How we saved over $32,000 with travel hacking in 2024
Curious how much we saved thanks to travel hacking in 2024? In this post, we’ll outline where we went using points and miles and exactly how much we saved.
If you’re familiar with us and our blog, one of the reasons we share is to de-mystify travel hacking and make it clear that truly anyone can do it. And in our opinion, there isn’t one right or wrong way to travel hack. Did you save money? Were you able to go somewhere you wanted? Do you use any amount of points and miles? That’s a win in our book! Congratulations, you’re a travel hacker! One of us, one of us!
We thought we did pretty well based on our savings with points and miles redemptions in 2023. Cue savings to the tune of $28,565.31. And because we welcomed a little traveler to our family this year, we didn’t think we’d be able to travel hack the way we had previously. While we took less trips in 2024 than we did in 2023, we actually were able to save just shy of $4,000 more thanks to redeeming our points and miles.
So, without further ado, here’s how we were able to save $32,523.88 thanks to travel hacking in 2024.
Round Trip to Phoenix
- Cost per Ticket: $582
- Tickets Purchased: 1
- Airline: United
- Seating Class: Economy Plus
- Departure Airport: O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
- Arrival Airport: Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
In May 2023, we visited the Westin Kierland Villas in Scottsdale on a timeshare presentation promotional offer. Because this was a timeshare offer, we had to commit to attending a 90-minute presentation in exchange for the discounted rate. When we showed up for our presentation, they were overbooked! Our lower rate was being honored for that stay, but the hotel offered us another timeshare presentation to use in the future. We like Scottsdale, the discounted stay saves us 70% (or more), so we figured why not.
We ended up booking for January 2024 for a nice winter escape from cold, snowy Chicago. Since our hotel was already paid for due to the promotion, we checked our United accounts to see how many miles we had available. P2 had some flight credits from his work trips, so we didn’t plan to use miles for his flight. Our previous travel had accrued enough miles to cover my flights to and from Phoenix, so we booked our first miles redemption of 2024.
The lowest cost seats for mile redemptions are in Economy (unsurprisingly). P2 had earned United Gold Premier Status, so we were able to book our seats in Economy Plus (worth $582) for the miles of an Economy ticket.
Total saved using points and miles: $582
Round Trip to Denver
- Cost per Ticket: $658
- Tickets Purchased: 1
- Airline: United
- Seating Class: Economy Plus
- Departure Airport: O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
- Arrival Airport: Denver International Airport (DEN)
To get to our vacation in Avon, Colorado, we obviously needed to fly through Denver. Similar to our Phoenix flight, we opted to pay for P2’s flight with cash (credit card) and use miles to cover my (P1) flight. Why, you ask? At the time we booked, P2 had Gold Premier status and I only had Silver Premier status. This means that for every dollar spent on flights, he earns eight miles per dollar. As Silver, I would’ve earned seven miles per dollar. Not a substantial difference, sure, but every mile counts.
The round trip flight for one seat in Economy Plus would have cost $658. But thanks to miles, we only paid $5.60 in taxes and fees per flight. To pay for P2’s flight, we used his United Club Infinite credit card to earn an additional four miles per dollar on top of the eight miles per dollar for his seat.
Total saved using miles: $658
Hotel Stay in Boulder
- Cost per Night: $646
- Nights Booked: 1
- Hotel Chain: Marriott
- Hotel Brand: Renaissance
- Location: Boulder, Colorado
Before heading to Avon, we spent one night in Boulder, Colorado. We had a Free Night Award from the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card that was expiring, so we opted to use it for our stay at the Renaissance Boulder Flatiron Hotel. While we did not redeem any points for this stay, we wouldn’t have opened the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless had we not started this travel hacking journey. Therefore, we count the savings as part of our points and miles savings for the year.
Total saved using the Free Night Award: $646
Flight from Chicago to Zurich
- Cost per Ticket: $4,217
- Tickets Purchased: 2
- Airline: United
- Seating Class: Premium Plus
- Departure Airport: O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
- Arrival Airport: Zurich International Airport (ZRH)
Our big international trip of 2024 was to Zurich, Switzerland. Since the flight from Chicago to Zurich is around nine hours, we decided to splurge for United Premium Plus seating. For this long flight, the elevated experience was well worth using miles and saving over $4,000 per seat.
