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Courtesy of Carly Helfand
I love using points and miles to reduce travel expenses and unlock luxury options I wouldn't be able to afford in cash. These days, credit cards are offering more than just points and miles to incentivize customers. Perks like travel credits and free night certificates offset travel costs, and if you can combine them with points, it's a winning trifecta.
That's exactly what I did when planning a recent vacation with my husband in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The result was a five-night trip to my favorite resort of all time — the stunning Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal — that cost just $200 out of pocket total between a hotel room and flights for two people. Here's how I put it together.
Pedregal is one of the most expensive hotels in Hilton's entire portfolio when it comes to paying in points, with standard rooms going for 120,000 Hilton Honors points per night. But Hilton offers an amazing perk its competitors don't: free night certificates that can be used at nearly any Hilton property worldwide, regardless of the points price.
Holders of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card get one of these certificates each year, while holders of the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card can earn one by spending $15,000 on the card in a calendar year. My husband and I each carry both the Aspire and the Surpass, allowing us to rack up four certificates each year.
When I spotted three consecutive nights available at standard rates at Pedregal this past May, I quickly applied three certificates to maximize their value. Doing so allowed me to hang onto 360,000 Hilton points — which I figured I could use in part for two more nights at a less-expensive Hilton property — and book a room that would have cost over $5,700 for three nights in cash.
Instead of going ahead and locking in the last two nights elsewhere, though, I took a gamble. Knowing that many Hilton hotels — Pedregal included — tend to make rooms available at standard rates at the last minute, I decided to hold off on booking anything and instead checked Pedregal's availability daily. My persistence paid off: On the flight to Mexico, the last two nights finally opened up at standard rates, and I was able to use our last certificate and 120,000 points to grab them. By the time we arrived at the hotel, we were all set for a free five-night stay.
We chose United flights to and from Mexico, and in order to pay as little for them out of pocket as possible, we got creative. For the way down, we chose to use 20,000 United MileagePlus miles — discounted from 24,900 because I hold United Premier Gold status — and pay $48 in taxes for award tickets instead of paying $304 for revenue tickets.
I already had 10,000 MileagePlus miles in my account. To get to 20,000 for my husband's ticket, we transferred 10,000 Bilt Rewards points earned with the Bilt Mastercard® to my United account so that I could book at the reduced rate. I then transferred 20,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned through a combination of spending on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card to United to book my own ticket.
The Hilton Honors Aspire has a great new perk that helped us cover the $48 per person in award ticket fees. Each quarter, cardholders receive up to $50 in statement credits for eligible flight purchases made directly with an airline or through amextravel.com, so we each used our own card to trigger the credit.
After running down our points balances for the outbound flight, I decided to leverage other credits for the $334-per-person return leg, also on United. I'm a Capital One Venture X Rewards cardholder, meaning I get a $300 annual credit for bookings made through Capital One Travel. The credit covered all but $34 of the ticket price, but since it was a travel charge, it was eligible for removal with Capital One's "Purchase Eraser" feature; I used 3,400 Capital One miles to wipe the remaining balance off my statement.
My husband had about $130 in travel credits with United already from a previously canceled ticket, so he applied those toward his ticket home from Cabo. I charged the remaining balance to my United Quest℠ Card to earn three miles per dollar; at the time, I was also working toward a spending bonus on the card to earn extra Premier Qualifying Points, which help secure elite status for the following year.
