costcotravel.com

get-rental-car-price

Installation

Adds this website's skill for your agents

 

Summary

Return Costco Travel 'Low Price Finder' rental-car prices (vendor x car-class matrix) for a pickup location, drop-off location, and date+time pair. Read-only — never books. Form fill flow and public airport-autocomplete API are documented; the search-submit endpoint is currently blocked by Akamai for automated sessions.

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SKILL.md
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Costco Travel Rental Car Price Lookup

Purpose

Given a pickup airport / city, an optional drop-off airport, a date+time pair, and a driver-age flag, return Costco Travel's "Low Price Finder™" quoted rental-car prices (vendor × car-class grid) for that itinerary. Read-only — never click "Reserve" or proceed past the results matrix.

Important honesty note: during four iterations of testing in 2026-05-22, every attempted search submission was blocked by Akamai bot management on https://www.costcotravel.com/rentalCarSearch.act (the XHR endpoint behind the Search button). The form itself renders fine on a stealth+proxy Browserbase session, the airport autocomplete API works fine, but the search-submit endpoint returns HTTP 401 to any cookieless / automated session — including Browserbase's strongest --verified --proxies profile. This skill ships as a candidate: it documents the form-fill flow precisely so a future agent with a warm cookie jar (real-user _abck token, bm_sz, JSESSIONID) can complete the search, plus catalogs the one public API endpoint that does answer (searchLocations for IATA-code resolution).

When to Use

  • A user asks "how much is a rental car at LAX from June 15 to June 22 on Costco Travel?"
  • A travel-comparison agent benchmarking Costco's "Low Price Finder" rates against Hotwire / Expedia / direct-vendor quotes.
  • An agent resolving a partial airport name to its IATA code (searchLocations autocomplete works without auth).
  • Do not use for booking, modifying, or canceling reservations — booking is a different skill (costcotravel.com/book-rental-car/, if it exists), and the booking endpoints are behind the same Akamai wall.

Workflow

1. Resolve location codes via the public autocomplete API (no auth, no proxy required)

This API works without any stealth, proxies, or session cookies. It's the one fully-public Costco rental-car endpoint.

curl -fsS "https://api.costcotravel.com/api/rentalCars/searchLocations?requestOriginated=CAR&locale=en_US&returnCount=10&keyword=LAX&domainCode=USA"

Returns JSON:

{
  "messageCode": 0,
  "cities": [
    { "code": null, "name": "Laxey", "country": "GB", "zipCode": "IM4", ... },
    { "code": "LAX", "name": "Los Angeles International Airport", "state": "CA", ... }
  ],
  "airports": [ ... ]   // when keyword matches an IATA code, the airport row appears here
}
  • keyword accepts partial city names ("Los Ang"), IATA codes ("LAX"), zip codes, or addresses.
  • domainCode=USA scopes to US-domain results; use CAN, AUS, etc. for other Costco Travel domains.
  • returnCount=10 is the dropdown default; the API will return more if you raise it.

For a search you need both the human-readable label (e.g. "(LAX) Los Angeles International Airport, California, United States of America") AND the IATA code ("LAX"). The form internally writes both — see the gotcha on the hidden-input airport code.

2. Open the rental car search page in a stealth+proxy Browserbase session

SID=$(browse cloud sessions create --keep-alive --verified --proxies \
  | node -e "let s='';process.stdin.on('data',c=>s+=c).on('end',()=>{const j=s.slice(s.indexOf('{'),s.lastIndexOf('}')+1);process.stdout.write(JSON.parse(j).id)})")
export BROWSE_SESSION="$SID"

browse open "https://www.costcotravel.com/Rental-Cars" --remote
browse wait load --remote
browse wait timeout 4000 --remote

The page returns 200 + the search form cleanly. The Akamai wall (see Site-Specific Gotchas) only fires on the search-submit XHR, not on initial GET.

