A $20,000 Kauai Trip For $500 - My Best Points Redemption Yet
I’ve been in the credit card and points game for a while now but I’ve been more of a points collector than spender. That is, until recently. It may come as a surprise to some of you that I haven’t made any big flashy points redemptions internationally and that almost all of my credit card points redemptions have been within the US.
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Many have read about how I saved almost $2,000 on my recent trip to Oahu by using points that I earned from the World of Hyatt credit card and the World of Hyatt business card, to stay at the Hyatt Centric Waikiki hotel. But this redemption has that one beat pretty good. Link to the full review at the bottom!
As I am writing this, my mind is still trying to wrap around the crazy redemption that I was able to make for my family trip to Kauai, Hawaii. Of all the Hawaiian islands, Kauai is known to be one of the more expensive ones in terms of average costs when looking at a trip as a whole. This being said, there would never be a time in my life that I would consider paying almost $20,000 for 9 nights on a vacation to Hawaii no matter how much I made or saved up. But thanks to credit card perks and points, from everyday purchases, I am able to go on the most amazing trips that many would consider “once in a lifetime”.
Outbound Flight
First, the flights. For our outbound flight to Kauai, we flew out of Phoenix SkyHarbor Airport on American Airlines. We were able to redeem American Airline miles that my wife and I earned from Citi’s American Airlines credit card.
We booked 4 tickets on points at 22,500 points each and we had a lap child under 2 so that ticket was free (it’ll only cost us our sanity). So in total we redeemed 90,000 American Airline miles. For cash or points redemptions, there is still a $5.60 fee (9/11 security fee) each way so in total, we had to pony up $22.40 in fees.
If I were to book these 4 tickets to Kauai from Phoenix out of pocket, at the time of my booking, one way tickets would have cost $446, which includes the $5.60 fee. So in total for 4 adults and one lap child, this would have cost $1,783.
Essentially, I paid $22.40 to fly 5 people to Kauai instead of the cash cost of $1,783 all thanks to credit card points and miles.
For the points pros who want to know the points value vs the cash cost, American Airline miles are worth about 1.2 cents per point. So my 90,000 American Airline miles are worth about $1,080. By paying with points, I was able to save $703 compared to if I were to pay with cash or card.
Inbound Flight
The return leg of my trip from Kauai to Phoenix was with Southwest Airlines. Currently, with Southwest Airlines, I have the pleasure of having a Companion Pass. With the Southwest Companion pass, I can designate someone to fly with me for absolutely free, aside from the $5.60 fee. In this case, I designated my wife as my companion with the Companion Pass. This means that if I paid for a flight with cash OR points, my wife gets to accompany me for free. Read about the Companion Pass and how to earn it here.
On our outbound flight home, we only had to redeem points for 3 of the 5 people since one is flying under my Companion Pass and the other is a lap child. Each ticket home cost us 15,209 points plus the $5.60 fee. The total comes out to 45,627 Southwest Rapid Rewards points and $22.40 in fees.
The cash price of 4 tickets to Phoenix from Kauai at the time of booking would have cost $275.60 each. This would make the final cash cost $1,102.40.
Again, I only had to pay $22.40 in fees to fly my party of 5 home from Kauai instead of paying the $1,102.40 it would have cost if I didn’t use credit card points and perks.
For the points pros, Southwest Rapid Reward points are valued at about 1.4 cents per point, the 45,627 points I redeemed are worth close to $638.78. That means I paid $638.78 in points for tickets that are worth $1,102.40.
So far, I have paid a total of $44.80 out of pocket for $2,885.40 worth of tickets to and from Kauai for my family of 5.
Recommended Southwest Airline credit cards to earn points for flights
Rental Car
I’m someone who can’t sit still on vacation and needs to see and do everything. The best and most cost effective way for us to do that is to rent a car from the airport. Through Autoslash.com (no affiliation), I was able to find a rental car through National for $755.96 for the entire duration of our trip. Rental cars are usually the most expensive part of our trips but an absolute must for us when traveling with kids.
Although you could use points to rent a car through the various credit card points portal, we prefer to save the points for better redemptions. Fortunately, we’re able to utilize a $325 travel credit from one of our US Bank Altitude Reserve cards to alleviate the cost of the car rental. So our out of pocket cost for a full size car came out to $430.96. That’s $47.88 a day! An Uber or Lyft would have cost us much more than this on a daily basis.
The Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa
This is by far one of the most impressive properties I’ve stayed at thus far. With over 600 rooms, the Grand Club, an on-site spa, a 1.5 acre saltwater lagoon, a 150ft waterfall, tennis courts, and more, this property has it all.
