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When I first started traveling for work, for the first couple weeks I honestly didn’t see the point in earning and utilizing hotel, credit card, and airline points. I was under the impression that these companies allowed you to accumulate points but made it nearly impossible to use said points. While this can sometimes be the case, I’ve managed to pay for 6 vacations and saved over $14,000 in the last 2 years!
My first Travel Hacking vacation was to the 6th Anniversary Celebration at Disneyland, where we stayed 5 days (6 nights) and saved $2,766 with American Airlines and Hyatt points. Keep in mind that that I can only pay for the flights and hotels with points, I still had to pay for the park tickets, souvenirs, and food with real money.
We spent a long weekend in Sedona, AZ (3 nights) and saved $1,757 with Hyatt, American Airlines, and Chase points. The cool thing about Chase is that rental cars are included in their transportation category so you can use your Chase points when you rent a car!
As our first beach vacation as adults, we decided to go to Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica and it was such a dream. With my Hyatt points we were able to spend 5 nights in paradise to save around $5,398. I also learned that when you use your points at all-inclusive resorts, you’re able to use your points to pay for food!
This trip was a little different because I was traveling for work and decided to stay a couple extra days to visit this amazing city. So my flight was paid for by the company but I was able to stay 3 extra days at the Palacio Duhau – Park Hyatt Buenos Aires and saved $401/night or $1,203 by using Hyatt points.
Los Angeles (2018)
Sorry, I didn’t do a blog post on LA because I was very stressed out about Ben’s eye surgery and just couldn’t focus. But I used my Hyatt points to stay at the Andaz West Hollywood and saved $256/night or $768, and around $500 on American Airlines points.
Sadly, and regrettably, I had to use real dollars on half of the Alberta trip, but I was able to use my Chase points on the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel and save $460/night, or $1,380 and $423 on flights.
Happy Hacking! and be sure to checkout all my previous posts on travel hacking, here.
