Hey guys,

I have friends who are having a destination wedding at the Renaissance Carambola St Croix resort in May. The discounted room rate for the wedding is $209/night before taxes of 25%. I was thinking of going down for 4 or 5 nights which translates to a cash cost of $1,045 or $1,306.

I was trying to think through whether there was a more affordable way of doing this. It's a Category 6 hotel, so for 120,000 points I could get 5 nights free there.

Trouble is I only have 2,000 points. So I was thinking about how I could bridge the other 118,000.

Getting the credit card seems like an obvious choice for picking up 50,000 miles.

I also have friends (a married couple) who would be willing to give me their points. He has 36,000 points and she has 20,000.

And then I can also purchase up to 50,000 points at 1.25 cents per point.

From reading a few older threads, it sounds like a points transfer from my friends to me to complete the award is viable even though we are not married. Is that still true?

So would the simplest way to do this be for me to order the credit card and get that 50,000 miles, then purchase 32,000 points for $400, and then complete the award by transferring my friend's 36,000 points? That would leave my other friend's 20,000 points on the table, but I feel like things get a little complicated when trying to combine 3 different accounts?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I believe its supposed to be for spouses but others have reported that it doesn't matter. Shouldn't matter to do it twice.

You can get the business version of the card for another bonus.

You can also spend, spend, spend on the card(s) to help bridge the gap further.

Good luck!

Whoa so I can have the personal credit card and business credit card at the same time?

I've already opened 4 Chase credit cards (1 business, 3 personal) in the last 6 months....I might have to really push it to get 2 more opened but I think it's worth a shot.

I don't know if you still can, but I've had 3 Marriott CCs at once (Premier personal, basic personal, business). And received the bonus points for all 3 of them.

the Ritz-Carlton card has/had a bonus for 140k points

Brilliant idea. Just applied. They are going to review my app (not automatically approved) which is not surprising as that happened the last 2 times I applied for Chase cards, and I ended up having to call in and validate my identity. Wouldn't be surprised if this time they ask me to move some credit around.