As part of this Newsletter I always try and show what is realistic when it comes to opening up credit cards to earn huge bonuses. I pride myself on not selling false expectations of “Do this one thing and you’ll be flying first class to Dubai in no time,” but providing more real-world examples of what even a single card can provide.
Today, I want to highlight a friend of mine and his success after some peer-pressuring advice from yours truly. For the sake on anonymity, let’s call him “Wax.” He was no stranger to the points game having already having opened a Chase Sapphire Reserve well before I ever started doing this myself. But a desire to go to Europe and eventually plan a honeymoon led him asking me for help MAXimizing his plan.
What He Wanted
It’s always a good idea to have an outline of your travel goals before opening a points credit card. Whether it’s business class flights, staying at a luxury hotel, or just getting to your destination as cheaply as possible, comfort be damned. Max Wax was somewhere in the middle of all of this, wanting to stay in nicer hotels but without an emphasis on how he and his fiancé got there.
His goals were to go to Europe (with a few ideal destinations in mind, but with some flexibility) and then about a year later go to Hawaii for his honeymoon. With his emphasis geared towards accommodations over flying in a premium cabin, there was a nice clear path for which cards he should open.
It also helped that I had converted Wax to Team Hyatt after a few trips together using points to book incredible rooms at hotels like Carmel Valley Ranch and Hyatt Regency Monterey in Carmel, CA and Monterey Bay, CA for a few golf trips.
What Cards He Opened
Amex Gold Card - Originally opened well before all of this planning with a 75,000 Membership Rewards point bonus. Used exclusively for a few years to accumulate over 150,000 points
Chase World of Hyatt - Opened for a total of 60,000 Hyatt points
Also received a Free Night Certificate (good for hotels at Category 1-4, so up to 18,000 points) after spending $15,000 on the card in a calendar year
Most of this spending was on property taxes and personal taxes rather than every day expenses, so not something everyone can accomplish
Chase United Explorer - Opened for 60,000 United points
Chase Sapphire Preferred - Originally downgraded his Chase Sapphire Reserve to a Chase Freedom Card, then opened the Preferred for 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
Note, you cannot hold both the Reserve and Preferred at the same time, hence why he downgraded first then opened a new Preferred for the bonus
You can also only earn a bonus between the two “Sapphire” cards once every 48 months
Chase Ink Business Unlimited - Opened for 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points
Second Chase Sapphire Preferred - Technically opened by his fiancé, but all of their points were going to the same cause, 75,000 points (60,000 + 15,000 referral bonus)
A Quick Caveat
It’s not lost on me that this is a fairly absurd approach and 99.9% of people are not comfortable or willing to open this many credit cards in a relatively short amount of time. Besides the Amex Gold Card, all of these were opened in a span of about 2 years, and no it did not tank his credit score.
The thing is, Wax and his fiancé are fairly stable financially with excellent credit and can meet the minimum spend requirements organically (i.e. not spending beyond their means just to earn the sign up bonus). This path is not possible for many people, but at the same time, not everyone is trying to plan two very expensive vacations within a year of each other funded almost exclusively on points.
What They Got
Now onto the fun part — what they actually got out of their points! Let’s start with their Europe trip which consisted of Amsterdam and Cinque Terre and then move onto the Honeymoon.
Europe
Using the Amex Membership Rewards Points from his Gold Card, Wax transferred roughly just over 100,000 points to Flying Blue (the Air France and KLM points program). This was enough for both him and his fiancé (then girlfriend) to fly round-trip economy from San Francisco to Amsterdam, and round-trip economy from Amsterdam to Italy. Had he paid cash for these flights, it would have cost somewhere around $2,000 minimum. If he wanted to fly in Business class, it would have cost a minimum of 200,000 points round-trip between SFO and AMS.
