Hawaii For Free? Yes Please!

Some people have asked realistically, where can I travel on frequent flier miles/hotel points? How many credit cards do I need to apply for, and what will this cost me? This answer is really up to you and how much time and research you put into it. You should start your earning strategy with a destination in mind. I will give an example if what I did to give you an idea.

My goal was to get to Hawaii as cheaply as possible. I had never been there, and although my wife has been a couple times she always wants to go back and visit. I decided that I wanted to get enough miles to get there for our 5 year anniversary. At the time this was one year away, giving me plenty of time to learn the ropes and obtain those miles.

My first priority was the flight. After reading online I decided that the easiest way of doing this was to fly American Airlines, using British Airways Avios. A one way trip to Hawaii cost 12,500 Avios + $5.60 for TSA fees. Luckily, Chase was running a promotion for their co-branded British Airways card and giving away 50,000 miles, just enough for my wife and I to fly to Hawaii for free! Well, I guess we had to pay $22.40 in fees, but that’s pretty good compared with the $1200 we would have paid! Alright, the flight is taken care of. Let’s tackle lodging next.

View from room

There are lots of hotels in Hawaii. It was hard to decide where to stay, so I decided on looking at credit card promotions at the time. There was a bonus of 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards with the Chase Ink which ended up being around 85,000 after the minimum required spend. Chase UR can be transferred to Hyatt, and I found a nice Hyatt with breakfast included for 12,000 a night. Great, there is at least 5 days covered. I then applied for the Wyndham Rewards from Barclays which gives you 45,000 points good for 3 nights at ANY Wyndham property. This includes the Wyndham Koloa Landing Grand Resort (http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/hawaii/koloa/wyndham-koloa-landing-at-poipu-beach-wyndham-grand-resort/hotel-overview). Both my wife and I signed up for the card and we had enough miles/points for a 10 day vacation in Hawaii.

Credit Card	Sign-up Bonus	Points Used	Description	Redemption Value
Chase British Airways Visa	50000	50000	2 round trip flights to Hawaii	$1,175.00
Wyndham Reward CC 2x (Me + Wife)	90000	75000	5 nights Wyndham Koloa Grand Resort - Kauai	$2,995.00
Chase Ink Plus	60000	48000	4 nights Hyatt - Honolulu	$960.00

Total cost of 10 days in Hawaii = 4 credit card applications and some gift card activation fees to obtain min spend requirements. Not too shabby. Now to earn some cash for miscellaneous travel expenses (meals, excursions, etc) see my post on the Discover Cash Back deal. This deal is so good, it makes this trip absolutely, 100% free!