BY: VS.
I hate spending extravagantly on vacations. That’s just me though. I do understand reasons for why people do. But, if possible, I like to find ways to travel for really cheap (or, in this case, for almost free!).
This is what my wife and I did to book our 6 day, 5 night all-inclusive trip to Hyatt Ziva in Cabo for relatively cheap!
WE USED OUR CHASE SAPPHIRE POINTS FOR HOTELS
My wife and I wanted to see if, somehow, we’d be able to scrap all of our points to apply towards this trip. In order to do this, we had to dig dip. We looked at all of our credit cards and calculated the total amount of points we had. Then, we looked for ways to consolidate all of those points.
My wife had a couple of credit cards that she had opened up in college where she had saved up points. I had a Chase Sapphire (not Preferred) credit card where I had about 25,000 points saved up from college that I totally forgot about. I hadn’t used the card in years so it was a pleasant surprise. I found out I was able to transfer those points to my wife’s Chase account and with the consolidation of my wife’s points plus mine, we had about 162,000 points. We used up 162,000 plus 160 dollars for fees (resort fees, taxes, etc) to book our trip (without flights).
Granted, we chose to book a 5-star hotel for 6 days, which is why it costed more for us. Admittedly, we did indulge a little bit. But, if you were to book a 4-star hotel for 4 or 5 days, then it’d be much cheaper for an amazing experience nevertheless!
Right now, chase has a promotion where if you spend $4000 in 3 months, then you will earn 60,000 points. If you and your spouse both qualify for the card, then you can earn 120,000 points together within a year.
You will be able to enjoy an all-inclusive trip in no time!
WE USED OUR SOUTHWEST RAPID REWARDS POINTS FOR FLIGHTS
Now that we booked hotels, we needed to book our flights. And for this, I looked to my Southwest points. I had saved up points over the years through credit card spend, Rapid Rewards dining program, and other methods to accumulate a significant amount of points.
I had to pay taxes and fees (tourism tax, etc) out of pocket though which amounted to about 70 bucks.
Personally, I love Southwest because of their awesome perks such as two free carry-ons and two free checked bags per person, free in-flight entertainment, open seating, unlimited snacks and beverages, and of course, their phenomenal customer service!
We were also able to get free upgraded boarding since I recently upgraded my Southwest Premier Credit Card to my Southwest Priority Credit Card where I get four upgraded boardings for free per year. And so, I was able to travel very comfortably with lots of leg room. Score!
Please Note – Southwest Airlines has open seating, which means that if you board earlier, then you get a better seat. Upgraded boardings just means that your position in which to board is upgraded. So, for example, our seating position was Group C (which is the last group to board) since we checked in late. We asked to be upgraded and we were given Group A, position 5 and 6, which essentially meant that we were the 5th and 6th person to board (with some exceptions). It only costed 40 bucks per person to begin with to do this. But because I was a Southwest Priority Credit Card member, I got them for free!
If you’re thinking about signing up for a Southwest Credit Card, you should strongly consider signing up for a personal card and a business card. You can accumulate 110,000 points pretty quickly that way and be eligible for Southwest’s Companion Pass which essentially lets one other person travel with you for free for a year!
Want to sign up? Use this link! (And yes, I will get referral points from this so win-win for all of us!)
In total, we spent about $250 bucks in total for a package that costed almost $3000 dollars for hotel and flights to spend 6 days, 5 nights in the amazingly beautiful Hyatt Ziva in Cabo.
You can totally do this too with proper planning! Start now!
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Isn't Gee So Lovely 