This week, I booked BF and I’s trip to Oahu in October. Thanks to my perpetual infatuation with reward points, I think this 9 day/9 night trip should run us (for flight + accomodation + car rental for two days) a grand total of $850 each.
First off, we booked on a seat sale with Westjet for $169 to $199 one way (plus taxes) which ended up costing us $530. I think we could have gotten it for cheaper, had we booked earlier (maybe around $430 return) but the seats were filling up fast anyways.
Then, I scoped out what we could do with our SPG points. We wanted to get use up his points because he didn’t get the Amex SPG like I did, and his SPG points would then expire in February. I got an extra 11,000 bonus SPG points thanks for the AMEX SPG Mastercard promotion so I wanted to put that to good use too. We ended up using cash and points (which means you pay a deeply discounted X amount of dollars and trade in X amount of points) for Sheraton Waikiki and Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, and used two full free nights at the Westin Moana Surfrider. To stay at these hotels without using hotels.com or Expedia, it would cost us about $950 each. To stay at these hotels using the SPG points, it would cost us each $320…which is about $35 a night. Quite the steal- you can’t even stay in a motel on Waikiki beach for that amount…!
I know that you can transfer your SPG points to an airlines, and in transferring over 20000 points, they will throw in an extra 5000 points. I did some calculations and if we went through an airlines (got a free flight instead) we would still be paying about $200 in taxes. Then we would have to find a decent hotel that doesn’t cost more than an arm and a leg on the Waikiki strip. Three star hotels run at about $120 a night, so with that option, it will run us about $740 each. But we always wanted to stay at the Westin so we decided with this route instead. Besides, the Sweet Sleeper beds at the Sheratons are amazing!
Finally, I had about 17000 Delta SkyMiles that I accumulated a few years back. The problem with them is that not only do they expire every year if you don’t have any activity in your account, you can’t transfer them to other reward programs. You can’t even get a flight for that amount of miles. Because of that, I think I will use them towards a two day compact car rental in Honolulu, which would save us about $110.
Enough about me and my excitement. Onto some great personal finance reads this week.
PF Blog Love:
- KNS Financial asks whether you really need that emergency fund?
- Canadian Finance Blog asks you if you learned to fail fast
- Money Reasons talks about the pitfalls of being rich and famous
- The Financial Blogger gives us tips on how to get a raise after a raise (nice!)
- 20 Something Finance preps us on couch surfing 101- the do’s and don’ts of couch surfing
- Boomer and Echo talks about the sexiness of dividend growth investing
- Million Dollar Journey discusses why the long term growth of the economy is irrelevant to investing
- Well Heeled Blog says there’s a thin line between minimalist and moocher (I hate moochers!)
- Invest it Wisely has a great thought-provoking post on consumer ethics- where do you draw the line?
- Krystal at Work is lookin’ for a new travel rewards Visa card
- Dual Income No Kids explains what born again DINKS are
- Money Smarts Blog has HUGE news! Mr. Cheap is leaving and Mike wrote a book!
- Girl with the Red Balloon shares with us something that is hard to admit for any of us
Oh, and TalentEgg interviewed me for their Career Incubator article: Getting Into “Good” Debt: part 1- Why education pays but BMW’s don’t. Talent Egg is Canada’s online career resource for students and new grands, so please check it out!
Have a great weekend. My to-do list this weekend is to do my net worth calculation (sad to say, but I actually relish in doing this now!)
Jealous of your 9 day trip! I really wish we were going for longer, but I just started the new job and got a pro-rated amount of vacation days this year.
I used $500 worth of Amex points and we ended up paying just under $800 each for our 5 night trip to Maui at the end of this month. We ended up finding an oceanfront walkout condo for $100/night. Wanted a condo so we could cook most of our meals there.
@Krystal- I’m jealous of your trip to Maui! I want to go but BF wants to go to Oahu again where he can rent a harley *eye roll*. $800 is so good for Maui! Amex blue sky? I think I’ll roll over to that when my SPG Amex starts charging me for a yearly fee. Oceanfront walk out condo for $100 a night is a steal! Hawaii is THAT much more fun when you go there cheaply, I think. =)
Sounds like you’re getting great value out of your rewards points, that’s awesome
Thanks for the link, and have a fantastic weekend!
Thanks for the link!
Mike
Wow – going to be a great trip!
Hi Y&N,
Congrats on the interview, but the link doesn’t seem to work! Thanks for mentioning my article!
@Kevin- Whoops! Thanks for letting me know about the bad link. It’s fixed now.
Thanks for the mention!
So lucky!
My wife and I went last month to Waikiki and I love it there.
Krystal at work is going there too.
Here are some tips:
A tip to save some money in Hawaii.
My wife and I went last month for a week to Waikiki (awesome BTW).
Get the entertainment book before your go.
We saved over $350 in over a week just using coupons.
Also, we went to 1 timeshare presentation for 2 hours of our time total but received:
DInner cruise
Germaines Luao
$50 gift card to Top of Waikiki Restaurant.
Sign up for Great Canadian Rebates. This is my affiliate code (http://www.greatcanadianrebates.ca/register/107402/)
The website has a $6 cash back rebate you receive when you purchase it.
(http://www.greatcanadianrebates.ca/details/Entertainment.com/)
They only have the 2011 edition now.
Mahalo
@Steve Zussino- Yeah, I was looking for the 2010 version of the Entertainment book but couldn’t find it. I am just going to use the Go Oahu card- it’s only $35 a day and as long as you can cram activities into one day (e.g. wake up early) then it’s worth it. The time share presentation sounds good though! We just have to not get suckered in. Was it a specific company or did someone flag you down on the street?
Sounds like a wonderful vacation. We love Hawaii and are going there again in 2012. Can’t wait to hear about your trip when you return.
@Bucksome- Thanks! I can’t wait either. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted about my trip to Hawaii. Won’t be for another month and a half =)
Thanks for the TalentEgg mention, Young! You’re mentioned in Part 2 as well, so feel free to check it out.
Great to hear that you were able to save so much for your trip to Hawaii! Sounds like a good deal. Hope you have a great time, and keep us posted!
@Jeleen Yu- Cool- thanks! I’ll go check it out. Have a great long weekend =)
Wow, sounds like you really milked those reward points to save big on a great trip!
Thanks for including my article! I appreciate the support!
@Khaleef- You’re so welcome! Yup, I love milking my reward points- it’s almost an obsession. =)
What an awesome perk in using credit cards. Enjoy your trip.
Definitely check out the north shore, hanauma bay and the blow hole, and go to old town Haleiva!
@Financial Samurai- Haleiva? I haven’t heard of that place. Is it near Kailua? I’ll be sure to check it out. I’ve checked out the other places that you mentioned. I love north shore and hanauma bay. Thanks for the tips, Sam.
[...] Young and Thrifty [...]
Great use of reward points there young! When choosing a new credit card, I hope you will check out my Best Credit Cards In Canada page. It uses a custom forumula I developed for ranking the best credit cards in Canada taking almost everything into account:
http://www.howtosavemoney.ca/Finances/CreditCards/BestCreditCardsInCanada
@Savingmentor- thanks! I think I have checked out your credit card page- it’s very detailed and informative.
[...] Young and Thrifty offers Weekend Ramblings and PF Blog Love: Hawaii-Five-Oh Edition [...]
[...] I’ve finally finished reading this book while vacationing in Hawaii (you can see I was reading this book poolside), I’m going to attempt to do a review of the [...]