Traveling to Kauai on Points and Miles: How We Saved Big (Over $14,000!)

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We first visited Hawaii in January 2023 thanks to points and miles. We were fortunate to island hop and visit three Hawaiian islands (Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island) during our eight-night trip. The experience left us wanting more, so we decided to keep our eyes out for a chance to visit Kauai, the last of the four major islands for tourists.

Estimates for a week in Kauai range from $4,000 to upwards of $10,000. Paying that amount for one vacation simply isn’t in our budget. But with a little bit of research, we were able to visit Kauai on points and miles in November 2024.

Here’s how.

Table of Contents

Flying to Kauai on Points

Kauai’s airport is Līhuʻe (LIH). The main four airlines (American, Delta, Southwest, and United) offer non-stop flights from the mainland to Kauai from select departure points. These include Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA), and Phoenix (PHX). For other airport departures, however, a layover is required, either on the mainland or at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Hawaii’s largest airport.

Since we do not live on the West Coast, we had to book a flight with a layover. And while there may have been “better” redemptions from a cents per point perspective, we decided to stay with our tried and true United Airlines.

Our best flight option turned out to be Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Honolulu (HNL), and finally onto Kauai (LIH). Because the flight from Chicago to Honolulu is over nine hours, we opted to use our points to cover United Premium Plus seats for additional convenience and comfort. The flight from Honolulu to Kauai is around 45 minutes, so we just had standard seats.

Although we booked the full route through United, the leg from Honolulu to Kauai was actually on Hawaiian Air. For two seats ORD > HNL > LIH, we were able to save $2,180.66 by using miles. That cash price for a one-way flight is hefty and not something we’re comfortable paying. But that’s the beauty of points and miles – making travel more accessible – however you want to do it!

To cover the cost of this flight, we used miles we’d earned on United from previous flights, credit card spend, and MileagePlusX along with Chase Ultimate Rewards points that we transferred to United.

How to Use Miles to Fly to Kauai

Līhuʻe Airport is serviced by Alaskan Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and WestJet. If you aren’t flying from the West Coast, practice running searches from your home airport to Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, or Seattle. Different positioning will give you different redemption options.

Take a look at this example on American Airlines for November 2025. You can fly from LAX to LIH for 20,000 miles per person.

Where we stayed

Hawaii on points and miles is still “expensive” in points currency, so we knew we wouldn’t be looking at hotels at 10,000 points per night. And while we’re typically loyal to Marriott, we decided to open our search since Hawaii is such an in-demand destination with less options on points.

From others in the points community, we’d seen several people write about enjoying their stay at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa. And, from experience, we know that Hyatt often offers great points redemptions.

When we booked, the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa was a Category 7 location. In March 2025, it is moving up to a Category 8 (Hyatt’s most expensive points category). Category 7 location points requirements are as follows:

Standard rooms: Start at 30,000 Hyatt points per night
Regency Club and Grand Club rooms: Start at 39,000 points per night
Standard suites: Start at 48,000 points per night
Premium suites: Start at 60,000 points per night

If you have Globalist status with Hyatt, you can get Club access when you book just a standard room.

We were able to find 5 nights at 30,000 points per night – using 150,000 points for the room. We also brought my parents to Kauai, bringing our points total to 300,000 for two rooms for five nights at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. Chase is the only credit card provider that has Hyatt as a transfer partner, so we transferred Ultimate Rewards points from Chase to cover our stay.

For the five nights we were there, the nightly rate was $1,173.27. If you did the math, using points saved us a whopping $11,732.74 on the two rooms.

Top Kauai Hotels to Book Using Points

Using points for hotels on Kauai offers incredible value for tropical getaways. Several loyalty programs, including Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, and World of Hyatt, have properties on the island where travelers can redeem rewards for free or discounted stays.

Options range from luxurious resorts to budget-friendly accommodations, ensuring flexibility based on preferences and points balance.All of these searches were run targeting Fall (September – November) 2025 as the dates for using points.

Note that Marriott and Hilton both use dynamic point pricing, so these amounts can differ based on the day you’re viewing the website. Hyatt generally used fixed-point pricing, so you’re likely to find consistent pricing to what I’ve listed here.

Marriott

If you’re planning to stay with Marriott, take advantage of the stay five, pay for four deal and stay at least five nights. When you pay with points, this promotion allows you to get the lowest-cost point night for free, thus bringing down the average points per night rate.

Sheraton Kauai Coconut Beach Resort – the lowest points amount for one night is 53,000, but if you do the stay five, pay for four, the average amount comes down to 45,200 points per night
Marriott’s Kaua’i Beach Club – five nights can be booked with an average of 46,400 points per night, but one night will start 54,000 Bonvoy points
Koloa Landing Resort at Poipu – Autograph Collection – staying five nights gets rooms at 64,200 points per night while staying less than five may mean you’ll find nights starting at 80,000 points
Sheraton Kauai Resort – the lowest amount of points for a standard room that I found was 73,000 points per night. Taking advantage of the stay five, pay for four deal could bring the average points per night down to 59,400 Bonvoy points.

Hilton

Hilton has a similar stay five, pay for four deal as Marriott. However, you must have a minimum of Silver Elite status to qualify.

Hilton Garden Inn Kauai Wailua Bay – standard rooms start at 60,000 points per night
Hilton Vacation Club The Point at Poipu Kauai – you’re looking at a whooping 321,000 points per night

Hyatt

The Grand Hyatt Kauai is the only Hyatt property on Kauai. Points required per night vary based on room type: standard rooms start at 30,000 points, Regency and Grand Club rooms start at 39,000 points, standard suites at 48,000 points, and premium suites at 60,000 points.

As you can see based on the figures above, Hyatt requires the lowest amount of points per night. So if you’re looking to maximize your points, you’d be well-advised to start with Hyatt for your search. Because of its tremendous value, however, Hyatt award stays do fill up quickly. If you have dates that aren’t flexible, book them as soon as possible so they don’t sell out.

Flying Home from Kauai on Points

We knew that we wouldn’t be able to find a non-stop flight from Kauai (LIH) to Chicago (ORD), so we started at looking at our layover options. From experience, we know that Los Angeles (LAX) to Chicago (O’Hare) is a very common route. The flight we found was scheduled to land in Los Angeles at around 9pm. Because we were traveling with our baby, we opted not to take a red eye from Los Angeles to Chicago. Instead, we booked a night in Los Angeles to take a flight that left around noon the next day.

The flight from Lihu’e to Los Angeles was only about $150, so we opted to save our points and pay cash for that flight. Flights from LAX to ORD are also usually relatively inexpensive, but we found flights for 15,000 points per person and booked those. Then, because I kept an eye on the miles required for that exact flight, I was able to re-book our exact seats at 9,400 miles per person. With dynamic pricing, watching the points or miles required is a super simple way to (potentially) save your points.

Because both P2 and I have Gold Premier Status on United, we are able to book Economy Plus seats at the time of purchase (for the price of economy). These seats would have cost $282 each, so using 18,800 points total saved us $564 dollars.

Not a United fan? No problem! Use the same airports you considered on the way to Kauai in order to find the best deals that work for you.

Conclusion: Kauai on points and miles

Visiting Kauai on points and miles is a fantastic way to make an otherwise expensive trip more affordable. Thanks to travel hacking, we were able to save $14,477.40 on our flights and hotel rooms. Make sure you take advantage of airline partners, maximize your credit card points, and book strategically with hotel loyalty programs, and get the value of being proactive and flexible in your travel planning. With the right strategy, you can make your dream Hawaiian getaway a reality without breaking the bank by leveraging points and miles.