Best use of Chase UR points for USA Mainland>Hawaii trip [Consolidated]
 

I've been collecting Chase UR points for awhile now and have collected over 200k of them (have the Freedom/Sapphire Preferred x 2/Ink Bold/checking). I'm hoping that in the next year, I'm able to plan a week-long trip for my wife and I to Hawaii to celebrate her graduation (currently looking at several different Hyatt properties, specifically the Category 6's Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa, and the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort). As as side note, if anyone's been to both, I wouldn't mind opinions on these two properties compared to each other and what kind of value they bring.

I don't know very much about airlines, finding good tickets and routes, and maximizing my value when booking them. I'm just looking for general information that would help me find high value in traveling from Michigan (we live in Grand Rapids, but could also fly from Lansing, Detroit, or Chicago if it made more sense) to Hawaii and maybe within the islands themselves if we decided to switch hotels halfway through the vacation (go to both Maui and Kauai?).

I think United Airlines is my best (only?) option, as it flies out of GRR and is also a travel partner of the Chase UR program (although as mentioned, we could always drive to Lansing/Detroit/Chicago if it made more sense to use a different Chase UR travel partner). Any tips in using the United MileagePlus program, or suggestions in general would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

real easy, transfer points to united. I dropped 80,000 ORD-LIH for me and the lady. Mile saver award is 40k round trip per person. Then you can dump 110k to hyatt for the 5 nights in whatever hyatt you prefer. I am doing 2 nights hyatt kuiai (sp) for 44k.

What are the main differences between Saver and Standard awards? I'm looking at the MileagePlus air awards site where it explains the differences, but maybe I'm not getting it - is it just the availability differences between the two?

Edit: Nevermind, just read a couple threads on this topic.

I agree, UA/Hyatt. Note that even though Hyatt says there are no capacity controls, they have to have a base room available for your dates.

Investigate getting a club room also. I'm not sure, but it might be 6,000 points for up to 3 days. 12,000 points for a 6-day stay would be a good bargain to get free breakfast and drinks.

Sometimes you can do better on Priceline. I personally value points at 1.25 cents each, so 22000 points is $275. The cheapest room at the Kauai property is $330 a night (prepaid) plus 13% tax and $25 resort fee, so about $400. So your points are a decent deal. But if you can get a comparable hotel for $150 plus tax and resort fee (and it's quite possible on PL) you might prefer to save your points.

Since you have time, you can also get the Hyatt card x 2, which for a $75 (not waived) fee gives two free nights at any property - so in this case, for $150 in fees you are getting the equivalent of 88,000 points. (But probably won't be able to upgrade to a club room.)

it says right there in the link you provided. The saver awards are capacity controlled and may be more limited or hard to find. You may have to perhaps be more flexible with your dates... or around certain periods they may not release saver awards. Thats all.

do an award booking on united.com and see if its available.

For a more thorough discussion of these hotels, check the Hyatt subforum... in fact, there's a recent thread that covers these two hotels.

Yeah, I've read through both threads, just thought I'd throw that in, in case someone's been to either/both and wanted to comment.

UA is definitely a great option, but not your only one. If flying out of ORD, you could transfer points to KE and book flights on AS.

Transfer to BA for AA flights would probably be a poor value due to connecting flights required, but it is also an option.

Does KE charge you for fuel surcharges, either when traveling domestic or international? I've never been able to figure them out.

I can confirm no fuel surcharges for domestic US flights as with most (all?) other programs.

Since Chicago is one of United's hubs, I would search ORD-Hawaii first for saver availibility & then find out which city closest to you that has saver availibility (GRR/LAN/DTW, etc) to Chicago. Not sure if there are UA flights from AZO (Kalamazoo) to ORD. I know AA flys there as I flew into AZO earlier this month on AA.

One thing: If saver award is not available ORD-Hawaii, instead of spending double miles to get UA standard award, check biz/F saver award for the same miles.

How does it help to search for the flights separately from GR to Chicago and then Chicago out? Also, what do you mean by

If you search only from GRR-Hawaii united.com may not show you all the itineraries available. For example, it might not show you a GRR-ORD-SFO-Hawaii itinerary available but will show ORD-SFO-Hawaii if you search from Chicago. If that's the case and there is availability from both GRR-ORD and from ORD-SFO-Hawaii you can build that using "multiple destinations". Or if there is availability from ORD-Hawaii and not from GRR-ORD then you can try searching alternative airports in Michigan. As for the second question, Saver economy is 20K miles each way. Standard economy is 40K each way. Saver business/first is also 40K each way. If there is no saver economy available, instead of booking standard economy for 40K each way, there may be saver business/first available each way for the same miles as standard economy.

Ahh, got it. Makes sense - thanks!

Similar question - what would be the best way of using Chase UR points to get to the Hyatt Maldives? From what I know, you have to fly into Male, and then take a charter to the Island...correct? Would the best method be strictly using 160k United points (2 people, round trip, economy)?