3. Fill the search form

Snapshot to get fresh refs (they shift across sessions and after navigations — the prefix is [2-…] on first nav, [3-…] after a second navigation, etc.):

browse snapshot --remote > snap.txt
PICKUP=$(grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\] combobox: Pick-Up' snap.txt | head -1 | grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\]')
PUDATE=$(grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\] textbox: Pick-Up Date' snap.txt | head -1 | grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\]')
PUTIME=$(grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\] select: Pick-Up Time' snap.txt | head -1 | grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\]')
DODATE=$(grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\] textbox: Drop-Off Date' snap.txt | head -1 | grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\]')
DOTIME=$(grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\] select: Drop-Off Time' snap.txt | head -1 | grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\]')
SEARCH=$(grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\] button: Search' snap.txt | head -1 | grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\]')

Fill in this order (verified working in iters 1–4 of testing):

# Pickup location — MUST click a typeahead option, not just type
browse click "$PICKUP" --remote
browse wait timeout 1000 --remote
browse type "LAX" --remote               # or full city/zip — any string that matches a row
browse wait timeout 2000 --remote        # typeahead populates ~1–2s after type completes

# Re-snapshot to find the airport option ref
browse snapshot --remote > snap-lax.txt
LAX_OPT=$(grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\] option: \(LAX\)' snap-lax.txt | head -1 | grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\]')
browse click "$LAX_OPT" --remote         # commits BOTH the visible label AND the hidden IATA code
browse wait timeout 1500 --remote

# Dates — fill, then Tab to blur (Enter would submit prematurely)
browse fill "$PUDATE" "06/15/2026" --remote      # format: mm/dd/yyyy
browse press Tab --remote
browse wait timeout 800 --remote
browse select "$PUTIME" "10:00 AM" --remote      # options: "Midnight", "12:30 AM", "01:00 AM", … "Noon", … "11:30 PM" (30-min granularity)
browse wait timeout 500 --remote

browse fill "$DODATE" "06/22/2026" --remote
browse press Tab --remote
browse wait timeout 800 --remote
browse select "$DOTIME" "10:00 AM" --remote
browse wait timeout 800 --remote

The "Drop-off at Same Location" radio is default-selected, and the "I am at least 25 years old" checkbox is default-checked — leave both alone for the default round-trip-25+ case. For different drop-off, click the "Drop-off at Different Location" radio (grep -oE '\[[0-9]+-[0-9]+\] radio: Drop-off at Different Location' snap.txt) — this surfaces a second combobox (combobox: Drop-Off Location*) that you fill the same way.

Verify the form state before submit:

browse eval "JSON.stringify(Array.from(document.getElementById('search_rental_cars_form').querySelectorAll('input,select')).map(i => i.name + '=' + (i.value||'').substring(0,40)))" --remote

Expected output includes the visible label AND a separate anonymous hidden field carrying the IATA code:

["carDropOfLocationType=sameLocation",
 "pickupLocationTextWidget=(LAX) Los Angeles International Airport,",
 "=LAX",                                       ← hidden IATA code, name=""
 "pickUpDateWidget=06/15/2026",
 "pickupTimeWidget=10:00 AM",
 "dropoffLocationTextWidget=",
 "=",
 "dropOffDateWidget=06/22/2026",
 "dropoffTimeWidget=10:00 AM",
 "driversAgeWidget=on"]

If the =LAX hidden field is empty (=), the airport-option click did not commit — go back and click the typeahead option again.

4. Submit the search — currently blocked by Akamai (see gotcha)

browse click "$SEARCH" --remote

The form's JS handler does AjaxUtil.makeAjaxCallWithWaitingDiv("rentalCarSearch.act", queryString, …). On an unwarmed automated session, Akamai bot management returns 401 with an empty body, the XHR completes with status: 0 (network error), the AJAX util gets stuck on its waiting div, and loading_blocker_status_div displays "Screen is Loading" indefinitely. The page does not navigate.

If you have valid user cookies (a _abck token from a real interactive session, plus bm_sz, JSESSIONID, BIGipServerpool-…), inject them with browse cloud sessions update or via document.cookie before clicking Search. The form-fill flow above is otherwise correct — the only failure point is Akamai's verdict on the POST.

