I’ll admit I’m really bad about tracking how much our travel hacking is worth. Mr. Savemycents has all this info and once it ends up in one of his spreadsheets, it’s hard for me to extract the info haha. To show you the power of travel hacking, I’m going to share with you our best travel hacked trip, which was a 10-day trip to Hong Kong and Japan spanning end of December 2018 / beginning of January 2019.
This is the image that I share on Instagram whenever I talk about this trip, and in today’s post I’m going to break it down how we did it
Flights to Hong Kong – we each flew business class on Cathay Airlines from LAX, but used different systems. I had 60K American Airlines miles (these miles came from an American Airlines credit card I had). Hubby used 50K Alaska Airlines miles – he is able to book some of his work travel to Alaska Airlines. At the time of booking, the business class seats were worth $4K each, so $8K total. With hubby’s status on OneWorld (he flew British Airways business class a lot for work), we rested in American Airlines Flagship lounge before departing. My flight from JFK to LAX cost 12.5K American Airlines miles, whereas hubby’s was part of his 50K booking.
(backpack from Tumi, luggage from TravelPro, Patagonia fleece pullover, and Skechers Go Walks which have been my go to daily shoes in 2013)
American Airlines Flagship lounge at LAX, December 2018
Cathay Pacific business class, December 2018
Intercontinental Hong Kong – we used a free night certificate from the IHG credit card to book this 5 star hotel. The hotel night was worth $1,100 at the time of booking. We had status within the IHG program, and thus were able to get 2 free drinks and an appetizer at the hotel lounge restaurant.
JW Marriott Hong Kong – we used 45K Marriott points to book this 5-star hotel, valued at $900 for a night. We did this twice, so $1,800 in value with 90K Marriott points. The bulk of Marriot point come from both of us staying at Marriott hotels for work. As Platinum members we were able to enjoy the amazing hotel lounge, which was stocked with hot food and drinks all day. We often used this perk for our dinner.
Flight from Hong Kong to Japan – We flew business class on Garuda Airlines (an Indonesian airline) using 60K Delta Airlines miles (30K each). These came from a credit sign-up we’d done a few years prior. We didn’t do much with the miles for a while as redemption in the U.S. was pretty bad. Delta and Garuda are part of the SkyTeam alliance, so you can use points to book on partner airlines. The flight was worth $1,800 each, $3,600 total.
Garuda Airlines business class
Kyoto, Japan – we stayed at the ANA Crowne Plaza which we booked with IHG rewards points (earned through credit card sign up) for 30K a day, valued at $300 for the first day. We like this hotel for its centrally located location (they are across from a bus station that includes bus 100 which takes you to many key spots in Kyoto), great value for cost, and their free airport hotel shuttle. The next two nights we paid $135 in cash. as its daily rate came down.
In Kyoto we primarily ate at food markets at cheap but good spots – Japan was a great place for that.
For our final night, we booked the Hyatt Regency Kyoto through a travel hacking friend who has Globalist status. We transferred 20K points to her, she made the booking for us, and conferred her status to us in a perk called “Guest of Honor“. We got a massive room upgrade and free breakfast. The room alone was valued at $550, with the breakfast being valued at $70 for 2 people.
Just 1/3 of our room at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto
Amazing breakfast at Hyatt Regency Kyoto
In many of the Japan hotels, our statuses also allowed for free visits to the public baths, for which I also noted what it would have cost if it weren’t free.
Osaka – we also paid cash for the ANA Crowne Plaza for a night, at $108 it was a good deal. And then on the last night before we departed, we switched hotel bookings at the last minute to a no-name hotel right at the airport for $74, and saved ourselves on taxi fare.
Flight from Osaka to JFK – We used 70K American Airlines miles each, 140K total, (earned primarily through hubby’s travels) and booked business class on JAL Airlines. The two tickets together were valued at $3,000 each / $6,000 total.
Flying JAL business class in January 2019
This was actually not our first time in Japan together. I first visited in 2005 as part of a school conference, we returned in 2014 as part of our honeymoon (also travel hacked). If we have infinite time and resources, we would probably be going to Japan every year if we could!
These are some very large vegetables!
All in, once we summed up the value of the flights, the hotels, the free food at lounges, airport transfers by airport shuttles, we saved about $22,000 in retail value. We spent $1,100 of our own cash on the hotel nights, public transportation / ground transportation, entry fees, food, and souvenirs.
We have done many travel hacked trips where we did not splurge on nice hotels or business class flights, and simply used the points to cover a basic room. This post shows though how you can get a ton of value by being strategic about accumulating your points to get a very fancy trip out of it!
Ready to try to travel hack your next trip? Follow me at @savemycents on Instagram and @savemycentsfb on Facebook for helpful tips and resources to jump-start your plans and save money.
