tl;dr – A list of travel deals I’m moving on that you may also want to consider.
Welcome to the very first installment of “Deals I’m Booking That You Should Book Too”, a weekly series where I walk you through three curated (possibly more) random travel deals – points & miles, cash, otherwise (?) – that I find compelling for one reason or another. I’ll try to keep this coming to you every Friday (hopefully 😉).
Book A Bucket List Overwater Bungalow for ‘Less-Than-Half’ The Cash Rate
I don’t know who needs to hear this (you do!), but the Westin Bora Bora is to me the leader in the clubhouse for Bora Bora stays from here on out, due to the incredible value to be had by using points. Yes, there are more luxurious brands one could stay at in Bora Bora and elsewhere in Polynesia, such as the St. Regis Bora Bora Resort, the Four Seasons Bora Bora, the Brando, and some of the Pearl Resorts – but booking directly into a bungalow on points is a steal for anyone who’s ever coveted that quintessential overwater Bungalow experience in paradise. If you’re looking to unload some Marriott Bonvoy points and have always desired springing off your room’s porch into shimmering blue water, this is for you.
If you strike at the right time (ahem, Marriott’s got a 40% bonus sale) and take advantage of the famed 4+1 on award stays, you can book directly into an overwater bungalow room for just about half of the cash rate.
Keep in mind that if you’re Platinum Elite or above (which is a core benefit of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card), you’ll receive free breakfast for the entirety of your stay, sweetening the deal even more. Let’s take a look at what I’m talking about:
I’m using Marriott’s Flexible search option and have selected ‘Use Points/Awards’ as well. I selected 1 night for illustrative purposes, but I also ran this search for five nights (to trigger the pay for four nights with points and get one free), and I can confirm there is some solid availability there as well.
Clicking through to a random day, you can see that the first two room choices are both overwater bungalows, bookable for just 79,000 points per night.
For redemption stays of five nights, I’ve seen the points rate for an overwater bungalow room as low as 316,000 points total. If you have a stockpile of Marriott points, congrats. Go ahead and pull the trigger – this is a solid redemption.
If you’re starting from zero or near zero, then no worries, I’ve got you.
Marriott’s got points sales going on now, where you can get a 40% bonus on your purchase. If you maxed out the sale, you can purchase up to 280,000 points for $2,500.
Again, if you’re starting from nothing, you’re nearly there now, as you stand just 36,000 points short. Depending on your situation, there are several ways you could cover the difference:
- You could transfer over enough Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards – each of these programs transfers to Marriott on a 1:1 basis.
- You could have a spouse, family member, or traveling companion purchase the remaining points with the same 35% bonus and then have them transfer the points to your account.
- You could simply purchase the points through the booking path as you make the reservation for your stay. You can purchase an additional 100,000 points per year in the process of making a reservation, but these points won’t be bonuses.
- Or a riskier, less immediate option is to purchase the maximum allotted points nearing the end of this sale (December 7th) and then wait into the new year for Marriott’s next points sale, and importantly, once your ability to purchase points resets, to get the remaining points.
Ok, let’s talk numbers. Take a look at the cash rate for the overwater bungalow room during a five-night stay. For one of the lowest rates I could find, you’ll pay 632549.00 XPF (CFP francs), which as of today is $6165.29.
As a reminder, it cost you $2500 to purchase 280,000 points. If you already had the 36,000 difference (or transferred over points to cover it), then you’re skipping out on $3665.29!
Even if you needed to purchase those additional 36,000 points, they’d cost you (someone else purchased them and then transferred them to you) $337.50. You’re still paying $3327.79 less than the cash rate.
Perfect for a honeymoon, anniversary, birthday, or simply ‘Tuesday’.
I just reserved my overwater bungalow stay for next year, so perhaps I’ll see you there.
Kick it with the sloths and howlers at the Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica Punta Cacique for $2800
Same concept, different tropical destination. I’ve written about this deal in the past when discussing Hilton’s point sales. If you’ve read any of those posts through, then this might be a review.
This points booking takes advantage of the fifth night free on rewards bookings.
This newish property from Hilton has fairly wide open availability for points bookings, and standard rooms will cost you 140,000 points per night. With the fifth-night free deal, you’ll need 560,000 points for your five-night stay.
If you’re starting from zero, once again, I’ve got you. Hilton is almost always selling points with a 100% bonus, and each Hilton Honors member can purchase a maximum of 160,000 points before factoring in the bonus, which amounts to 320,000 total points (with the bonus), for a cost of $1600.
If you don’t have a stash of existing Hilton Honors points, you’d still currently be 240,000 Honors points short.
You could transfer over American Express Membership Rewards points to Hilton at a 1:1 ratio, but that is a terrible use of Membership Rewards points, as you can put them towards far better redemptions.
Instead, you should activate two-player mode. If you happen to be traveling with a family member, friend, or anyone, so long as they are also a Hilton Honors member, you should know that Hilton allows members to transfer up to 500,000 points each year.
Have ‘player two’ pay $1200 for 120,000 Hilton Honors points (with the 100% bonus that will become the remaining for a total of 240,000). Note, this member’s Hilton Honors account needs to have been active for at least 30 days. Once that’s done, then transfer the points over to the account you plan on making the booking from.
The total cost for those 560,000 points? $2800.
The cheapest you’ll find a base level room at the Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica Punta Cacique is for just about $1000, though for most dates the cheapest rooms are around $1300.
So for five nights, you’d be in for at least $5000. If you buy the points, you’re paying $2200 less than the cash rate. Not bad.
If you’re a Diamond Elite, you should receive complimentary breakfast at the property, though admittedly some early reviews seem to suggest that it may just be a credit and or a continental breakfast (unclear if that’s for a lower tier such as Gold Elites).
Close out Aeromexico Business Class Fares to Japan and Seoul
Sorry in advance for not having screenshots of this one, as it slipped my mind when I first spotted the fares. Semi-regularly, I’ve noticed that you can snag a business class seat for as low as $1350 one way from:
Mexico City (MEX) or Monterrey (MTY)
to
Tokyo (NRT) or Seoul (ICN)
Typically, I’ve seen these fares available from about two weeks out from departure.
You can do a simple search on Google Flights like this one:
And again, right now the lowest I’m seeing is $2189, but hopefully those bargain fares will resurface.
This could be potentially clutch for any of you Texans. Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, all have direct flights to both of these cities, and in the case of Monterey, you’re talking about a staging flight that’s less than 2 hours for the furthest away of these cities (Dallas).
If you can’t find award space on JAL, ANA, American, or Korean Air, and don’t want to fly Zip, then ‘zipping’ over the border to Mexico could make for an interesting adventure.
Alright, tune in next week for another installment. If you have at all found this helpful and would like more of these and other (hopefully) helpful tips, hit the subscribe button below.
