Not long ago, taking our family on a trip to Hawaii seemed like a pipe dream. The expense made it feel like something completely unattainable; thus I convinced myself I didn’t really want to go there anyway. Enter: credit card points. Now we’ve just returned from a fantastic trip enjoying the island of Kauai, and we have the beginnings of some plans to return and explore the Big Island. Here are some notes on how we did it, and how you may be able to do it too!
Trip Overview
We spent six nights in Kauai, splitting our time between a Vacasa rental on the northern part of the island and the Grand Hyatt Kauai in Po’ipu towards the south. We chose Kauai, the “Garden Isle,” for it’s lush green mountains, dramatic landscapes, and beautiful options for hiking. It truly did not disappoint. Our unanimous favorite day was the one spent hiking along the Na’Pali coast from Ha’ena State Park. The trail offered amazing views of the turquoise blue Pacific and ended at the base of a 300 foot waterfall. This hike requires some advanced planning to purchase entrance and parking, but was well worth the effort.
We also spent plenty of time exploring beaches, visited the Kauai Coffee Estate, took in the views of Waimea Canyon, caught mahi-mahi and tuna on a fishing charter, lounged around the huge pool at the Hyatt, and visited the Smith Family Luau to hear the stories and songs of the island. There were still many activities left on the table – many people take helicopter rides, visit the tropical botanical gardens, take sunset cruises, and so much more. Kauai offered so much beauty and excitement on such a small island!
Vacasa in Princeville
We absolutely loved our condo rental in Princeville. It was the perfect amount of space for five or six people and had the most amazing view, which was really the best part. The condo complex had a pool and restaurant on site as well as a steep path down to Hideaway Beach right on property. I booked this place because of the pictures of the view – little did I know we would be getting one of the most magnificent views in the area. The best part was, it was essentially free to us.
We booked this rental with Vacasa using Wyndham points. A little over a year ago, Tom signed up for the Wyndham Earner Business credit card when the opening bonus was elevated to 100,000 points. That card also earns 8x at gas stations, so before we knew it he had over 120,000 points in the Wyndham program. Vacation rentals can be booked using Wyndham points in the US and parts of Latin America – but there are a few complicated rules.
If the cost of the rental with taxes and fees averages under $250/bedroom, it can be booked for 15,000 points per bedroom per night. If the unit costs between $250-500/bedroom per night, the cost of the unit in points is 30,000 per bedroom. Additionally, if you hold either the Wyndham Earner personal or business card, you can book hotel rooms and these rentals with a 10% discount. We booked this particular three bedroom rental for 41,500 points per night (124,500 total) and saved ourselves $1900. To book these with points, you must first find availability on Vacasa’s website, and then call to book. Each time we’ve done this, it has gone smoothly. The current offer on the personal Wyndham Earner card is 90,000 points after 2K in spend. While this use of points might not be the highest value out there, it can definitely be useful for family or group travel.
Grand Hyatt Kauai
After enjoying our time soaking in the views and vibes of the North Shore of Kauai, we relocated to the Po’ipu resort area for three nights at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. If I’m being honest, this resort was part of the reason we chose Kauai for our first visit to Hawaii. From the small things like complimentary parking, laundry, beach chairs and umbrellas, to the big things like warm, friendly service and beautiful oceanfront grounds to explore, this hotel really lived up to the hype.
We met several couples who had been coming back for 20-30 years, and we could understand why. This hotel was beautiful with touches of luxury, but it also was one of the most family-friendly places I’ve stayed. You could spend a full day lounging at the pool, which boasts a lazy river, water slide, and salt-water lagoon. There were ample lounge chairs with plenty of shade, and we had no problem finding chairs, even during peak swimming hours.
The hotel is right on Shipwreck Beach, which is a prime surfing and snorkeling beach. Between the coral reef and the powerful waves and current that can start in late spring and summer, this beach is really only good for extremely strong swimmers and surfers. However, Po’ipu beach park, which has lifeguards, bathrooms, ample parking, decent snorkeling, and sea turtles (!!!) is about a mile down the road. Another lovely perk about the location is that the Maha’ulepu trailhead is right at the beach. This 3.8 mile out and back along the coast was a great place to catch the sunrise each morning.
Ok, I’m raving and raving about this place, but the best part was that it cost us plenty of points and zero dollars. We booked two standard rooms with Hyatt points, totaling 210,000 points for the three nights. Some of these points came from a bonus I received when opening the co-branded Chase/Hyatt personal credit card. Most of the points we used were transferred from our stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Hyatt is one of the main ways we use our Ultimate Rewards because the bang for the buck tends to be consistently high. These rooms would have cost around $6,000 in cash, giving us almost three cents per point value on this booking. We earn a lot of Chase Ultimate Rewards by each opening new business and personal cards whenever we are eligible, and by maxing out spending categories wherever we can (here’s a reminder of the basics of this hobby).