5. (If submission succeeds) Extract the results matrix

The search renders results in-page at the same URL (/Rental-Cars); no redirect. After the loading blocker hides, the page contains a vendor × car-class price matrix. Scroll to the results region and harvest with a snapshot:

browse wait selector ".matrix-row, [class*=carClass], [class*=vendor-cell]" --remote --timeout 60000
browse get text body --remote > results.txt

Expected structure (from Costco Travel's standard "Low Price Finder" matrix — not verified end-to-end in this run because of the Akamai block):

  • Vendors: Alamo, Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Hertz, National, Dollar, Thrifty, Fox, Payless (subset shown depending on availability at the airport).
  • Car classes: Economy, Compact, Mid-size, Standard, Full-size, Premium, Luxury, Mini-van, Standard SUV, Premium SUV.
  • Per-cell: total price for the rental period and (usually) a daily rate. Costco prices include taxes/fees per Costco's "Book Now, Pay at the Counter" policy.

6. Release the session

browse cloud sessions update "$SID" --status REQUEST_RELEASE

Site-Specific Gotchas

  • Akamai 401 wall on rentalCarSearch.act is the dominant failure mode: Costco Travel runs Akamai bot management. The Search button fires an XHR to https://www.costcotravel.com/rentalCarSearch.act. From any unwarmed automated session — including Browserbase --verified --proxies — that endpoint returns HTTP 401 with Content-Length: 0. The browser's XHR exposes this as status: 0 (looks like a network error). Verified four times across iters 1–4 (2026-05-22), and confirmed by direct browse cloud fetch of https://www.costcotravel.com/rentalCarSearch.act?rcs=11&… → statusCode: 401. The page surfaces a perpetual "Screen is Loading" overlay (DOM: div.loading-blocker > .loading_blocker_status_div). Don't waste time trying additional fill/cadence permutations — the wall is at the transport layer, not the form-validation layer. Workarounds that might succeed: (a) inject a real user's _abck + bm_sz cookies into the session before clicking Search; (b) use a CAPTCHA-solving proxy that warms the session against Akamai's challenge; (c) wait for Costco to whitelist an enterprise sandbox IP range. We did not have any of those in this run.
  • document.getElementById('search_rental_cars_form').submit() produces a visible 401 page — calling the form's native submit (no JS intercept) hits /Rental-Cars with POST, which returns 401 and renders Chrome's chrome-error://chromewebdata/ "This page isn't working — HTTP ERROR 401" page. Useful for confirming the wall mid-debug; not useful as a submission path.
  • Bot-detection cookies are visible: aka-bot-detected=<hex> and _abck=<sensor_token>~<score>~… appear in document.cookie after the initial GET. The <score> field of _abck is -1 on our sessions (means "no verdict yet" in Akamai's protocol) but the bot-mgmt module still 401's writes; this is consistent with the score being applied at request time on POST, not at cookie-set time.
  • The hidden IATA-code field has no name attribute: when you commit a typeahead option, the form populates two adjacent inputs — the visible pickupLocationTextWidget (full label like "(LAX) Los Angeles International Airport, California, United States of America") and an anonymous hidden input with value="LAX". If you fill the visible textbox via browse fill without clicking the typeahead option, the hidden IATA code stays empty and the form submission (if it ever got past Akamai) would silently fail server-side. Always click the typeahead option — don't trust the label-only path.
  • browse fill <textbox> <date> auto-presses Enter by default — but on this form, pressedEnter: false is the observed behavior (verified across iters). Still, follow with browse press Tab to trigger the on-blur date-picker normalization handler; without the blur the datepicker may re-open on next focus.
  • Time-select options are 30-minute granularity with these labels: Midnight, 12:30 AM, 01:00 AM, … 11:30 AM, Noon, 12:30 PM, … 11:30 PM. Pass them verbatim to browse select — "12:00 PM" will fail (it's "Noon").
  • The searchLocations autocomplete API is the ONLY public Costco-rental endpoint — every other path we probed (/api/rentalCars/search, /results, /vehicles, /rates, /agencies, /search/results, /lowPriceFinder) returns 404. The actual matrix endpoints (rentalCarAgencyMatrixActivity.act, rentalCarAgencySearchActivity.act, rentalCarSearchLocationActivity.act) live on www.costcotravel.com and are behind the same Akamai wall as rentalCarSearch.act.
  • Snapshot ref prefixes shift after each navigation: a fresh browse open produces [2-N] refs; navigating away and back produces [3-N], then [4-N], etc. Re-grep refs after every navigation. (This is browse-CLI internal behavior, not Costco-specific, but easy to forget when scripting.)
  • The loading-blocker overlay is in the DOM at idle — div.loading_blocker_status_div.offsetParent !== null returns true even when the page is fully interactive, because the inner status-text div is unconditionally in flow. To detect an actually in-progress search, check the outer .loading-blocker (not loading_blocker_status_div) — document.querySelector('.loading-blocker').offsetParent is null at idle and non-null only when a real search is running.
  • Same-location vs different-location is a radio, not a checkbox: legend is Car Drop Of Selector (sic — the page has a typo, "Of" instead of "Off"). Default = "Drop-off at Same Location" (radio Drop-off at Same Location). Switching to different-location reveals a second combobox Drop-Off Location*.
  • Costco Travel does not expose URL-deeplink results — there is no costcotravel.com/Rental-Cars?pickup=LAX&dropoff=LAX&start=…&end=… GET URL that produces results. Every search goes through the JS+AJAX flow above. Don't search for a deeplink; it doesn't exist.
  • Driver's age = on (≥25) is mandatory for the default flow. The label says "Yes, I am at least 25 years old.* — Opens a dialog when deselected" — un-checking it pops a "young driver fees may apply" dialog that you'd need to dismiss. Leave it checked for the standard rate.

