco Travel.

To make the most of it, you need to be deliberate. Hold or upgrade to Executive if your annual Costco and Costco Travel spending justifies the added fee, pay with the Costco Anywhere Visa to layer in 3 percent travel rewards, pay attention to which components of a trip qualify for the 2 percent bonus, and convert expiring certificates into Costco Shop Cards when it makes sense to channel your rewards into future trips. With those habits in place, Costco is not just where you stock up on snacks before a vacation. It becomes a central tool for funding the vacations themselves.

FAQ

Q1. Can I earn both the Executive 2 percent reward and Costco Anywhere Visa cash back on the same Costco Travel purchase?
Yes. If you are an Executive member and you pay for an eligible Costco Travel purchase with the Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi, you earn the 2 percent Executive membership reward on qualifying travel components and 3 percent cash back as a travel purchase on the credit card at the same time.

Q2. Do Executive members get lower prices on Costco Travel than other members?
No. All Costco members see the same base prices on Costco Travel. The Executive advantage is that you earn an additional 2 percent reward on qualifying travel purchases and may receive occasional extra perks such as room upgrades or resort credits on specific offers.

Q3. How long does it take for my Executive 2 percent reward from Costco Travel to show up?
The Executive 2 percent reward on Costco Travel purchases is applied after your travel is completed. It can take several weeks, sometimes up to two months, for the earnings to appear in your running Executive reward balance associated with your membership.

Q4. Can I use Costco Shop Cards to pay for Costco Travel bookings?
Yes, but with caveats. Costco Shop Cards generally cannot be applied directly through the online booking engine for travel. Instead, you typically need to call Costco Travel and have an agent apply the Shop Card toward a new or existing reservation that accepts that form of payment.

Q5. Can I redeem my Costco Anywhere Visa rewards certificate online or on Costco Travel directly?
By default, the annual Citi cash back certificate must be redeemed in a U.S. Costco warehouse for cash or merchandise. It is not designed to be used directly online or at Costco Travel. However, once you receive cash or convert rewards into a Costco Shop Card, you can then use that value more flexibly, including for some travel bookings by phone.

Q6. What happens if my Executive rewards or Citi cash back certificate expires before I use it?
Executive membership rewards certificates issued by Costco do not carry an expiration date and can be redeemed at any time. In contrast, the Costco Anywhere Visa cash back certificate issued by Citi expires at the end of the calendar year in which it is issued. If it is not redeemed by that date, the value is forfeited, so it is important to plan ahead.

Q7. Do taxes and fees on Costco Travel bookings earn rewards?
Typically, government taxes, some fees, gratuities, resort charges, trip insurance and other third-party extras do not earn the Executive 2 percent reward, even if they are bundled into your total. The Costco Anywhere Visa card generally earns cash back on the full amount charged, but you should expect the Executive reward to be calculated only on the qualifying travel portion of your purchase.

Q8. Is the Costco Anywhere Visa card necessary to benefit from Costco Travel?
No. You can book and enjoy Costco Travel deals with any valid Costco membership and pay with most major Visa cards. However, using the Costco Anywhere Visa allows you to add an extra layer of 3 percent travel cash back and other category rewards on top of any savings and Executive membership benefits you already receive.

Q9. Can business members stack rewards on Costco Travel the same way individual members can?
Yes. Business Executive members earn the same 2 percent rewards on qualifying Costco Travel purchases as consumer Executive members, and Business Costco Anywhere Visa cardholders earn the same category cash back rates. The stacking logic works similarly, though the underlying account structure may vary for business owners.

Q10. How can I tell if a specific Costco Travel offer includes a bonus Costco Shop Card?
Costco Travel highlights promotional Shop Cards directly in the offer description for eligible packages, cruises or rental deals. Look for language indicating a digital or physical Costco Shop Card amount provided after travel. When in doubt, confirm with a Costco Travel agent before booking so you know exactly what extra value you will receive on top of your Executive and credit card rewards.