help me get to Curacao
 

Is there any way you can forsee that I can use my miles or points to pay for most of a 8 days vacation to Curacao?

I was hoping that my United miles could be used for a United vacation but it looks like United miles can only be used for flights.

Here's my points balance:

Delta: 70,000
United: 146,000
Priority Clubs: 81,000
Wyndham Rewards: 26,000
Capital One: 60,000
Chase: 54,000
US Bank FlexPerks: 50,000
American Airlines: 1,000


I can pay for the flight with either the United or the FlexPerks miles. Do you think I can also use the points in some combination to pay for lodging and car rental? Are there any points/miles programs where you can book a 'vacation'?

Thanks.

The Community Buzz forum is for Flyertalkers to discuss meetings & Dos, I'll move your thread to Travelbuzz & some FTers I'm sure will help you out there.

Willie
co-moderator of Community Buzz

As the OP really wants to use points or miles, sorry for one last move to the MilesBuzz forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

How about going for a Marriott CC for your hotel stay? Or maybe Hilton?

There are no Wyndham or PC properties on CUR. I second the Hilton and Marriott cards to get hotel stay. Hilton is 40k/night, but it often can be had for a little over $100 (depending on season). I personally would pay cash in this instance, but if you need to do it on cheap there are many many cards that accumulate HHonors points. Marriott has 2 properties, which are 25k and 30k/night. You could eaasilt split stay between both properties with a few CC bonuses. Points for car rental are typically a var redemption rate, but YMMV. Have fun

when?....have you found the air award?

I recommend the Hyatt - stayed there in April.

As for getting there, you can also look at flying to Aruba and then taking an island hopping flight over to Curacao.

We had about 200 people flying in and pretty much filled the American flight(s) out of Miami but a lot of people wanted to fly United and flew to Aruba and then took an island flight over.

I would like to do this trip in late January or early February of 2013. I believe this is high season for CUR.

I have found an air award using my FlexPerks.

Is there a way to combine any of the points I have into one program?

I wonder if it's too late to get the HHonors card, spend the $2500 ( I can do that within a month), then get the certificate, and book an available room for Jan/Feb. 2013.

No. These programs are designed to encourage loyalty to a specific brand. Allowing you to combine with a competitor would nullify the very reason they exist.

You can transfer the Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United Airlines or Priority Club (and to some other programs you have not mentioned).

You can transfer from Priority Club to airlines. The transfer rate is typically 10000:2000, meaning that 81,000 would yield 16,000 miles. Likewise, Wyndham Rewards can be transferred to some airlines. I imagine the transfer ratio is similar.

What Chase UR card(s) do you currently have? The Hyatt that was recommended looks like it's around $340/nt that time of year. If you don't yet have an Ink Bold or Ink Plus, you could get one of those. Minimum spend is pretty high at $10k for the full 50k, but you get 25k after first purchase.

The Hyatt is 15k points/nt, and you can transfer chase points to Hyatt. You'd need 120k points. The Ink Bold signup + minimum spend + your existing Chase points would get you to 114k.

Or, you could get the Ink Bold and the Chase Hyatt card. The Hyatt card would get you two free nights, and the Ink Bold 25k first purchase + your existing 54k would get you five nights. Then you could not worry about hurrying on the $10k spend. Getting both cards at the same time will probably require a call to the reconsideration line.

You can book a car with your United miles, though it's probably not the best use of them.

I have the Chase Priority Club, Chase United, and Chase Sapphire.

Ah, if you have Chase Sapphire, rather than Sapphire Preferred, you will not be able to transfer the Ultimate Rewards points to any other program. You need at least one of the Ultimate Rewards premium cards (Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, Ink Plus, JP Morgan Select, JP Morgan Palladium) to participate in the transfer option.

I'm looking into the Chase Ink Bold right now.

I've read that it is a charge card not a credit card. What does that mean?

Thanks.

Would the 25,000 Starpoints(Starwood) be useful for this trip? I've been thinking about applying for about a year but haven't done it yet.

A charge card requires payment in full each and every billing cycle. The minimum payment is 100% of the balance. Ink Plus is the credit card version.

Thank you r.brown. I had not considered that option.



EDIT: It doesn't look the flight schedule will work very well for me. Unless there are other airlines that make the hop.