In December, I took a two week trip away from the cold! I started in New York and stopped in Hawaii for a week en route to Asia, breaking my time between two islands: Maui and Kauai. After Hawaii, it was off for a quick stop in Singapore, 5 days in Phuket and two days in Tokyo. This was my first ever trip to Asia and we had a great time! I flew Business Class most of the way, stayed at the top notch hotels Andaz Maui Wailea, Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort and the Conrad Tokyo. I was able to pay for almost everything with miles and points, of course!
Trip Report Index
My Winter Trip to Asia and Hawaii: Planning with Miles and Points
Flights: Mostly Business Class
Flights were a bit complex as it involved coordinating with different people in different cities. Natalya and Svetlana met me in Singapore and we traveled through Asia together. Their flights cost 65,000 United Airlines miles each in economy and only left them without a flight from Singapore to Phuket. Alex, who was only with me in Hawaii, booked a round-trip economy ticket to Hawaii with United miles and this cost him 40,000 miles round-trip.
My Big Flights
The plan was to visit five places on my two week journey: Maui, Kauai, Singapore, Phuket and Tokyo. This was more than one could have on a single round-trip ticket so I made sure to get my “big” flights booked in a single ticket. I used United Airlines miles for this and booked a single business class award to:
Fly me to Singapore with a stopover in Hawaii (flying into Maui and continuing my stopover from Kauai) on the outbound leg.
Return me from Tokyo to New York on a non-stop flight on All Nippon Airways.
This ticket cost me 120,000 miles and about $50 in taxes. This ticket allowed me to fly all my large segments in business class. United Airlines allows a stopover and two-open jaws so this was a legal routing on United Airlines and a great way to maximize miles! For full details on how I planned and booked this ticket, read my post: Maximizing United Miles: An Award to Asia and Free Long Stop in Hawaii.
Flying into Singapore and back from Tokyo with a stop in Hawaii along the way
The Small Flights
This left the intra-Asia flights and Hawaiian inter-island flights. After Singapore, I wanted to fly to Phuket, stay there for five days and then fly to Tokyo.
Inter-island flights from Maui to Kauai: I redeemed 5,000 United Airlines miles on the partner Hawaiian Airlines. This can actually be done right online on the United website through award search and is very convenient.
Flight from Singapore to Phuket: The most convenient flight turned out to Thai AirAsia and our tickets cost $180 each. Since there was no way to use miles or other points for these, we bought tickets with the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard. The Barclaycard Arrival miles are very easy to use and allow us to simply pay for any travel purchase with the credit card and then go online and redeem the miles at 1 cent each with a 10% rebate. The $440 sign-up bonus definitely comes in handy to avoid paying for those small flight and travel expenses!
Flight from Phuket to Tokyo: I redeemed 15,000 United miles + $21.000 in taxes.
Total Flight Cost
My total flight costs turned out to be:
120,000 United Airlines miles + $50 for Business Class flights to Hawaii, Asia and back
20,000 United Airlines miles + $20 for intra-island flights in Hawaii and
16,000 Barclaycard Arrival miles each for flights from Singapore to Phuket on Thai Air Asia (redeemed for a $180 flight).
The Hotels and Itinerary
I definitely got to try out some amazing hotels on this trip and I am so lucky to have had the miles and points and be able to visit all these great destinations in fine luxury. Fortunately, we were able to redeem our Hilton points at the Conrad Centennial Sinapore and the Conrad Tokyo prior to the devaluation earlier this year and were quite happy with our deal. I also got to visit the new Andaz Maui at Wailea, which I had my eye on since it announced its opening. The best point value, however, came from the Starwood Preferred Guest points at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort that only cost us 40,000 points for all five nights.
Maui
Sunset over the infinity pool at Andaz Maui at Wailea
In Maui, we stayed at the brand new Andaz Maui at Wailea that just opened in September 2013. This immediately became one of my favorite hotels I’ve come across on my journeys and you’ll soon see why when I get to describing just how great everything was. From the beach to the room to the architecture to the restaurants, everything was top notch.
I spent two Suite Night Awards from the Chase co-branded Hyatt credit card. The card used to offer two suite nights to Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond members and I signed up for it while on my Hyatt Diamond Challenge. For the last night, I used 22,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points for a standard room. The hotel, however, was nice enough to let me keep my suite all three nights!
