Me and my fiancee are planning our honeymoon this year. We decided on Maui, Hawaii and are looking through Costco Travel. I was wondering how to best take advantage/maximize of this opportunity and rack up some travel points, miles, etc.
1) Which card would you recommend for someone who doesn't have any travel cards?
- knowing, that even after we are married I don't anticipate we will take more than two vacations (at most) in year (and some years maybe none)
2) Do you recommend miles ? vs. hotel points?
- we are considering staying at the Grand Hyatt Maui and Resort Spa for about $10K; maybe grand hyatt credit card?
3) Any particular method/website I should be utilizing to find vacation packages?
Appreciate any advice.
Honeymoon Planning
Re: Honeymoon Planning
The Citibank Costco Visa gives 3% back on travel. Unless you can find something with a great sign up bonus, that is a good deal for the amount of money you are looking at. The only draw back is that you have to wait until next year to actually get the cash back, as they only send it annually. If you pay the fee for the Executive membership, you may be eligible for an extra 2% if you book through Costco, but double check that it applies to travel, especially if purchased online. I haven't figured out all the gotchas on that because we mostly just do our grocery shopping.
Re: Honeymoon Planning
I find it best not to go through Costco and we've been to Maui over a dozen times. Can you take Southwest?
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Re: Honeymoon Planning
Costco has some good deals, but it possible to beat them on certain locations.
One thing you should know however is booking through Costco means you don’t get credit for the stay in your actual hotel loyalty account if that matter to you.
One thing you should know however is booking through Costco means you don’t get credit for the stay in your actual hotel loyalty account if that matter to you.
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Re: Honeymoon Planning
My daughter and SIL took a 25th anniversary trip to South Pacific two years ago and used Costco. They were very pleased with the trip and thought Costco offered an excellent package and value.
- willthrill81
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Re: Honeymoon Planning
Consider opening a Hawaiian Airlines and/or Alaskan Airlines credit card. Both have good signup bonuses. With both cards' bonuses, you might be able to fly out there with points from one airline and back with points on another.
The Sensible Steward
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Re: Honeymoon Planning
I travel a lot for work (up until this last year anyway) and I did my best earnings with "cash back" type of rewards cards (no fee ones). Some airlines are offering great bonus miles deals right now though, so it may be worth looking into as I am getting 100K to 150K miles offers almost weekly. I did have a United Visa and Southwest Visa card a few times, using points for family vacations and Southwest is by far the easiest carrier to use points on. I kept them for a year and did not want to pay another fee to keep it and canceled. With cash back cards, I am also not limited to using the rewards on travel. The best way to earn perks with an airline is to fly enough to get into their status tiers. It does not sound like you will be doing this. Do some searching, you may find something that will work well for you.
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Re: Honeymoon Planning
Check out the forum below as it is the equivalent of Bogleheads, but for all things travel (points, good deals, travel hacking, etc...)
https://www.flyertalk.com/
For example: While not a honeymoon, by looking at a few threads on good deals, I flew to the Maldives for 8-days via business class on Cathay Pacific ($8k normal ticket) and stayed in a Marriott overwater bungalow ($5k weekly charge) for $3k total.
https://www.flyertalk.com/
For example: While not a honeymoon, by looking at a few threads on good deals, I flew to the Maldives for 8-days via business class on Cathay Pacific ($8k normal ticket) and stayed in a Marriott overwater bungalow ($5k weekly charge) for $3k total.