How Much Does It Cost To Go To Hawaii?
Today is the day, my wife and I are heading to Hawaii for our first time. We hectically get ready doing last minute packing and I need to run to Target to get iPhone headphones before being picked up by Uber to take us to airport. I’m the whole time feeling that the moment was a bit surreal. I tried to make sure I did not miss out on any freebies per plan we were executing. Upon arrival to airport, we get through security and then head to the IAH’s KLM lounge to have some refreshments. This was covered by my Citi Prestige card through Select Priority Pass. It allowed for me and two guests to enter for free.
I was trying to take in the moment of me trying to be a global traveler. All while I took advantage of all these little perks. It felt great or is that the Jack Daniel’s on the rocks talking?! After arriving to our gate, we get on the plane and it’s still settling in that it is indeed happening. We’re on our way for 7 day trip to Hawaii paid for by points and miles. I am currently writing this on the United plane heading to connect in Los Angeles and onto Hawaii from there.
Award Travel is achieved when, either points/miles or cash, you wish to redeem are in amounts sufficiently at or above a company’s loyalty program redemption criteria for item(s). You instead choose to substitute additional cash or credit outlay from you by redeeming points/miles or cash for one or more reward flight(s), cruise(s), hotel(s) accommodations, car rental(s), entertainment, or sponsored products/services. Points/miles or cash be accumulated through bank, airline, hotel, and/or other company’s loyalty programs via credit card spending, dining programs, shopping portals, referral, and paid services.
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Recap Point Accumulation
So, let’s recap how this is being done. I started the art of award travel in March of 2016 to accumulate the points for this trip. I opened the following credit cards:
- Chase Sapphire – 55,000 Ultimate Rewards
- Hyatt (Chase) – 2 free nights
- Chase Ink Plus – 60,000 Ultimate Rewards
- Citi Hilton HHonors – 75,000 Hilton Honors
- American Express Hilton Surpass – 100,000 Hilton Honors
- SPG Starwood Preferred Guest Personal – 35,000 Starpoints
- SPG Starwood Preferred Guest Business – 35,000 Starpoints
These cards all had the big bonuses next to them that would result if you met the required spending of ‘x’ dollars in 3 months. So, we just put all our expenses, including mortgage, on these cards over a few months. Not all at once, but a few cards at a time, and the points stacked up. I said to my wife that now we may be able to finally take that trip to Hawaii that we have been avoiding due to the cost.
Travel Itinerary
Air Transportation
I read some of the travel blogs on the internet on how to get to Hawaii from Houston in the most optimal way. I used 70,000 Ultimate Rewards transferred to Singapore Airlines, an alliance partner of United, which I booked the flight for two people. So, that took care of the flight to and from Hawaii. In November, we settled out the hotel arrangements and for that we were going to be at a few different hotels on this trip to spread out the points.
Hotel Accommodations
On arriving to Honolulu, we stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village hotel from Thursday – Sunday. This required 120,000 Hilton Honors points (40,000 x 3). Once we left from Honolulu, we island hopped to Maui where we stayed from Sunday – Tuesday evening at the SPG Westin Spa & Resort. This required 40,000 SPG points. To island hop, I had some existing United points that I used to fly on alliance partner Hawaiian Airlines for 24,000 United miles. When we came back from Maui on Tuesday, we stayed one night at the Hyatt Regency before leaving out the next morning. This was covered by one of the two free nights we received from Chase Hyatt card. Our Uber ride home was covered by promo up to $65 on American Express when riding from select airports of which IAH was one of them up until December 31st of 2016.
Other Expenses
Although we had to pay for a few items on our trip like taxes ($22) and/or resort fees ($35 per night in Maui only), an iPhone app (Shaka Guide) ($10), food (approximately $300-$500), car rental ($129), baggage fees ($100 – could have been avoided, this was my mistake), and an Uber ride ($65). All these other “could be” (hotel & flight) expensive expenses were covered with points and miles. So how much does it cost to go to Hawaii? Well, it’s absolutely possible to get and stay there for essentially “free”, you can add up my other expenses and determine if that worth it for you.
In Closing
Even though we used credit cards strategically to get there, please don’t misconstrue that we went into debt or paid a dime of interest to do so. We did neither! It can happen folks, we too can now testify that award travel done right works for trips you might think financially impossible!
BTW we had a great time in Hawaii!!!
If you would like to apply for some of the credit cards I mentioned above that I used above to get to Hawaii, visit my Affiliate and Referral link here and find those cards from there.
