Good feedback so far, gang. Here is what we were able to accomplish so far, on fairly short notice...

* A six night stay at the Hilton Turtle Bay Resort on the north shore of Oahu using the 100,000 point VIP award from 1/01-1/07.

* Three roundtrip tickets on NW from right here in Dubuque to HNL, via our normal stop in MSP. On the way back, we go through SEA by way of the redeye flight. Total mileage cost to us will be 157,500...or 52,500 miles per ticket. The actual ticket price for the same flights would be $945 or $.018 per mile...kind of "borderline" for the ticket vs. miles decision, but for three tickets the decision to spend almost $3,000 or 158k miles was an easy one!

* In order to get the above airline tickets and itinerary, we had to return on 1/10 instead of 1/07. So...we just extended our vacation by three nights by staying in the windward shore city of Kailua at a nice looking B&B, something we love to do.

Bottom line...$33 in taxes for the airline tickets, $0 for the hotel room, and $240 for three nights at the B&B, and a rental car. Not bad, I think?!?!?

tvl4free...I really appreciate the deals you came up with, but traveling with a 2 year old and the added expense and time for a west coast trip was just not worth it to us at this time. Had it been just my wife and I, maybe we could have swung it, but as long as the trip is to begin with, our little girl would just loose it we felt.