This past September, I treated my whole family of five (my parents and my two younger brothers) to a weeklong vacation to Hawaii. We went to the island of Maui and had a relaxing time. As many of you might know, a weeklong stay in Maui is not cheap. But I was able to save a couple thousand dollars while earning money to pay for my next vacation to Seoul, South Korea during the end of October (watch out for that blog post too). In this blog post, I will break down how I did it!
I've underlined the costs I incurred and have bolded how much I saved.
Flights
Flights are one of the costliest parts of a vacation. The total cost for my family of 5 came out to $1,590 ($318 per person), round trip. Since I bank with Chase, I was able to use their travel portal to book my flights with Alaska Airlines. A perk that I had is that I am able to book Alaska’s “Saver X” fair (their cheapest priced) and choose my seat, which one cannot normally do when booking on Alaska’s proprietary website. Since I was able to choose my seats, which would have cost an extra $40 per seat, I saved $200.
Now the exciting part about paying for the flights is that it was essentially free for me. Since I started in my credit card points and miles journey, I was able to accumulate thousands of dollars’ worth of credit card points. With my main travel credit card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve, I was able to redeem my points at a 1.5x value. In this case, instead of 159,000 points ($1,590 worth at a 1 cent per point rate), I only redeemed 106,000 points ($1,060). This means I saved $530 (50,300 points) for my trip to South Korea while saving a total of $1,590 from my own pocket having built up points over time with my every day spending.
Because I paid the flights with my accumulated points, I did not earn any in this transaction.
Accommodation
Another significant cost in a vacation is accommodation. My family opted to use an Airbnb since we like to cook a couple of meals to save money and eat out less. Our Airbnb condo came out to a total of $2,121.64 and I charged it in full to my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. Since that specific card has a yearly $300 travel credit that I can use, it was applied to this charge, saved that amount, and dropped the cost down to $1,821.64. The card also earns 3x on all travel expenses, I earned 6365 Chase Ultimate Reward points (or $63.65 if I were to redeem as cash back).
Car Rental & Gas
To get around the island of Maui, my family rented a standard size SUV through Enterprise. The total cost of the rental came out to $841. Using the same Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card that earns 3x, I earned 2,521 Chase Ultimate Reward points (or $25.21 if I were to redeem as cash back).
A perk of that same credit card, as well, allowed me to deny the car rental Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) that is offered when at the counter and use coverage that Chase and their insurance partner offers. Depending on the size of the car, the cost can range on average from $15-$30 per day. For our car, the cost was around $31 per day. Therefore, I saved another $217. When renting a car, I could be liable for a very high deductible in the case I would get into a car accident. If I didn’t have the coverage, my personal insurance would skyrocket.
As for gas, I spent around $100 driving around the whole island. Using my Chase Freedom Flex card that earns 5x on gas, I earned 500 Chase Ultimate Reward points (or $5 if I were to redeem as cash back).
Food
The last costly part of our vacation was food. As I mentioned before, we cooked in our condo to save some money but that doesn’t mean we didn’t go out to eat to enjoy some awesome poké and other Hawaiian cuisine. With a family of 5 total, we spent a total of $1,400 on food alone. That is a mix between restaurants and grocery stores. For everything food related, I used my American Express Gold Card that earns 4x on all restaurants worldwide and 4x on all US grocery stores, meaning I earned 5600 American Express Membership Reward points (or $39.20 if I were to redeem as cash back [note: American Express Membership Rewards points have different conversion ratio than Chase Ultimate Reward points]).
Total Savings & Earnings
At the end of the day, I spent $4,162.64 ($832.53 per person) on this trip.
Here is quick look at that breakdown:
- Airfare: $0
- Accommodation: $1,821.64 ($364.33 per person)
- Car Rental & Gas: $941 ($188.20 per person)
- Food: $1,400 ($280 per person)
- Total = $4,162.64 ($832.53 per person)
I saved a whopping $2,307, and earned a total of 14,986 points that I will be using for future travels.
And for my South Korea trip (I am there now as this blog post is being published!), I used 74,000 points (worth $740 if redeemed for cash back) to book my round-trip flight to Korea worth $1,567.97. I essentially booked a free flight to Korea! It was great to use my Hawaii vacation to help fund part my South Korea vacation.
If the ability to earn credit card points and miles to help fund vacations or even everyday life excites you, set a consultation with me HEREand I can help you review your credit card portfolio and create a personalized plan to optimize your spending.
Best,
Brandon