Costco’s wildest perk ever? A $17.5K private jet membership with shopping credit
Published on Sep 23, 2025 at 8:18 PM (UTC+4)
by Daisy Edwards
Last updated on Sep 23, 2025 at 8:21 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
If only we had a time machine so we could take advantage of Costco’s wildest perk ever – a $17,500 private jet membership with shopping credit.
Back during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, the cash and carry store Costco partnered with a private jet company by the name of Wheels Up.
If you paid just $17,500, you could get an annual membership for Wheels Up, as well as a whopping $3,500 in Costco shopping credit.
It didn’t mean endless free private jet rides; there was still an hourly rate for using the planes, sadly. So how did it rank compared to other private jet membership systems?
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You could get a $17.5K private jet membership at Costco
Ah, Costco, the place where you go to buy three months’ worth of wet wipes, or a year’s worth of toilet roll, and of course, the obvious, a $17.5K private jet membership. Wait, what?
Back during the COVID-19 pandemic, the popular wholesaler partnered with an unlikely company, Wheels Up, a private jet company.
For just $17,500, Costco members could buy a membership for Wheels Up and also get a nice chunk of change in the form of $3,500 in shopping credit.
However, this didn’t mean you could jump into a private jet for free.
You still had to pay an hourly rate for hiring the private jets, so you were kind of buying into the opportunity to spend more money by hiring a jet.
Costco’s wildest perk ended after only two years
The promotion ended in 2022, presumably because it wasn’t that popular. After all, you were only really buying into the idea of flying private.
If you needed to fly private a lot, it may have been a good deal, as $17,500 is quite reasonable compared to companies that charge a lot for a one-off trip.
This promotion happening during COVID-19 makes total sense because even if you were allowed to travel abroad commercially, some people may have felt it was safer to fly private to avoid falling ill.
If you want a Wheels Up membership now, you have to go directly to the company and inquire about some of its lovely, but expensive, private plane experiences.
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Daisy Edwards is a Content Writer at supercarblondie.com. Daisy has more than five years’ experience as a qualified journalist, having graduated with a History and Journalism degree from Goldsmiths, University of London and a dissertation in vintage electric vehicles. Daisy specializes in writing about cars, EVs, tech and luxury lifestyle. When she's not writing, she's at a country music concert or working on one of her many unfinished craft projects.
