People tend to think about Luxury Travel Hacking and think big, crazy, international luxury flights…
- Shower on the plane.
- Have a drink at the bar on the plane.
- Big suites to enjoy on your long-haul flight.
- Limo to/from the plane on the tarmac.
Which, by the way, all exist,
Welcome to my crazy world lol
But let’s not forget an EXCELLENT use of points and miles… luxury 5-Star Hotels!
While hotels are more “straightforward,” it’s also not completely obvious how to get max value, and when you should and shouldn't use your hard-earned points.
An easy rule of thumb that we’ve talked about before is to avoid using the credit card portals.
The banks aren’t your friend and aren't in the business of giving you max value, period.
Now that that’s out of the way, how DO you get max value for hotels and stay in some of the most beautiful properties on Earth?
The answer: Transfer Partners.
Different points currencies (Chase, Amex, etc.) can transfer to different hotel brands, and they do it in different ratios of points. Some are 1:1, some are 1:2, so you have to be careful when quoting these things in the different programs.
I’ll show you one example of what I mean using two of my favorite Hyatt properties (Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers here), because Hyatt is one of THE most favorable uses of points out there.
Check out the Park Hyatt in Milan, Italy. One of the most beautiful locations in a European city, incredible views of the Galleria (pictured below):
Full marble bathrooms, uber-luxury finishes everywhere, and of course, incredible food on-site (it’s Italy, after all)
Amex would charge you 284k points PER NIGHT at this $2k/night property.
You might not know but let me tell you – that’s an INSANE amount of points to blow per night.
You should never pay that much in points for a single night.
^^ This is more like it – only 45,000 points per night
Lux Travel Hacks methods win again 🙂
That’s 6x less points (6x more value) and requires $0 out of pocket. That’s another big difference between flights and hotels. Flights on points usually require something out of pocket for taxes and fees, but hotels… not the case!
So yeah, a $2,000/night hotel for $0, sign me up lol.
And these examples aren’t crazy to find. Here’s another at the Park Hyatt in New York City.
Another incredible property on Billionaire’s Row in New York City, right by Central Park.
You can see amex would charge 150k points per night for this $1,500/night stay.
Lux Travel Hacks methods? 45k points!
Almost 4x more in value and points savings.
If you wanna play the game at this level and get only the Best of the Best flights and hotels out there, check out Lux Travel Hacks.
This kind of travel will make sure your life will never be the same (in a great way).