For hotels, their four nights in Amsterdam were split evenly between the Andaz, where Kayla and I stayed in March, 2023 (25,00 Hyatt points/night) and the Hyatt Regency (15,000 points/night at the time or a Free Night Certificate). They used a mix of the free night certificate and most of their Hyatt Points from the World of Hyatt Card to cover these hotels. His opinion was that the Regency was quite nice, but switching to the the Andaz later on “was the move,” due to it’s location and ambiance. I also enjoyed my stay at the Andaz Amsterdam and thought the 25,000 points/night price was worth it, especially since the Hyatt Regency now costs only 5,000 fewer points. The cash price for these four nights would have been roughly $1,300.
In Cinque Terre they actually booked an Airbnb since Max couldn’t find a hotel to use points. This and a few train rides were the only cash expenses they had when it came to transportation and lodging. Not bad when you consider they had four total fights and stayed in three different hotels/Airbnbs!
Hawaii
For their Honeymoon, Max and his fiancé settled on Hawaii. Max wasn’t sure if he should stick with Hyatt or branch out and splurge on something like a Ritz Carlton, or go full White Lotus and reach for the Four Seasons.
After some light blackmail, I convinced him that the Grand Hyatt Kauai (25,000 to 39,000 points/night) is the perfect balance of what he and his fiancé are looking for. I had also spent several nights here in 2021 and can’t recommend the property enough.
Thankfully, flights between San Francisco and Hawaii are cheaper and more abundant than getting to Europe. Max used all of his points from his United Explorer card to get round-trip, non-stop flights between SFO and LIH (Kauai) in economy.
The hotel is a bit trickier since the Grand Hyatt Kauai is a very sought after hotel to use points. Hyatt can also be stingy with which rooms you can actually book with points. The general rule of thumb is that you can use points to book their base or standard room (aka the cheapest room they offer) and sometimes suites. In theory this doesn’t sound so bad, but let’s look at the reality of this hotel specifically.
Not accounting for suites, the Grand Hyatt Kauai has five different room categories: Standard, Resort View, Partial Ocean View, Ocean View, and Club Access. They also offer ADA rooms which get lumped in with their Standard room category. I don’t have access to the actual number of rooms in each category, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the “Standard” room probably doesn’t have the largest inventory out of these five options.
This illustrates how difficult it can be to secure a room on points at a popular hotel. This isn’t just the case for Hyatt as you’ll often see Hilton and Marriott charge hundreds of thousands of points for rooms that aren’t their base offering. You can actually book the Club Access room at the Grand Hyatt Kauai on points as well, it just costs around a minimum of 9,000 points more per night.
Because of everything I mentioned above, Max hasn’t actually secured his full reservation yet, booking nights as they become available. He is considering splurging for the Club Access room that sometimes has more availability than the Standard room. It also guarantees an ocean view and access to their “club lounge,” which provides free breakfast and snacks throughout the day.
The total cost for his stay is going to be somewhere between 175,000 and 273,000 Hyatt points. This equates to all of the points earned from his Chase Ink Business card, Chase Sapphire Preferred card, and the Preferred card his fiancé opened (plus Max’s referral bonus) and potentially even more.
Considering that during the times he is looking to travel room rates are somewhere between $650 and $1,100 per night (Standard and Club Access, respectively), I’d say he is going to get a fantastic deal on a trip he and his fiancé will never forget.
One thing I want to reiterate is that you don’t have to open six credit cards in a span of two years to take amazing vacations using only points. The beauty of this hobby is that you can choose what makes the most sense for you and your goals, whether it’s one night at a luxury hotel, five nights at a more basic hotel, six round-trip flights between the Bay Area and L.A. or New York and Boston, or a one-way business class flight to Japan.
If you are looking for a place to start, I highly recommend reading my Third Edition Newsletter (How to start earning points). Currently, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is offering a 70,000 point sign up bonus if you open the card in-person at a Chase Bank. This isn’t the best offering they have ever had for the card, but it’s above the standard 60,000 points and a great place to start!
So dear reader, where are you going next and how can I help you get there using points? Please leave a comment if you have any questions or want any help with your next vacation!