Our family of four is planning a trip to Maui in about a year. Right now we have a Chase United miles card and have enough for one free round trip. We don't travel a whole lot, and we don't travel for business, so that's out. I plan on hanging around this forum and picking up some ideas, but I would appreciate advice on what else we should be doing to bank up miles over the next year or so.

I'd be interested in thoughts on whether we should look into a Hotel linked credit card? Right now we put almost everything on our United card to build up those miles.

I'd be interested in learning about other programs, bonuses, etc... And links to other blogs, sites that have tips too. Thanks and looking forward to learning more!

At a minimum, each person that is eligible should get the credit card and get the 60+K miles available.

Pretty much a newbie myself. You don't mention the airline you plan to use, nor the hotel chain you might stay with, but I'll assume United and that you're mostly looking to cover airfare.

For United you can of course apply for the credit card with the best up-front offer. Or cards actually.

So 25-40K miles on a United Mileage Plus Explorer from Chase (40K may be hard to get for more than one of you), and up to 40,000 miles on a Chase Saphire Preferred, which allows you to transfer points 1:1 to UA. Also get a Business version of the Explorer Card. Google for advice on how to fill in the application as an individual proprieter.

Repeat more than once per year. Repeat for each eligible person.

Remember to cancel the cards before the 1 year anniversary when you'll have to pay the annual fee.

Once you've satisfied the minimum spends on THOSE cards, you'll likely want to use different cards to put your actual spending on if you have any left. Optimize for the number of points you get for each type of spending.

There are probably other tricks as well. Not sure this will get you there though.

wharvey - which cards give me 60K?

Fanfoot - Yes, we have a United card now. As for the hotel chain, looking for thoughts there. We don't travel enough to have one chain we use. So we were thinking that we would just work on airline miles unless there was a good hotel card that would help us out.

Thanks for the thoughts so far!

I assume this trip is for you, your spouse, and your children? Maybe not, but I'm going to assume at least two people are old enough to get credit cards.

Each adult should apply for BOTH the Bank of Hawaii and the Bank of America Hawaiian Airlines Visa cards. You shouldn't have any trouble getting approved for both cards. Sometimes they will call and ask if you really want both, so just say you need them to separate reimbursable and personal expenses.

You get 20K miles on each card after your first purchase and another 15K miles on each card after spending $1,000 in four months. So if you two of you can spend $4,000 total in four months, then you'll have a total of 4 x 35,000 miles = 140,000 miles. It takes 35,000 miles to get a roundtrip ticket to Hawaii from the mainland, so each of the four cards will give you enough miles for one ticket.

Save the UA miles for something else. If you need a hotel room while on Maui, I highly recommend the Hyatt Regency, although the Andaz will open in about a year. Both are Hyatt properties. When you apply for the Hawaiian Airlines cards, on the same day you should each apply for a Hyatt Visa card from Chase. Each card comes with two free nights at any Hyatt hotel. But these nights expire in a year, so make sure you time it right so that you can actually use them. Or, look at Costco Travel for a discount package. 5 nights at the Hyatt and a car can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500 or more depending on the season.

Scottrick - yes, the trip is for myself, wife and two kids.

While the Hawaiian airlines deal sounds great, they don't fly out of Denver (wish they did!) and we do have enough miles for one free round trip DEN-OGG on United, so we would prefer to stick with them through this trip.

How old are you kids?

I would probably think about flying United...so gaining the mileage should be what you want to focus in on...also you can just go and buy your tix and focus your credit cards apps towards the hotel stay

Like Scott said you want to get one of the chase cards....Preferrably the hyatt one...because the hyatt is pretty nice..and if each of you get one card..then maybe thats 8 nights free for a pretty expensive hotel.....

my second recommendation is getting marriot card(if the 70k is still avail) because you get 1 free night + the 70 points...which can get you a couple of days at the new courtyard in kahalului

lastly I would also recommend the fairmount card...which can get you 2 nights + breakfast at a pretty high end hotel..

sadly most of the things that will help you require that you get a chase credit card so don't over do it...

