Great stuff, I love how you really broke it down each step of the way. I’m planning a trip to Hawaii and thinking about using capitol one miles from VX to book turkish and then me and p2’s csp bonuses to book some hyatt stays. Did you ever need a rental car there?
Thank you I appreciate it! Sounds like a great plan to maximize your points and get to Hawaii for cheap. We did end up renting a car for like 2 days on Oahu and a day in Kauai. Oahu has a few other options like hop on hop off bus and of course Uber, but we had an excursion on the other side of the island and then used it to get back to the airport the next day. Kauai I’d recommend it cause there isn’t really any other transportation and things can be spread out. We used it to check out the island and drive to the luau we booked
Thanks for sharing your redemptions, you sure got great value! I also stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai before, it was awesome and Tidepools (a restaurant there) is so good.
Over Christmas on Maui we stayed at both the Ritz-Carlton and Waldorf Astoria, thanks to credit card annual free nights. $1,976 was the cost per night.
I thought this was a good video with some valuable information. Nice work. My only critique is the use of the word free, which is a pet peeve of mine with travel rewards. In reality your example was a trip to Hawaii for $387.40 when you factor annual fees, resort fees that Marriott still charges on award stays and TSA fees. Not a big difference, but an important distinction if you ask me.
Clearly you did not actually book this stay before making this video. If you search for 5 consecutive nights with Marriott, the rate you get includes the 5th night free. So the daily points rate for your search was actually 65k/night (260k divided by 4 nights). And since you can't combine free night certificates with "5th night free" benefit, you would have had to top off each night with 15k points, or an additional 75k points for a 5-night stay.
Seems you’re right, this was an oversight on my part! When finishing up the signup bonus on my boundless card, I noticed the cash rates dipped on the hotel and there was the 20% off 5+ nights, so I decided to save my 5 FNAs and just pay cash since I booked everything else on points. I will say it’s still possible since you can top off the 50k FNA as you mentioned, just requires a bit more points. I appreciate you catching this and calling it out! Wouldn’t have even realized otherwise
Awesome haul and redemption man! Love how you did it with just a few cards
@@FatStacksAcademy thank you I appreciate it!
Great stuff, I love how you really broke it down each step of the way.
I’m planning a trip to Hawaii and thinking about using capitol one miles from VX to book turkish and then me and p2’s csp bonuses to book some hyatt stays.
Did you ever need a rental car there?
Thank you I appreciate it! Sounds like a great plan to maximize your points and get to Hawaii for cheap. We did end up renting a car for like 2 days on Oahu and a day in Kauai. Oahu has a few other options like hop on hop off bus and of course Uber, but we had an excursion on the other side of the island and then used it to get back to the airport the next day. Kauai I’d recommend it cause there isn’t really any other transportation and things can be spread out. We used it to check out the island and drive to the luau we booked
Thanks for sharing your redemptions, you sure got great value! I also stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai before, it was awesome and Tidepools (a restaurant there) is so good.
That’s great to hear! Actually just made a reservation for Tidepools, got me excited!
Over Christmas on Maui we stayed at both the Ritz-Carlton and Waldorf Astoria, thanks to credit card annual free nights. $1,976 was the cost per night.
That’s insane value!!
I thought this was a good video with some valuable information. Nice work. My only critique is the use of the word free, which is a pet peeve of mine with travel rewards. In reality your example was a trip to Hawaii for $387.40 when you factor annual fees, resort fees that Marriott still charges on award stays and TSA fees. Not a big difference, but an important distinction if you ask me.
Appreciate the feedback! That’s a good point, there’s usually always some sort of small cost. Sure feels free though compared to the cash rate!
Clearly you did not actually book this stay before making this video. If you search for 5 consecutive nights with Marriott, the rate you get includes the 5th night free. So the daily points rate for your search was actually 65k/night (260k divided by 4 nights). And since you can't combine free night certificates with "5th night free" benefit, you would have had to top off each night with 15k points, or an additional 75k points for a 5-night stay.
Seems you’re right, this was an oversight on my part! When finishing up the signup bonus on my boundless card, I noticed the cash rates dipped on the hotel and there was the 20% off 5+ nights, so I decided to save my 5 FNAs and just pay cash since I booked everything else on points.
I will say it’s still possible since you can top off the 50k FNA as you mentioned, just requires a bit more points.
I appreciate you catching this and calling it out! Wouldn’t have even realized otherwise