How I booked a 6 nights in Hawaii for almost FREE!
How many of you have Hawaii on your bucket list? Guilty! Hawaii is one of those places that we all dream about! Whether it is the distance or the cost, sometimes it just seems impossible to cross off the list!
I did it!
Hawaii was out of reach for me; a mere dream destination!
On a good day, I couldn't fathom spending $4,000 to $6,000 on a trip to Hawaii. That'd be my only vacation that year and if you know me, you know that's crazy talk! I live to travel, averaging 8-12 vacations a year! To be clear, Hawaii was out of reach for me; a mere dream destination!
Enter the Idea of Travel Hacking
The world of travel hacking was something I stumbled upon. In my distant memories I can recall someone saying something to me about signing up for a points credit card to save on travel. All I heard was credit card and that was my signal to tune my ears elsewhere. I believe I was looking up cheap flights and I came across Frontier Airlines' website. At the bottom of their website was an offer for their MasterCard. The offer was for 40,000 miles after the first purchase. Have you ever felt like an inanimate object was calling your name; whispering it as if it knew it had something to offer? Well, that's what that banner on their web page was doing. Within a few minutes, I was approved and on my way to my first 40,000 airline miles. If I can do this on Frontier, who else would pay me in miles to hold their card? Hmmmm....
Let me tell you, travel hacking is a no brainer.
After doing a ton of research, I decided that travel hacking was for me! Although I had a lot to lose, namely getting myself into tons of debt, the rebel in me decided to go for it. I decided to target my favorite hotel brand (Hilton AMEX) and Delta because they were the same credit card company and I figured approval chances would increase. I worked both the Hilton AMEX and Delta AMEX ensuring that I met my promotional minimum spends and the points literally rolled in. Let me tell you, travel hacking is a no brainer.
So, how exactly did I do it?
I'll give you a brief summary. If you want a step by step guide to how I did it, look for my blog on how to travel hack. The key is to use those promotional offers and team up!
My husband and I both hold the Hilton Honors Card from American Express . Between the two of us, we earned 120,000 promotional points at Hilton for spending $1,000 each in 3 mos. This was a matter of just paying our bills with the card and paying the card right back off. 6 nights in the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Alana - Waikiki Beach is 210,000 points (with the 5th night free for being a Hilton Honors AMEX Cardholder). As you can see, we were already more than half way there! The remainder of the points we obtained through referrals and regular card spend, I referred everyone I could- including my husband! It took approximately 6 months to earn enough points to book our hotel.
The second card we have is the Gold Delta SkyMiles card. At the time Delta was offering 60,000 miles for spending $3,000 in 4 months. Although this as a little more difficult, we both did it through regular bill pay and a couple large purchases that we put on the card. What's great about the Delta offer is that round trip tickets to Honolulu was averaging 52,500 miles each. With just the promotional offer we could fly to Hawaii and back and still have a few points to spare! Taxes are not covered by points so our flights totaled $33.60 in taxes.
Travel hacking saved me just over $3,900 on hotel and airfare on this trip. Within 6 months, with discipline, resourcefulness and a little creativity I was able to make my dream vacation which would have never been obtainable became a very real reality!
If I can do it, you can to!
For additional information on travel hacking, see my Travel hacking 101 blog post.
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