Kauai

Kauai 2019

In 2019 I started to do more research on how to best use my Chase Ultimate Rewards points and stumbled upon The Grand Hyatt Kauai.  This was an aha moment for me as prior to this I was primarily using the Chase portal to redeem points at a fixed value of 1.5 cents per point.  I don’t think I’ve used the portal since then!  Booking a stay at the Grand Hyatt Kauai was a redemption of around 3 cents a point and was the start of my points obsession!  We didn’t have enough points to stay there the whole trip which turned out to be a blessing as we were able to stay in two parts of the island.  My memory is a bit sketchy but here’s how I remember we booked the trip:

My husband and two grown kids met up in Los Angeles and we spent a night at the Hyatt Regency LAX for around 8K points.  We flew to LA on Southwest points transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards and to Kauai on Delta points transferred from my Amex Platinum.  We spent our first night at the Courtyard Coconut Beach (now the Sheraton Coconut Beach Resort) on Marriott points – not sure how many.  It was a lackluster stay, hope it is nicer now that it has been rebranded.  Then we headed to Princeville where we rented a beachfront condo at Puu Poa for 6 nights on cash.  The condo was right above tiny, extraordinary Hideaway Beach which we had to hike to get to.  We all loved it.  We finished off our trip with 3 nights at The Grand Hyatt Kauai for 75K points.   The Grand Hyatt is beautiful, but I preferred the north side of the island.  I have heard that the club rooms (with club access) are worth the extra points.  Standard rooms are now 30K per night and club rooms 39K.  Club rooms include complimentary continental breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres.  After nearly 10 days of pure bliss, we returned home on flights booked with Delta points – my memory is that they were 13,500 per person which seemed like a steal at the time!  Kauai is a stunning island and I cannot recommend it enough.  

-Mary