Total saved using miles: $8,434
Hotel Stay in Zurich
- Cost per Night: $290.08
- Nights Booked: 6
- Hotel Chain: Marriott
- Hotel Brand: Courtyard
- Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Since we knew Zurich was going to be an expensive city, we opted to use points to cover our hotel stay at the Courtyard Zurich North. While $290 a night isn’t an amount we would never pay, we certainly preferred using our Marriott Bonvoy points over receiving a hotel bill for more than $1,700 at the end of our stay. We took advantage of the stay five, pay for four point promotion with Marriott, where the lowest point value night is free.
We earn Marriott Bonvoy points throughout the year on our regular stays, through linking programs, and on P2’s Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card. When we don’t have enough points to cover our desired stay, we transfer either Chase Ultimate Rewards points or American Express Membership Rewards points to Marriott. Transferring points to Marriott is pretty instantaneous, so we are able to book our stays when we find them at a points cost we’re comfortable with.
Total saved using points: $1,740.48
Flight from Zurich to Chicago
- Cost per Ticket: $2,993
- Tickets Purchased: 2
- Airline: United
- Seating Class: Premium Plus
- Departure Airport: Zurich International Airport (ZRH)
- Arrival Airport: O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
To return home from Zurich, we booked the same two seats in United Premium Plus. We transferred Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United in order to book these seats. For the international flight, the extra miles were well worth the expense.
Total saved using miles: $5,986
Flight from Chicago to Kauai
- Cost per Ticket: $1,090.33
- Tickets Purchased: 2
- Airline: United
- Seating Class: Premium Plus
- Departure Airport: O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
- Layover Airport: Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)
- Arrival Airport: Lihue Airport (LIH)
After visiting three Hawaiian islands in January 2023, we decided to visit the fourth main tourist island, Kauai, in 2024. With the cost of a Hawaiian vacation sitting at around $4,000 (or more), it only made sense to look at using points and miles. Flying from Chicago to Lihue requires a layover, and we found a United option with a brief stop in Honolulu. Since Chicago to Honolulu is a pretty long flight, we opted for United Premium Plus seats again. The flight from Honolulu to Lihue was less than an hour and was on Hawaiian Airlines. We had regular seats for this flight. This flight took us to our biggest redemption thanks to travel hacking in 2024.
Total saved using miles: $2,180.66
Hotel Stay in Koloa
- Cost per Night: $1,173.27
- Nights Booked: 5
- Rooms Booked: 2
- Hotel Chain: Hyatt
- Hotel Brand: Grand Hyatt
- Location: Koloa, Hawaii
When we decided to go to Kauai, we knew we were going to look at staying at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa. This is because Hyatt typically has the lowest point-per-night redemption rates. For a comparable hotel in a similar location, it’s hard to beat the value of staying at a Hyatt on points versus Hilton or Marriott. However, there are much fewer Hyatt locations than there are Hilton or Marriott hotels. So once we decided on dates, we booked our hotel rooms immediately.
We traveled to Kauai with my parents, and we covered their room on points as well. Using points, we were able to secure two rooms for five nights each at the standard rate of 30,000 points per night. To cover this stay, we transferred 300,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt and booked directly with Hyatt.
We are not comfortable paying more than $1,000 per night for one room, let alone two, so this stay is another one made possible by points.
Total saved thanks to points: $11,732.34
Flight from Los Angeles to Chicago
- Cost per Ticket: $282
- Tickets Purchased: 2
- Airline: United
- Seating Class: Economy Plus
- Departure Airport: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- Arrival Airport: O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
To get home from Kauai, we first flew from LIH to LAX. Those flights were only around $150 a person, so we chose to pay for those using the United Club Infinite card for 4 miles per dollar. To get from Los Angeles to Chicago, I found flights for only 9,400 miles per person. Since our United status automatically gets us Economy Plus seats, this one was an easy decision to use miles.
Total Saved using miles: $564
Conclusion
In total, we were able to save $32,523.88 thanks to travel hacking in 2024. Was every trip we took a bucket list vacation destination? Not necessarily, but we enjoyed them! And that’s what’s important to us.
Another thing that we never pay attention to is the cents per point – some people have a minimum cents per point (cpp) before they use points or miles. Not us! It’s all about what matters most to you. For us, that’s having the ability to save by using points and miles. Doing so means we can travel more while spending less, and that’s the biggest win in our book.
The key takeaway is that travel hacking isn’t about perfection or complexity; it’s about consistently using the tools at your disposal to maximize value, no matter your travel style. With thoughtful planning, a little flexibility, and a willingness to explore different options, anyone can become a successful travel hacker.
