Booking Report #1 Ft. Lauderdale, FL December 2017

We like getting out of Ohio and going south each December.  The last couple of years we have gone to Orlando.  This winter we are switching it up since we are doing Orlando for spring break in March.

This December we are going to Fort Lauderdale to meet our friends' new baby.  With Macie in school we decided on a short 3 day weekend trip.

Flights:

No surprise here.  We chose Southwest for our round trip flights to Fort Lauderdale, FL.  Back in September when I booked these flights the round trip flight cost 19,500 points each.  This is pretty expensive in my opinion.  Both ways were non stop so I figured it was worth it and purchased 3 round trip flights for a total of 58,500.  I only needed three tickets because Kim flies free with me because of the companion pass.  Here is our post about our plan to regain the 2018/19 companion pass. Since Emmy is under two she flies free as well on a lap.

As I tell everyone to do, I recheck the cost of my flights almost every time I see that Southwest is having a sale.  During the first week of October I checked and the cost for the flight was reduced to 16,315 per flight.  I simply went in and changed my flight to the same exact flight.  Doing this credits back the difference in points.  I quickly saved 9,600 points.

Again in mid October another Southwest Sale was advertised which sparked me to check the flight price.  The price was reduced to 14,900 points this time.   From experience 15,000 points to fly round trip from Ohio to Florida is reasonable.  Simply checking Southwest sales saved us almost 14,000 points.  That is almost another flight!  Check your flights during sales peeps!

Finding a hotel:

Since it will be a short trip we are not going to stay on the beach and we don't plan on packing any beach items other than bathing suits.  I only had a couple requirements when searching for a hotel. The hotel had to be part of one of our points programs and it had to have a pool for the kids.

Hyatt Place Pool 

We have points with a few hotel programs - Marriott, IHG, and Hyatt.  I focused my search on these 3 brands.  I simply went to each brands website and searched Fort Lauderdale hotels.   Each time I selected the option to book with points.  Most programs require you to sign into your account before the points options will populate.  It if free to sign up for all the loyalty programs.

To save searching each website you can also use Awardmapper.com.  This is an awesome website which let's you search for hotels that have the option to book with points.  You simply scroll over the pins and the required points and hotel description appears.  Try this website out sometime you won't be disappointed.

When you search for bookings with points not every hotel in the brands portfolio comes up.  Many times the nicer, more in demand hotels will be sold out of rewards nights.  Since we weren't looking to stay on the beach this didn't hinder any of our options.

After some searching I figured out Hyatt had the best redemption option.  I found a Hyatt Place that only required 8,000 points per night

There was also a points and cash option of 4,000 and $55 per night.

The cash rate was $240 per night before tax so this was a great value.

Before booking I called the hotel to check if they had connecting rooms.  After finding out they do offer connecting rooms I ended up booking 2 rooms for each night.

I ended up booking 2 nights at 8,000 points per night and 2 nights at 4,000 points and $55 per night. Overall I used 24,000 points and $122(after taxes).  If I didn't have points it would have cost me $1072.  That means these Hyatt points were worth 4 cents each.  Also remember that you do not pay any taxes when you book with only points.  Hyatt Place's also have a good, free breakfast each morning.  This booking was a great value!

Hyatt Place Breakfast Bar

Rental car.

I searched kayak.com to get an idea what the cash rate was for a 3 day rental.  The cash rate was about $80 for the 3 day rental.  After searching all of our credit card travel portals I found a minivan for a total of $73 for a 3 day rental.  I found this rental on the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.  This was only a $7 savings but hey every dollar counts.

In the future we plan to post a booking post for each trip we plan to take.  Hopefully they are helpful.  Points can save a ton of money.

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