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Trip Reports / "In Search of the Menehune" - Benjie1305's Trip to Kauai (DL J, UA J)
« on: January 15, 2017, 09:57:41 PM »
Introduction/Planning:
This trip was actually not really planned for. January was originally supposed to be spent part-taking in this adventure but - as some may or may not at times be able to attest to - my dearest wife was able to find a reason why it wouldn't work. That on it's own would be sad but certainly not tragic if not for telling me after the entire trip including all flights and most hotels had already been booked.
Off I went, re-depositing my 4 Hyatt SUN's, calling AA to refund me for my JAL flights and calling SQ to refund me for SQ and NH flights. After a good 90 minutes on the phone across the board, everything was back in my account and thankfully all charges had been waived.
Stuck I was with no plan or destination in mind and expiring Hyatt SUN's to come up with what is most likely our last kid-free vacation for quite some time. A few weeks later I suddenly came across this little gem. While the dates didn't work for me, it did make a lightbulb go off (in my head). Hyatt SUN's in January would present themselves as great value over in Hawaii and in addition to good weather, the place seemed to have a lot of fun things to do for us.
Being that I was limited to travel specifically from 1/1-1/9 my searches I had done over on UA/AA/DL really didn't yield any significant results and I was just going to keep checking and hope for the best. Well, I did not have to do that for too long because once this news came out it was very clear to me how I was going to book this trip. After a short few weeks of playing around with my itinerary and checking rates I went ahead and was booked using this amazing Amex Business Platinum benefit.
Outbound:
DL J: JFK-HNL
WP Y: HNL-LIH
Inbound:
HA J: LIH-HNL
UA J: HNL-EWR
After a few calls with GoldPassport it was also no issue combining my wife's and my SUN's and luckily I was able to piece together GHK space for the entire trip; 4 SUN's, 3 C+P's and 1 full points booking later. I also got them to apply my DSU and while they were only able to put me into a confirmed Garden Suite for the first 2 nights, I wasn't too concerned about that for now.
On a side note: I did spend a lot of time reading up on where to best stay and really would have preferred throwing in some nights over in the North. I had 3 nights booked at the St. Regis Princeville using close to 115,000 points and then decided to drop the booking around a week before the trip. If nights there wouldn't have been $850+ during my stay or if the STR would be a CAT6 I probably would have done it but 115k for 3 nights in a St Regis that needs renovation and is purely pricey because of its location just wasn't something I could justify in the end. After all it isn't like the Grand Hyatt is some shabby alternate solution.
["But Hey" some will say, I could have done an AirBnB in the North as a Plan B. Well no, that is not the way my wife likes to travel and I prefer hotels too, especially when traveling without the kids.]
With hotel and airfare booked it was time to secure a car and knowing that off-roading was not going to happen on this trip, the only logical choice was a Mustang Convertible. After scouting the web for a while, Avis returned as the clear winner. Now, with my car reservation in place my last and only real concern was, how to tell the kids we'd be gone for 9 days...
This trip was actually not really planned for. January was originally supposed to be spent part-taking in this adventure but - as some may or may not at times be able to attest to - my dearest wife was able to find a reason why it wouldn't work. That on it's own would be sad but certainly not tragic if not for telling me after the entire trip including all flights and most hotels had already been booked.
Off I went, re-depositing my 4 Hyatt SUN's, calling AA to refund me for my JAL flights and calling SQ to refund me for SQ and NH flights. After a good 90 minutes on the phone across the board, everything was back in my account and thankfully all charges had been waived.
Stuck I was with no plan or destination in mind and expiring Hyatt SUN's to come up with what is most likely our last kid-free vacation for quite some time. A few weeks later I suddenly came across this little gem. While the dates didn't work for me, it did make a lightbulb go off (in my head). Hyatt SUN's in January would present themselves as great value over in Hawaii and in addition to good weather, the place seemed to have a lot of fun things to do for us.
Being that I was limited to travel specifically from 1/1-1/9 my searches I had done over on UA/AA/DL really didn't yield any significant results and I was just going to keep checking and hope for the best. Well, I did not have to do that for too long because once this news came out it was very clear to me how I was going to book this trip. After a short few weeks of playing around with my itinerary and checking rates I went ahead and was booked using this amazing Amex Business Platinum benefit.
Outbound:
DL J: JFK-HNL
WP Y: HNL-LIH
Inbound:
HA J: LIH-HNL
UA J: HNL-EWR
After a few calls with GoldPassport it was also no issue combining my wife's and my SUN's and luckily I was able to piece together GHK space for the entire trip; 4 SUN's, 3 C+P's and 1 full points booking later. I also got them to apply my DSU and while they were only able to put me into a confirmed Garden Suite for the first 2 nights, I wasn't too concerned about that for now.
On a side note: I did spend a lot of time reading up on where to best stay and really would have preferred throwing in some nights over in the North. I had 3 nights booked at the St. Regis Princeville using close to 115,000 points and then decided to drop the booking around a week before the trip. If nights there wouldn't have been $850+ during my stay or if the STR would be a CAT6 I probably would have done it but 115k for 3 nights in a St Regis that needs renovation and is purely pricey because of its location just wasn't something I could justify in the end. After all it isn't like the Grand Hyatt is some shabby alternate solution.
["But Hey" some will say, I could have done an AirBnB in the North as a Plan B. Well no, that is not the way my wife likes to travel and I prefer hotels too, especially when traveling without the kids.]
With hotel and airfare booked it was time to secure a car and knowing that off-roading was not going to happen on this trip, the only logical choice was a Mustang Convertible. After scouting the web for a while, Avis returned as the clear winner. Now, with my car reservation in place my last and only real concern was, how to tell the kids we'd be gone for 9 days...
