A few weeks ago, my husband and I found ourselves slightly glum as it has been raining pretty much nonstop for the past few weeks. The adults, the kids, and even the dog were getting a little house crazy and I decided it was time to really start thinking about where we wanted to spend the kids’ spring break this year. Last year, we went to Costa Rica and and stayed at the Andaz Papagayo entirely on points. This year, having just moved across country and purchased a home, we had no desire to spend beaucoup bucks (or really, any bucks) on an expensive vacation. Instead, I decided to take an inventory of our miles and points situation and quickly realized that it was possible to book a family trip to Hawaii on points!
Booking a Family Trip to Hawaii on Points
Our first order of business was to decide which island to visit. My husband and I honeymooned on Oahu and the Big Island, and we traveled to Maui with our oldest son in September 2013, when he was four. We had our eyes on Kauai and so with that in mind, I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to try and use one of our seven night Marriott stay certificates.
Last fall, prior to the merger of SPG and Marriott, I redeemed a bunch of Marriott points that I’d been sitting on for two Marriott Flight and Hotel Travel Packages. The goal at the time was to acquire as many Alaska Airlines miles as possible with our eyes towards a future redemption to Asia, and the seven night stay packages were just an added bonus to the redemption. We certainly did not plan to redeem them, as online travel experts had cautioned that the certificates were extremely hard to use in the United States due to availability, but I decided to call Marriott reservations and see if they had anything available on Kauai that we could use our certificate for.
Lo and behold, I was delighted to find that there were seven available nights at the Courtyard Kauai at Coconut Beach during our kids’ spring break week. I quickly confirmed that there was a room with two queen beds available and was thrilled when the booking agent asked if I would like an ocean view room with balcony — yes please! Total out of pocket cost for seven nights? $140. The resort fee of $20/day is not waived for award redemptions but it includes two daily cocktails and parking so I am happy to pay it!
The price without points? Over $4000 (and a garden view room to boot).
After confirming our hotel reservations, my next order of business was to book round trip flights for four from LAX to Kauai. After poking around a bit online, our preference was to fly American Airlines nonstop from LAX to LIH. However, tickets for four would have cost over $2000, so I wasn’t quite willing to pull the trigger, despite the major hotel coup.
The easiest option, of course, would’ve been to use Alaska Airlines or American Airlines points to book four round trip tickets. However, a quick search indicates that each round trip ticket in economy would cost 40,000 or 50,000 miles, depending on date/time availability. Luckily, I remember that British Airways is an American Airlines partner and that British Airways charges award redemptions based on miles traveled. Thus, a trip from the West Coast to Hawaii is only 25,000 British Airways Avios points. I don’t happen to have any Avios points, but I do have Chase Ultimate Rewards points in abundance and after confirming: 1) award availability on my desired dates/times of travel and 2) that points transfers happen instantly, I transferred 100,000 points from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account to my Avios account. 100,000 miles and $44.49 later in taxes and fees, I found myself with four confirmed, economy, round trip tickets from LAX to LIH.
Conclusion?
I’ve posted previously about how my family uses miles and points to travel around the world. Typically, we use our miles and points to help defray some of the cost of a large trip OR to travel business class or take a trip that we otherwise would not have been able to afford, such as our trip round-the-world. While I certainly did not plan to book a trip to Hawaii entirely on miles and points when I first started planning, that’s where we ended up and I am counting down the days until my family of four travels to Hawaii for a total out of pocket cost of $184.49 for airfare and accommodations which otherwise would have cost $6,105.46.