A pair of Chase Sapphires to go with a pair of UA Explorer Cards will go far to accumulate UA miles. Required spend can be done with opening deposits for DDAs.

I started accumulating miles in April on BMI, an airline that's never come close to flying out of my airport and that will soon go out of business. Why? Not real important here; it's more important to understand that playing this game requires creative thinking sometimes.

Although Hawaiian doesn't fly out of DEN, you can still make those miles work for you. Hawaiian has several partners on which their miles may be redeemed, including Delta, which does fly out of Denver. Why not just accumulate DL SkyMiles? Because DL will charge you 65K on many occasions to get to Hawaii from Denver; Hawaiian's partnership with Delta means that for a RT only 45K Hawaiian miles are required.

140K isn't enough for four tickets, but it is for three. You've already got your United ticket. I understand that flying together might be preferable, but keep in mind you're trying to get to a popular destination and trying to do so in a year. That sounds like a lot of time; given a popular destination and the limited number of award tickets that might be available, that may be barely enough time.

Figure you may need to look for award tickets no later than six months out for your trip--maybe more (of course, could be less, but the chances of that may be poor). You need to meet spending requirements to qualify for the miles, which could take anywhere from a month to six months. You need the miles to post once the spending requirements are met, which could take several weeks to a month. So, if you can get a quick solution, requiring your taking a flight on United while your wife and kids fly on Delta, it might be worth it so that you can widen your booking window.

If you're committed to doing all of this on United, the job gets harder but could be done with Chase applications by you and your wife for the Sapphire Preferred, the Freedom (extremely low 10K opening bonus currently, but quarterly spending category bonuses that could mean as many as 30K more Ultimate Rewards points, and thus eventually UA miles, per card per year), the Ink Bold, and another United card application should get you enough miles, but that's a lot of spending requirements to meet in comparison with the Hawaiian cards at $4000 total for four cards.

Good luck!

Have you looked to see which will get you greater savings - airline or hotel? You may not be able to cover both in just a year ( though it is possible if you get your spouse in the game). But, lately there have been some great deals in Hawaii so you may be surprised. While you're planning Hawaii now, next year you may be kicking yourself because you "only" got $300 value for the points and your next trip your desired hotel or airfare is three times that, but the points are gone.

I would also suggest checking out VRBO and Home Away. I am a confirmed luxury hotel person, but in Hawaii prefer to rent a house. The prices are incredibly low (at least on the other islands) and locations are great. You have the advantage of cooking et al, and with two children it's an option to consider.

Thanks very much for the great ideas! I really appreciate all the posts.

When Scottrick mentioned Hawaiian Airlines, I went to their website to see if flying from Denver was an option. I didn't see an option for partner airlines (Delta) and when I put Den --> OGG in the search, it kicks Denver out. How can I do a search that includes partner airlines?

That's a great point! We don't need to stay in a nice resort. A condo where we can cook would be very handy. I guess I was asking about Hotels to see if there was something that would give us a bunch of points like some of the airline cards that have been posted, we would give it a look.

Thank you!

You could do something like two Hyatt cards (which would net you four nights, if available) and/or the SPG Amex (again, approximately 2 nights free per application if 12k points/night). But, the question is whether that is valuable to you? The Hyatt nights expire within a year, so you need to make sure they have availability. And, then you have the expense of staying in a hotel. If you value a high end hotel...then it's a great value. If not, then it's not - and you may have a cranky wife and children as you hotel hop

Now, I would still consider applying for the SPG as a diversification if you're in the game for the long run. SPG points are very valuable for European properties or to transfer to airlines. And, you can transfer SPG points within the household. So, apply for your card, refer your wife for the card (fee free first year) and you can transfer your wife's points to your account and cancel her card when the fee comes due. Then rinse and repeat in a few years.

Take a look at the below timeshare forum for ideas and last minute deals (45 days) on rentals.

http://tugbbs.com/forums/

Valuable link, thank you!