Travel News Air Travel Costco Is Selling a Private Jet Membership for $17,500 Does anyone need an over-the-top Christmas gift idea? By Stefanie Waldek Stefanie Waldek Instagram Twitter Stefanie Waldek is a Brooklyn-based travel writer with over six years of experience. She covers various destinations, hotels, and travel products for TripSavvy. TripSavvy's editorial guidelines Updated on 11/18/20 Fact checked by Jillian Dara Fact checked by Jillian Dara Instagram Emerson College Jillian Dara is a freelance journalist and fact-checker. Her work has appeared in Travel + Leisure, USA Today, Michelin Guides, Hemispheres, DuJour, and Forbes. TripSavvy's fact-checking Share Pin Email Flashpop / Getty Images Picture this: you’re cruising down the aisle with your shopping cart at Costco, shopping for bulk goods like cereal, sports drinks, and toilet paper, when all of a sudden, you stumble upon a $17,500 private jet membership for sale. That’s right: Costco sells a private jet membership. It’s not the discount warehouse club’s only travel offering—it actually has an entire Costco Travel division dedicated to everything from luxury cruises to hotel-and-flight packages to car rentals. But the $17,500 private jet membership, which is valid for 12 months, is in a league of its own. The membership is to a private jet charter company called Wheels Up, which grants members access to a large fleet of private jets. All they have to do is request a flight as little as 24 hours in advance, then roll up to the airport to board their aircraft. But here’s the kicker: the membership only provides access to private jets, not the flights on them. So if you want to, you know, actually travel, you’ll be billed a few thousand bucks per hour—or more. All that said, the membership does come with a $4,000 flight credit, plus a $3,500 Costco Shop Card, which is basically a gift card, knocking down the net price of the membership to just $10,000. That’s not actually the worst deal, especially if you fly private jets regularly. (If you fly 100 hours per year, for example, that’s just a $100 per flight fee for the membership.) So if you’re in the market for an extravagant Christmas gift, why not consider the $17,500 Wheels Up membership sold through Costco? A private jet membership card would sure be a nicer stocking stuffer than candy or socks. How to Charter a Private Jet Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Share Pin Email Tell us why! Submit