My wife & I enjoy Broadway shows as well, and although we’ve been to NYC several times, we started getting the itch to go again.
We had actually planned a couples trip to the Caribbean, but due to some fairly stringent COVID restrictions in the place we were going, we decided to rebook to NYC. This was somewhat last minute, so the point totals I’m going to share are likely higher than you might pay if you booked further out. But I wanted to give you another example of how we booked this trip for “nearly” free.
Flights:
- We fly Southwest as much as possible because we have the Companion Pass. That allows a companion to fly with you free.
- My wife used 42,526 points (because it was last minute) on her Southwest account for a flight to La Guardia Airport in NYC. And I flew free as her companion.
- We have hundreds of thousands of Southwest points in both of our accounts from years of achieving the Companion Pass & redeeming the welcome bonuses on the Southwest cards.
Hotels:
- We almost always try to book a Hyatt wherever we go because of the great point redemption values.
- The Park Hyatt in NYC is a hotel we’d likely never stay in if we were paying cash. It’s over $1,000/night and I’m so frugal, it’d probably be too hard for me to fork that over. But we have so many Hyatt points (and Chase Ultimate Rewards points that can transfer 1:1 to Hyatt), this hotel becomes much less expensive.
- This hotel was 40,000 points per night (Category 8 for Hyatt). We booked 5 nights & paid 200,000 points. You can get much cheaper Hyatts in NYC as well that cost fewer points.
- This hotel is right near Central Park and a mile or so from Broadway.
Really the only costs on this trip were tickets to the shows, transportation (to & from the airport as we walked everywhere else) & food. The travel was basically free!
We had a great trip & if you’re looking for a couples getaway in NYC & have some extra points to spend, definitely check out the Park Hyatt NYC. And, if you stay there, go for a jog in Central Park each morning with the locals. It's beautiful & so fun!