The price tag per night rightfully matches the property itself. A night here can easily cost over $1,000 per night for a standard room. However, when redeeming World of Hyatt points at this property, it only costs about 21,000 to 25,000 points per night for a standard room which is about $294 to $350 when using the standard 1.4 cents per point valuation.
First, booking this property last minute (3 months out) was not easy, especially since our travel dates fell into the realm of summer vacation for many families. I wanted to book 9 nights consecutively but unfortunately, rooms that were bookable with points were not available for my entire booking. So I went ahead and took the gamble. I booked every night I could within my desired travel dates with points. This meant making multiple one to two night reservations and having Hyatt note that they’re connected at a later date (there’s no option of merging confirmations). At this point, I had three different reservations at this resort spanning various dates. I gave the resort a call and spoke to a manager there, explained my situation to see if they could do anything for me, especially since I held the highest World of Hyatt status, Globalist. Unfortunately, they could not find anything as all the rooms were sold out for some of the dates I needed.
But wait, doesn’t Hyatt have a room guarantee for Globalists when you notify the hotel 48 hours out? Yes, Hyatt does have this policy but it is reserved for cash customers and not for points redemption. Back to the drawing board.
I knew there was going to be some leg work from my end if I wanted to make this work. For the next three months, I checked the Hyatt website and app daily to see if anything opened up due to cancellations. March and April went by with no luck. Then on one fateful day in early May, it happened. A room became available AND it was bookable by points! I have never made a hotel reservation so quick in my life.
After successfully booking the last date I needed, I reviewed the four different reservations I made for the Grand Hyatt Kauai to ensure that I didn’t mess up somewhere. Wouldn’t want to be stranded for a night with small kids due to an oversight on my end.
I then went ahead and gave the resort a call to note that I have four different reservations and to please note that these are all a continuation of one another. I was also able to redeem a suite certificate for the first two nights of my stay (unfortunately everything was already booked) which brought us even more value as a standard suite is easily double the cost of a standard room. Sure, we’ll have to pack up and move to a different room but that’s fine.
So some quick background of additional fees here before I go into the math and savings. This property charges a resort fee of $40 per day, self park is free but valet is $30/day, and the Grand Club is $150/day. For my calculations here, I will be taking into account the resort fee, the valet fee, as well as the Grand Club fee since it is included with my Globalist status whereas if I were staying here out of pocket, I’d be subjected to these fees if I wanted to access the valet and the Grand Club.
The Redemption
I was able to redeem a total of 221,000 World of Hyatt points for 9 nights at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. If I were to pay out of pocket, 9 nights at the Grand Hyatt Kauai would have cost me $15,993.84. This total takes into account resort fees, valet parking, the Grand Club, as well as any additional taxes and fees mentioned above.
What is great about points redemption is that there is no resort fee or any additional fees or taxes added on to your reservation. This feature alone saved me about $3,000 since the fees and taxes in Hawaii can be crazy. In addition to the points reservation, Globalists get valet parking included with the reservation. At $30/day for valet parking, that’s an additional $270 in savings.
221,000 World of Hyatt points is a whole lotta points. How much is that worth? On average, World of Hyatt points are valued at about 1.4 cents per point. With that being said, my 221,000 points would be valued at about $3,094. Of course depending on your redemption, the points can have significantly more as you can see here. If you’re curious, my redemption was valued at 7.2 cents per point. This was my best points redemptions yet.
To make it simple, that means I redeemed $3,094 worth of credit card points for a stay that would have cost me almost $16,000 otherwise. This is something that I never would have even thought to be possible even a few years ago but here I am, doing it!
Recommended cards to earn points to redeem with World of Hyatt
TL;DR
So let’s sum everything up for the tl;dr (too long; didn’t read) crowd. Keep in mind this includes calculations for a party of 5.
Outbound Flight:
Cash cost if I were to pay out of pocket: $1,783
Points used: 90,000 American Airline miles
Actual out of pocket cost: $22.40
Inbound Flight:
Cash cost if I were to pay out of pocket: $1,102.40
Points used: 45,627 Southwest Rapid Rewards points
Actual out of pocket cost: $22.40
Rental Car:
Cash cost if I were to pay out of pocket: $755.96
Credits used: $325 US Altitude Annual Travel Credits
Actual out of pocket cost: $430.96
Resort:
Cash cost if I were to pay out of pocket: $15,993.84
Points used: 221,000 World of Hyatt Points
Actual out of pocket cost: $0
The total cost of this trip for my party of 5 would have cost me a total of $19,635.20. But with various credit card points, hotel status, and credit card travel credits, I paid a total of $475.76 out of pocket.
Read the full and very in-depth review of the Grand Hyatt Kauai
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