Getting There
There are many ways to get to Lihue International Airport, the main airport on Kauai. The best one-stop itineraries tend to be either on American Airlines through Phoenix, on United through Denver, or now on Southwest through Las Vegas (this wasn’t yet an option when we were booking). All of these will take around 12 hours and have you leaving Pittsburgh at 6 or 7am and arriving in Hawaii in the early afternoon.
We, of course, didn’t book this is in a straightforward way. Now that we’ve done the trip, I’d probably prioritize getting there in one day. When we were looking for flights, I had it in my head that it would be better to break up the travel and stay over somewhere on the West Coast. I also found a great deal on a direct flight from Oakland, California, to Lihue on Hawaiian Airlines for the date we wanted to get there. This deal coincided with an Amex transfer bonus to Hawaiian, so I pulled the trigger and transferred 84,000 points to book a one-way flight to Lihue for the five of us.
Not long after, I found a return flight on Hawaiian for 20,000 points per person to Phoenix and transferred more Amex points to book it. It’s worth mentioning that Amex charges a 0.06% excise fee when transferring points to domestic airlines, which amounted to a $110 fee plus the $11.20 per person in airline taxes. I really enjoyed both of these Hawaiian Airlines flights. The seats were comfortable, we left on time, and the staff were so friendly.
Now, all that was left was to get to Oakland and then home from Phoenix. We did this via Southwest, since we have two Companion Passes in our household. These allow both of us to bring a guest for only the cost of the $5.60 taxes on any flight we book using either cash or points. We used around 120,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards to fly the five us to and fro. I must say, there are definitely ways to get to Hawaii for fewer points, but this is what worked best with the point programs we had and the popular spring break dates that we needed.
Food Tips
It probably comes as no surprise that food (and really everything)is pretty expensive in Hawaii. Part of the joy of traveling on points and miles is that there is a lot more breathing room for splurges on meals and excursions. However, most of us in this hobby are looking for a deal where we can get it.
We found that the prices for Walmart grocery pick-up were way cheaper than Instacart or even just looking at the prices at Foodland. We made a pick-up order while awaiting our flight, and were able to have groceries and snacks to cut down on some of the cost of the trip. We also incorporated a Costco run into the mix, and stocked up on some of the prepared salads and snacks our family tends to like. They also had some things specific to Hawaii, like a huge sushi platter and poke that we bought for our first night’s dinner. Some of us also enjoyed a $1.50 hot dog combo while we were there.
A great thing about the Grand Hyatt is it has a club lounge with free breakfast, snacks, and nightly heavy appetizers. You can gain access to this by either booking a room with club access (costs a little more), having Globalist status, or applying club access certificates to your stay. We stayed 20 nights in Hyatts last year, and the milestone reward for this includes a choice of benefits, one of which is two club access certificates. I was able to gift one to Tom that he applied to his booking, and I applied the other to mine. We then had breakfast and dinner covered each day while staying at the Hyatt.
As a final food-related tip, we highly recommend looking into airport lounge access as a credit card perk. On our way to Hawaii, we had a layover in Denver and were able to spend that time in the Capital One lounge. This is a beautiful space with delicious food and a complimentary bar. Our son may or may not have loaded up a plate 6-8 times. Who’s counting. We also were able to get into a Priority Pass lounge in the Oakland airport and the Sapphire Lounge in Phoenix. Many premium travel cards come with access to airport lounges – this post gives a couple of ideas for how to do this.
Odds and Ends
It would be great if we just needed to book flights and our main hotels and be done with it. In reality, we also needed bookend hotel rooms for our travel days, a rental car, airport parking, among other extras to make the trip work. It’s worth noting that we also found a fishing charter in the Chase Travel Portal for 66,000 points rather than the $1200 it would have cost if we had booked directly with the company. Chase partners with Viator to provide tours and experiences that can be booked on points for either 1.5 or 1.25 cents per point depending on which of their cards you carry.
Tom shopped around for our rental car, which was a must for the type of trip we envisioned. We met people at the Hyatt who did not have a car, and they said that using Uber/Lyft and walking around was working just fine for them; however, they were spending much more time at the resort. Tom has a full car rental post forthcoming, but in the end the best deal was actually in the Capital One portal where we used our annual $300 travel credit. He found an SUV for the full week for only $250.
Some final odds and ends were using expiring free night certificates we had in both the Hyatt and IHG program to book our airport night hotels in Oakland and Phoenix. Tom also used a travel erase feature on his Aeroplan credit card to pay for our extended airport parking for the week. He used around 7,000 Aeroplan points rather than $90.
I am so thankful we were able to take our family on what I thought of as a a once in a lifetime trip. The whole time we were there my heart was just so thankful to be able experience the beauty of the island and to make so many family memories. It is truly in the [credit] cards for us now to be able to return to Kauai and explore other areas of the Hawaiian islands, and for that I am full of gratitude
