Planning your honeymoon is one of the most exciting trips you will plan. It can also be the most expensive trip you have ever planned. If the thought of paying thousands of dollars for a vacation when you just paid for a wedding stresses you out read on to see how my husband and I travel hacked our honeymoon and how you can too!
I want to caveat this by saying that some of the specific methods we used might not be appropriate for you and that’s ok! The general concepts for travel hacking apply across the board in my opinion. Only use credit cards if you can pay them off in full every month. Never go in to credit card debt to meet a spending minimum or to pay for a vacation. With that, here is what we did to pay very little for a 10 day trip to Hawaii!
Plan Early
We got married in 2020 and decided in 2019 where we wanted to go for a honeymoon. With the pandemic we didn’t actually go on our honeymoon until 2021 – so we had a little extra time to travel hack! We decided what islands we wanted to go to, what cities we wanted to stay in, and what time of year would be best for us.
Once we had the big things decided it was time to look in to the smaller details. We did research on what areas of those cities we wanted to stay in – this helped us decide if we wanted to stay in a hotel or bnb. It also helped us determine where we would fly in to/out of, if we needed a rental car, etc.
Sign Up For Airline/Hotel/Rental Car Loyalty Programs
Now that we knew where we wanted to go and when, it was time to decide what airline, hotel and rental car companies we wanted to book with. We chose Delta for our airline because we live near a hub, Marriott for hotels, and Hertz for our rental car. Once we solidified the brands we wanted to book with, we signed up for each of their loyalty programs.
Travel loyalty programs are typically free to sign up for and allow you to accrue points that you can later use to book travel for free or at a discounted price. I travel frequently for work so I chose to stay in Marriott hotels and fly with Delta to rack up points with those brands. The more you book with one brand the quicker you will achieve status too, which comes with its own perks.
Choose A Travel Credit Card With High Bonus
**Disclaimer: Don’t utilize a credit card if you can’t afford to pay the balance at the end of the month.
There are tons of travel credit cards available, each one coming with its own perks. The key thing I looked for when choosing my travel card was the bonus and various benefits that come with the card. I ended up going with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. With a sign on bonus of approximately $750 in points when you spend $3k in the first 3 months, reimbursing for TSA pre-check, and a variety of other perks, it worked the best for me. We achieved the sign-on bonus points plus the other points from our spending and had over $1k available to start booking.
Airfare
We combined our honeymoon with a friend’s wedding that was happening out west. Instead of having to purchase 2 different flights to go west this saved us a little money. Then we looked at what days were cheapest to fly. You can set up alerts on websites like Google Flights to see if prices are average, higher than average, etc. I recommend giving yourself enough time to track this a little bit so you aren’t pressured to buy if prices are high because you are on a time crunch.
When we decided which airline to go through I referred my husband to sign up for the Delta Gold Amex card. He received a sign on bonus and I received a referral bonus. I don’t remember exactly how many Delta miles that added up to but we only paid about $600 in total for 2 roundtrip flights (using points to cover the rest). Here was the flight pattern we took:
- Home –> Denver (wedding)
- Denver –> Seattle (layover)
- Seattle –> Honolulu (first stop)
- Maui –> Minneapolis (layover)
- Minneapolis –> Home
For island hopping I highly recommend booking through Hawaiian Airlines. The flight prices were relatively inexpensive. If you become a member of their loyalty program which is free to sign up for, you will receive a discount off of your first checked bag too.
Lodging
For lodging we used a combination of hotel and credit card points to pay for the majority of our stays. In Honolulu we stayed in the Waikiki neighborhood. I had accumulated enough Marriott points to cover the two nights we were there. When we went to Maui we stayed in two different areas: Lahaina and Kaanapali. In Kaanapali we chose to stay at one of the hotels right on the beach. For this I utilized the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal. At the time of booking our points were worth 50% more when used to book travel through their portal. When you book through Chase you also get cardmember benefits at the properties and you earn 10x more points.
For the rest of our stay, approximately 5 nights, in Maui we chose to stay at an Airbnb less than a half mile from Front St. in Lahaina. This allowed us to make some meals at the bnb and save a little money. To pay for a portion of this I used my Chase Ultimate Reward points and the Pay Yourself Back Feature. At the time (2021) your points were worth 50% more. I had enough points to pay for 2.5 nights of the bnb cost. Total nights paid for in points: 6.5.
Rental Car
We chose to not get a rental car in Honolulu and ride share to the few places that weren’t within walking distance. In Maui we decided to rent a car to travel to other cities and get to and from the airport. Again, I utilized my Chase Sapphire Rewards portal to book a rental car and get my discounts! Unfortunately I didn’t record how many points I had to use towards this, but I know it was a few hundred dollars worth. The remainder we paid for out of pocket. I also always opt to fill my rental cars up with gas myself, otherwise the rental car companies charge quite a bit to fill the tank for you. Additionally, check to see if your credit card covers rental car insurance. If they do you can opt to decline extra insurance through the rental car company.
To summarize, we took advantage of airline and travel credit card bonus sign-ups, brand loyalty points, and planning our trip ahead of time to allow our point balances to stack up. With some strategic planning we turned what would have been a vacation worth thousands of dollars in to one that was much more manageable financially. To this day it was one of the most beautiful and special places we have ever visited and hope to go back one day.
If you are interested in supporting the people of Lahaina that were affected by the wildfires earlier this year, check out this link to find legitimate organizations to donate to.
What are your specific travel hacks?