3 nights in Hawaii for -$140 (yes that’s a negative sign)

Yesterday we looked at going on a Eurotrip. Today we’ll take a more relaxing vacation. And this time, we’re going to include the hotel along with your flight. Not only that, but this trip only requires two credit cards. First, a look at our itinerary:

• New York to Kona, Hawaii
• Kona, Hawaii to New York

And the credit cards we’ll be signing up for:

American Express Starwood Preferred Guest

10,000 points on first purchase

15,000 points after $5,000 spend in 6 months

No annual fee first year

Citi American Airlines AAdvantage

50,000 points plus $150 statement credit after $3,000 spend in 4 months

No annual fee first year
Note: This is an unpublished offer, but reports on this FlyerTalk thread say that the application link below works)

Total Airline Miles: 53,000 (50,000 signup plus 3,000 from meeting minimum spend)

Total Hotel Points: 30,000 (25,000 signup plus 5,000 from meeting minimum spend)

Total Cost: -$150

Flights

Although the big island of Hawaii is not nearly as popular a flying destination as Honolulu (Kona Airport has only 8 year-round direct routes from the continental U.S.), it is still possible to use your miles to fly there. American Airlines, the airline we’re going to fly, offers a daily flight from Los Angeles.

It gets cold in New York by October, so I figure that is as good a time as any to get away to a beach spot. Let’s do a three-day weekend towards the end of the month. A quick award search reveals a bunch of dates we could head out there for cheap: 

I want to head out on a Thursday and come back Sunday, so let’s match up a cheap Sunday return flight:

Looks like we can do Thursday the 24^th to Sunday the 27^th. Let’s dive deeper. At the SAAver award level (35,000 miles roundtrip), American has only one option:

Kinda brutal having to go through Los Angeles and Seattle, plus having to change terminals at LAX, but hey, I’m willing to take a long day of travel in exchange for three days in paradise. Note that the reason you have to change terminals is because the Seattle to Los Angeles flight is actually on Alaska Airlines, a partner of American’s. I select this itinerary and move on to the return flight:

On the way back there aren’t a ton of options either, but there is one I really like. The KOA-LAX-EWR option is a 930pm redeye from Hawaii to LA, and then a 2.5 hour layover before continuing on to Newark. This means I get the whole Sunday in Hawaii before I have to go home. Plus, one-stop from Hawaii to New York is very reasonable. The option to go through LAX and Raleigh doesn’t seem entirely appealing (no offense to Raleigh). I move to the booking screen:

$10 and 35,000 miles? I’ll even have enough left for a one-way flight on American within the lower 48 later on!

Total Miles Used: 35,000

Total Hotel Points Used: 0

Total Cost so Far: -$140

Hotel

Okay we’ve gotten to the island. Now we need a place to stay. I will go ahead and search the SPG website for hotels:

Starwood found 11 hotels for that weekend. One is in my price range. Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa gets a 4 out of 5 on TripAdvisor and costs only 10,000 points a night, giving me exactly enough for three nights after meeting the minimum spend on my SPG Amex. The options for 10,000 points a night are mountain view rooms:

  

Hey, that’s fine, I like mountains. Plus, the direction my window faces has nothing to do with how much time I spend on the beach. Booked!

Total Miles Used: 35,000

Total Hotel Points Used: 30,000

Total Cost so Far: -$140

So there you have it. Two credit cards and negative $140 gets you to Hawaii. Okay so you still have to pay for transportation from the airport and also for food, but to give you some idea of the money you’re saving, here’s a look at the actual price for flights on the same day and the same hotel:

Flights

$763 (US Airways via Phoenix each way)

Hotel

$597+ ($199/night plus tax)

Total Savings: $1,360+

Credit Card Links

Starwood Amex
American Airlines Visa (unpublished offer, meaning it takes you straight to the application page)

GIVEAWAY TODAY!!!

We still have a few AwardWallet Plus subscriptions and AwardWallet OneCards to give away. Leave a comment below and we’ll pass you one of each (until we run out)!

Need help thinking about the right credit cards for you, or how to book this kind of trip? Head over to www.wennecorp.com and we’d be happy to chat with you.