We have enough rewards points that I’m allowing each of my kids to pick a trip this year.
My youngest daughter, Charis, has really wanted to visit Southern California (think Disneyland, Sea World, Zoo, beaches, & her favorite YouTubers live there - haha). We’ve never been there. We have friends there and my sister's family goes each year and loves it.
We knew it was time to make the trip.
The plan is to start in LA and slowly make our way down the coast to San Diego over 9 days. Checking out the various beaches and attractions along the way, of course.
Here’s how we booked it.
Airline:
- We fly Southwest as often as we can because my wife and I both have Companion Passes. That means that anytime we fly, a companion can fly with us for free. Charis, my youngest daughter, is my wife's companion. And McKinley, my oldest daughter, is my companion. I’ll explain how we both got the Companion Pass in the same year in a future post.
- When we both earned our Companion Passes, we were able to each rack up well over 100k Southwest miles to book flights on Southwest.
- Since we booked this trip only a month before our departure date, the total cost in points for both Emilie and I was 27,886 points round-trip each.
- After we booked our flights, we were able to add our daughters as companions for free.
Hotel:
- Hyatt is our hotel chain of choice due to its generous award redemptions.
- We booked 2 nights at the Hyatt Regency at Huntington Beach for 20,000 points each.
- We booked 3 nights at the Hyatt Regency at Newport Beach for 15,000 points each.
- And we booked 4 nights at the Park Hyatt in Carlsbad near San Diego for 30,000 points each.
- Most of our Hyatt points come from Chase cards. Since Hyatt is a Chase Travel Partner, you can transfer your Chase points to Hyatt for a 1:1 redemption in the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal. A great value! Southwest is also a Chase Travel Partner and you can transfer points 1:1 there as well.
If you recently applied for the card recommended in this post, The Best Credit Card for Travel Rewards, chances are you have some points you could transfer to Southwest and Hyatt as well for a free trip!
We’re excited for the upcoming trip so feel free to send us any of your Southern California recommendations! :)
