How we booked our beach vacations on points in 2023

We booked our stays in St. Kitts and Nevis (Park Hyatt St. Kitts), Costa Rica (Andaz Papagayo), and Mexico (Thompson Zihuatanejo), Hyatt Hotels, by redeeming Hyatt Points, which we earned by opening credit cards from Chase, meeting minimum spend requirements, and scoring sign-up bonuses. Chase Ultimate Rewards are transferrable to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio!

Don’t forget that you can only transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt if you have one of these premium credit cards first: Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Chase Ink Preferred.

The best current Credit Card Offers are:

  • Chase Ink Business Cash (no annual fee, spend $6,000 in 6 months), which can earn you 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
  • Chase Ink Business Preferred ($95 annual fee, spend $8,000 in 3 months), which can earn you 100,000 Ultimate Rewards.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

You can earn a signup bonus of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards Points when you signup for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card and spend $4,000 in the first three months of card membership. This bonus alone is worth at least $1,200 in travel rewards when transferred to travel partners such as Hyatt!

REWARDS RATE

1x-5x

BONUS VALUE

$1,500

SIGN-UP BONUS

75,000 points

ANNUAL FEE

$95

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Chase Ink Business Cash

You can earn a signup bonus of 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points when you get the Chase Ink Business Cash card and spend $6,000 within the first six months. This valuable bonus is worth around $750 in cash back or at least $1,500 in travel when you redeem through Chase or transfer points to airline and hotel partners.

REWARDS RATE

1x-5x

BONUS VALUE

$1,500

SIGN-UP BONUS

75,000 points

ANNUAL FEE

$0

Note: if you were to use our referral link, please copy and paste it from Instagram into another browser; thank you so much!

Read all the details (including how to transfer Ultimate Rewards to World of Hyatt) in this post below!

We booked our stay in Hawaii by redeeming Hilton Honors Points, which we earned by opening credit cards from American Express, meeting minimum spend requirements, and scoring sign-up bonuses. 

The best current Credit Card Offer is the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card ($550 annual fee, spend $6000 in 6 months), which can earn you 150,000 Hilton Honors Points plus a Free Night Certificate annually!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

American Express Hilton Honors Aspire

Right now, it’s an incredible opportunity to earn a signup bonus of 150,000 Hilton Honors Points and get an automatic Diamond status with Hilton when you signup for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card!

REWARDS RATE

3x-14x

BONUS VALUE

$1,500

SIGN-UP BONUS

150,000 points

ANNUAL FEE

$550

When you book a Standard Room reward stay at Hilton, every 5th night is free, so to make the most value out of your points – book at least 5 consecutive nights and pay points only for 3 (when also applying your FNC).

You can also transfer your Amex Membership Rewards to Hilton when they are running the transfer bonus (up to 30%!).