Costco offers 10% off Canada travel cards

Costco’s Canada travel-card deal is real, and the basic pitch is better than most “travel hacks.” You pay $449.99 for a $500 airline gift card, then use that card to book a normal cash fare later. That is an immediate 10% discount before points, promo codes, or any credit-card rewards even enter the picture. The catch is that the savings are clean, but the redemption rules are not. (princeoftravel.com) ### What is Costco actually selling? Costco Canada has been offering $500 gift cards for Air Canada, WestJet, and Porter at $449.99 each. In practice, that means every card gives you $50.01 in built-in savings if you were going to buy a cash ticket anyway. These are non-refundable gift-card purchases, and the cards generally keep unused balances and do not expire. (princeoftravel.com) ### Why do people care about this so much? Because airfare discounts that work on regular bookings are surprisingly rare. Most travel deals make you change dates, use a portal, or buy some bundled package you did not want. This one is much dumber and better — prepay part of your future flight at a discount, then spend it later. On a $1,000 booking, you are effectively saving about $100. (frugalflyer.ca) ### Which airline card is easiest to use? Porter, by a lot. Porter’s checkout is the least annoying because you can use multiple gift cards and still pay the rest with a credit card in the same booking. That matters more than it sounds. A discount is only useful if you can actually apply it without calling support or doing weird workarounds. Porter basically lets the discount behave like cash. (frugalflyer.ca) ### Why are Air Canada and WestJet trickier? Both airlines are much stricter about payment methods. Air Canada caps online bookings at two payment methods, and if you use two gift cards, they need to cover the fare in full — you cannot add a third payment method on top. WestJet is also limited, with one other payment method for the remaining balance and reports that(frugalflyer.ca)c can get awkward fast. (frugalflyer.ca) ### Does this work online or only in stores? Both, but availability moves around. Costco has sold physical cards in warehouses and e-gift cards on Costco.ca, with online stock appearing and disappearing depending on the airline. That means the deal is not always a clean “click and buy” situation — sometimes the smart move is simply checking both the warehouse and the site. (princeoftravel.com) ### Are there purchase limits? Yes, and they vary. Air Canada cards have been limited to four per member in some cases, Porter to five online, and WestJet availability can be more constrained. That keeps this from becoming an unlimited arbitrage trick, but for a typical family trip, the limits are still high enough to matter. (princeoftravel.com)le legit? Mostly yes, but keep it simple. The reliable stack is discounted gift card first, then normal airline points or credit-card rewards on any remaining balance. More elaborate stacking ideas can work, but they depend on each airline’s payment rules, and those rules are exactly where people get burned. The cleanest version of the trick is just using discounted cards against a fare you already planned to buy. (frugalflyer.ca) ### What’s the bottom line? If you are in Canada, already have a Costco membership, and know you will book a cash flight, this is one of the easiest real travel discounts around. But buy the card that matches your tolerance for hassle — Porter is the smooth one, Air Canada and WestJet need more care, and all of them stop being a bargain if you buy first and figure out the rules later. (princeoftravel.com)