Winter, spring, summer or fall – it’s never a bad time to visit the Caribbean.
07.05.2024 - 22:17 / thepointsguy.com
Two of the best travel rewards cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®, both currently have sign-up bonuses of 75,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. There are many ways to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points, but you'll usually get the most value when you transfer your rewards to one or more Chase transfer partners.
To illustrate the types of trips you could book with these new sign-up bonuses, two TPG staffers and I each went on trips using 75,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. I opted to book flights and an all-inclusive resort for a last-minute weekend escape to Mexico with my husband. Here's how I did it and what our trip was like.
When the opportunity to redeem 75,000 Chase points for a last-minute trip dropped into my lap, my schedule was already pretty full. But we could fit in a long-weekend trip in mid-April. So I started looking at what type of getaway I could book that would cost 75,000 Chase points or less for both of us.
World of Hyatt, which is a 1:1 transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, has drastically expanded its Inclusive Collection of all-inclusive resorts over the last few years. But I'd yet to find an opportunity to visit any. So, I checked whether I could stretch the 75,000 points into a weekend trip to a Hyatt all-inclusive resort for my husband and me. I was willing to go anywhere in North America as long as I could fit round-trip flights for two and a few nights at a resort into my points allotment.
As it turns out, I was able to put together the perfect last-minute Cancun trip.
Related: 11 reasons to choose the Chase Sapphire Preferred over the fancier Chase Sapphire Reserve
I was amazed when I found a nonstop flight from William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) to Cancun International Airport (CUN) on my desired Friday departure date bookable for just 2,905 Southwest points plus $48.23. The negative: This flight departed Houston at 6:45 p.m. and arrived in Cancun at 9 p.m. That's a particularly late arrival if we were going to only spend a few nights in Mexico.
The slightly more expensive Wanna Get Away Plus fare allows for free same-day flight changes starting at midnight on the day of travel if space is available. So, after having been on many Southwest flights recently that either went out with empty seats or cleared many standby passengers at the gate, I decided to book a Wanna Get Away Plus fare for my husband at 4,565 points plus $48.23 in taxes and fees with the hope we'd be able to use a same-day change to take one of the two earlier nonstop flights.
You might be wondering, "That's just one ticket. What about your flight, Katie?" The reason I only needed
Winter, spring, summer or fall – it’s never a bad time to visit the Caribbean.
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