Kauai
Ocean View at Grand Hyatt Kauai
In Kauai, we stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. It’s a huge, massive, grand, massive (I can’t say that enough about this place!) propery with five freshwater pools, a salt water lagoon, a waterslide. The grounds are honestly one huge waterpark. As it was the week before Christmas, the hotel had a good rate at $275 a night. We opted to pay rather than redeem 22,000 points a night as I value my Hyatt points at higher than that.
Since we still had enough Barclaycard Arrival miles from my credit card, we were able to pay for about $600 of the $1100 total bill with these miles. We’ve been using the card on many of my basic expenses. Since it earns double points on every dollar we spend, we end up collecting the miles quite quickly. So that leaves $500 we still had to pay, but we were pretty happy the Barclaycard Arrival miles helped us out!
Waimea Canyon in Kauai
Singapore
In Singapore, the Conrad Centennial Sinapore cost us 40,000 Hilton HHonors points a night for two nights. Singapore is fairly small, easy enough to visit in one day, and our hotel was walking distance from everything. Of course, everything in Singapore seems to be walking distance from everything else! We spent most of the day visiting the Marina Bay Sands, especially the world’s highest infinity pool, and took a trip to the night safari.
A Christmas tree made from teddy bears at the Conrad Centennial Singapore
Phuket
Phuket is a big resort touristy area in Thailand and we stayed in one of the nicest tourist hotels in the area. When I looked up rates at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort, they were about $650 a night. We were there from Christmas to New Year’s so that’s when rates are at their highest.
Regardless, with Starwood Preferred Guest points, the hotel only cost 10,000 points a night with the fifth night being free. That’s a 40,000 points for a stay that would otherwise cost $3250 or value of 8 cents per point. And that’s why Starwood Preferred Guest points are so valuable!
An elephant on the beach at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort
Tokyo
The Conrad Tokyo was another hotel that went right to the top of my list. It was an amazing hotel with a beautiful view of the Tokyo Bay from high up. At 50,000 points a night for New Year’s, it was certainly a steal.
Tokyo was all about embracing the local culture, touring the city and enjoying the Japanese culture. Our 1.5 day visit to Tokyo was much too short and we hope to return to Japan again someday.
Enjoying our last day in Asia. Good friends and good food!
Meals and Activities
When I go on vacation, I like to partake in nice meals and activities. Who doesn’t? And on this trip, I was able to build in quite a few of these by redeeming miles and points.
Fortunately, because I had Diamond status with Hyatt and Gold status with Hilton HHonors, all our breakfasts were covered. And some of these breakfasts would be pricey, especially at the Andaz Maui at Wailea, which would be $45 per person! One of my Platinum elite Starwood status friends booked my room at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort and he happened to have Platinum status. Our breakfast was included at Le Meridien Phuket too.
Hyatt Gift Checks from Citi ThankYou Points
I ordered $500 in Hyatt gift checks from the Citi ThankYou points portal to cover my expenses at the Hyatt. These can be ordered by redeeming Citi ThankYou points at 1 cent each. These cost me 50,000 Citi ThankYou points and I used them to cover my hotel incidentals in Hawaii. These included:
Dinner outing at Morimoto at Andaz Maui at Wailea.
Dinner outing at Tidepools at Grand Hyatt Kauai.
Kayak tour of the Wailua River booked through the Grand Hyatt Kauai and put on the hotel bill.
Dinner at Morimoto paid for with Citi ThankYou points
Activities Through Citi ThankYou Points
In Phuket, we booked a tour to Phi Phi Islands and Ma Ya Bay using our Citi ThankYou points. Citi ThankYou points can be used to book activities through the Citi ThankYou Points Travel Rewards portal. The tour would cost $110 per person so it cost us 33,000 Citi ThankYou points.
Ma Ya Bay in Thailand was a marvelous site!
Visiting Ma Ya Bay was probably one of the highlights of the trip, though over the two weeks there were so many. Next up, I am going to review the details of my visit to each destination, what I did there, where I stayed, highlights and regrets.
The Miles Professor - Taking miles and points to the limit!