Expected Output

When the search succeeds (i.e. the agent has bypassed the Akamai wall — typically by reusing a warm user cookie), the expected JSON shape is:

{
  "success": true,
  "pickup_location": "(LAX) Los Angeles International Airport, California, United States of America",
  "pickup_iata": "LAX",
  "dropoff_location": "(LAX) Los Angeles International Airport, California, United States of America",
  "dropoff_iata": "LAX",
  "pickup_datetime": "2026-06-15T10:00",
  "dropoff_datetime": "2026-06-22T10:00",
  "rental_days": 7,
  "currency": "USD",
  "lowest_total_price": 312.45,
  "lowest_vendor": "Alamo",
  "lowest_car_class": "Economy",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "vendor": "Alamo",
      "car_class": "Economy",
      "example_vehicle": "Kia Rio or similar",
      "total_price": 312.45,
      "daily_price": 44.64,
      "includes_taxes_and_fees": true
    }
  ],
  "error_reasoning": null
}

When the Akamai wall fires (the observed outcome in 4/4 iterations on 2026-05-22):

{
  "success": false,
  "pickup_iata": "LAX",
  "dropoff_iata": "LAX",
  "pickup_datetime": "2026-06-15T10:00",
  "dropoff_datetime": "2026-06-22T10:00",
  "error_reasoning": "Akamai bot-management 401 on POST https://www.costcotravel.com/rentalCarSearch.act. Form filled and submitted successfully; XHR returned status 0 (network error masking the 401). Page shows perpetual 'Screen is Loading' overlay. Need warm user cookies (_abck score >= 0, bm_sz, JSESSIONID) to proceed."
}

If only the autocomplete sub-task is requested (resolve airport name → IATA code):

{
  "success": true,
  "query": "Los Ang",
  "matches": [
    { "iata": "LAX", "name": "Los Angeles International Airport", "city": "Los Angeles", "state": "CA", "country": "USA" },
    { "iata": "BUR", "name": "Hollywood Burbank Airport", ... }
  ]
}