In this series I explore real-world examples of just how much you can travel with the points of one credit card sign-up bonus. Whether this destination interests you or not, my hope is that you can take the learnings and get inspired to create your own amazing trip using miles and points. In this edition I am looking at a destination that is one of our personal favorites for a long weekend getaway; New Orleans, Louisiana. Laissez le bon temps rouler (let the good times roll)!
New Orleans seems to be a polarizing destination. Some people immediately focus on Mardis Gras and the wild scenes of Bourbon Street, but we see New Orleans differently – a city of fantastic food, people and culture. It can also be an escape for warmer weather in the spring and fall. Some of our favorite activities include:
- Taking in dinner with jazz on Frenchman street and exploring the artists’ market
- Walking around and enjoying the architecture and music of the French Quarter and Jackson Square
- Indulging in a breakfast of beignets at Café du Monde
- Taking a food tour to sample local cuisine such as jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp Po’boys, gator sausage, boudin balls, red fish, muffuletta sandwiches, fried oysters and bananas Foster
- Experiencing the large, immersive National WWII History Museum
- Learning about the history of New Orleans cocktails at the Sazerac House museum
- Listening to the dueling pianos at Pat O’Brien’s
For this example I am looking for a long weekend getaway for two as an early spring break from Denver, Colorado.
Earning the Points
For the credit card I have selected the Chase Sapphire Preferred which is a great card to get (and keep) for those just getting started in the miles and points game. Currently the sign-up bonus is 60k Chase Ultimate Rewards points after meeting a $4,000 minimum spend in 3 months. I am going to assume for the sake of this exercise that I hit the minimum spend with $2,000 in 3X bonus categories such as dining and the remaining $2,000 outside of the bonus categories earning just 1 point per dollar spent. That would yield a total of 68,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points: $2,000 times 3 points/dollar plus $2,000 times 1 point/$ plus the 60,000 points from the sign-up bonus.
Building the Trip
Now that we have some Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, we can look at which transfer partners give us the best options to put together this trip. On the hotel side, there is a clear winner; Hyatt. Marriott and IHG points are just not going to give the value per point that we need to make this work and are two of the Chase transfer partners that I have never transferred to. And while Hyatt doesn’t offer the overall footprint of those other two chains, they do fortunately have a great footprint in New Orleans. Searching for New Orleans and March 2nd through 4th we can find 5 options which are all available to book on points:
My number one priority, especially for these shorter trips, is location. I want to be in walking distance of major attractions if possible, to minimize the time spent on transportation. For us that means the Hyatt Centric French Quarter is a great choice as it is easy walking distance to many of the main sites and, quite miraculously being right around the corner from Bourbon St, is quiet enough at night to get some sleep. If you wanted to save a few points the Hyatt Regency would be a good choice but would eliminate walking as an option to many attractions.
For these dates, the Hyatt Centric is 18k points per night and the Regency is 15k points per night and offer solid value at 1.58 cents/point at the member rate ($285) at the Centric and 1.95 cents/point at the member rate ($292) for the Regency. Both would avoid additional resort fees on a points booking.
Now for flights. A quick search on pointsyeah.com shows the only nonstop options available on points are these two on United. There are cheap cash prices on United or Frontier but get in later in the evening. For me, on a short weekend getaway it is a high priority to arrive as early as possible. The only nonstop morning flight on United is $205 or 17.7k points (1.16 cents/point).
A better option for this trip is Southwest. While this will not show availability on sites like pointsyeah.com, it is easy to search on southwest.com and there are great options with nonstop flights for this trip. Getting in earlier in the day and returning home later in the day on a nonstop flight really maximizes the time on a short getaway. These flight times are ideal and allow for almost a full day of activities on Monday.
There are many people who would argue to never transfer Chase points to Southwest because, with fully dynamic award pricing (the points price varies linearly with the cash price), you can never get outsized value. That is definitely a true statement. You will never get >2 cents/point value and you will never get 1 cent/point value. Technically there are small variations based on what percentage of the ticket price is taxes and fees, but generally the value works out to about 1.3-1.4 cents/point. It could also be argued to buy the flights through the Chase travel portal and pay with points for a fixed value of 1.25 cents/point with the Sapphire Preferred and earn Southwest points along the way but there can be issues getting the right pricing through the Chase portal and it can be more complicated if you need to change your flight so I prefer to work with Southwest directly.
Those same people might also argue to just save your Chase points for a future use and pay cash for these flights. I often take the same approach, but for the purpose of this example I want to pay for all travel with one credit card signup bonus to show that you can build a great trip for a reasonable amount of points. To me, that is part of the beauty of miles and points; the value is in the eye of the beholder and what is most valuable to you at a given point in time. Using Chase points here, transferred to Southwest, will cost 15,288 points per person (plus $11.20 in taxes) for a $227.79 ticket; a value of 1.42 cents/point.
So, there you have it – a long weekend in New Orleans for < 68,000 Chase points. Total cost for 2 people would be 60,576 points when staying at the Hyatt Regency and 66,576 at the Hyatt Centric French Quarter. Not the absolute highest value on a cents/point basis but a very fun long weekend that is attainable through one credit card signup bonus.
TL;DR – We can build a nice long weekend getaway from Denver to New Orleans using the points from just one credit card sign-up bonus. With the transfer partners of the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the flights (Southwest) and hotel (Hyatt) for two people are completely covered.
