Anyone willing to share experiences with booking a vacation throught the CO web site, more specifically where you choose the destination, number of nights, and hotel?

My concerns are such things as: 1) package for two, any chance for upgrades? Can't delink the reservations, so you go with the lowest status partner; and even so, are upgrades allowed? 2) Hotel, any problems/successes in getting hotel member benefits? 3) Any other problems with these packages?

Checked on some CLE-MEX destinations in the fall. Booking air separately for two runs about $1800. Booking CO Vacations, inc 3 nights at nice hotels, the TOTAL air/hotel for two is about $1400. Are these too good to be true, or does it fall apart when you actually try to book the trip??

For what it is worth, I booked and took a CO vacation to London about 3 years ago (pre HoKeY). After I booked, I asked about upgrades and was told that I could not upgrade, but that I could have booked just the hotel and car through CO vacations and upgradable flights direct with Continental next time. I was quite satisfied with the package, other than the upgrade situation. It might still be a good idea for non-HoKeY destinations.

A few months ago my wife and I booked a vacation in Cozumel, MX with 5 nights at the Intercontinental. The price was almost the same as booking separately but I chose the vacation package because I thought I would get double miles on my Chase World Card for the entire vacation purchase. Well, I though wrong and did not get any double miles so I would have been better off with the separate package.

What is surprising though is that we not only got upgraded on the EWR-IAH, IAH-CZM, CZM-EWR legs but we got 50% fare bonus miles (which counted towards status).

In the future I would probably book everything separately unless the price difference was significant.

Keith

wow! i wonder if this was a fluke.

Definately a fluke!

I don't really know how it happened but it is definately linked to the upgrade because non-elite friends who were on the exact same package did not get the bonus. After the upgrade, the fare class was in Z. Is that normal? The fare upgraded fare class from EWR-IAH which we did not get the fare bonus was listed as XF.

Keith

I booked a CO vacation to Cabo earlier this year with a non-elite companion. After the reservation was made I called CO and had them split the reservation and I received my upgrade through EUA. Send me an email if you have any questions.

We went to Mexico on CO Vacations last weekend. We were upgraded on both legs.

I've found that it's almost always cheaper to go with a package to Mexico than booking separately since airfare is so expensive. We were able to book our 3-night trip only 3 days in advance for $1600.

My wife and I used CO vacations and were upgraded both on the flight IAH-CZM and back. The upgrade was to Z, not XF, so we got bonus status miles.

We were also upgraded at the Fiesta Americana in Cozumel. . . total package cost was about $750 all in, while airfare alone from WAS was about $950.

Next year we are going to CZM using tix we got on skyauction at around $500 and handling our accomodations ourselves.

All in all, I would use CO vacations again, particularly to CZM.

[This message has been edited by tvx (edited 07-22-2002).]

CO Vacations is handled by Certified Vacations in Ft Lauderdale. They also do the vacations for Delta (Vacations) -- and have their own product.

As a wise consumer I would check around as the CO Vacations tend to be higher than competitors -- in most cases.

Great stuff! Thanks, all! (Additional comments still welcomed).

I am considering booking a MLK weekend trip on Co Vacations. I found this thread from the past. Does anyone have any more recent experiences?

Im looking for any promo codes out there for vacations to Costa Rica booked through CO Vacations, bonus miles, discount, etc.? Is it cheaper to book as a group? or individually? The agent said the rates are the same, but I thought that was strange there was no discounted group rate.

About a year ago - ewr-las was the best available deal at the time. Full EQM, etc. Only downside would be booking a Starwood hotel - you won't get SPG points on a prepaid stay... don't think you get stay credit either. This might be true of other hotels as well. Then again, given the package price, the hotel was effectively free.