We have planned many trips before, but our Hawaii trip by far has been the most time consuming in planning, most (points) expensive, most tricky trip (at least for daddy) to date! Here are some of the reasons.
Covid
Travelling during Covid requires additional planning ahead to understand Covid restrictions and requirements applicable on the destinations, any intermediate transits, and the returned location. Hawaii is one of the state in US that has very strict rules for visitors during Covid. During the time of our visit, they require registration for each individual including kids on the Hawaii state travel website and with proof of vaccination to avoid quarantine. In addition, we also try to understand as much as possible the process and get documents ready for faster airport screening. For example, there were yellow and green QR code where green QR code allow faster screening without the need of airport staff to manually review the vaccine documents.
Lesson learned. Understanding all the government and airline travel requirements and get it done ahead of time is very important. We were glad that there wasn't any surprise or delay getting through the custom as well as during our inter-island visit. Everything was smooth sailing. If there is one thing, we wonder how some of the passengers got a wristband from the airline that allow them to waive their wristband and pass the custom without any checking, hm..
Buy airline ticket with points
We have accumulated enough points years back just for the Hawaii trip, and finally pull the trigger. The way to use these points are very tricky to pull it off. Basically, we used the sign up bonus points from our Citi Premier card (other credit cards like Capital One Venture X which has Turkey Airline as transfer partner will work too) and transferred to Turkish Airline Miles and Smiles miles. Then on United Airline website, we searched for United Airline Economy Saver award ticket to Hawaii. It's not that easy to find the availability for both outgoing and returning especially during peak times (eg. Spring break). But once the routes, date and time, and availability been located, we used the Turkey Airline Miles and Smiles miles to book the Star Alliance (in this case United Airline) ticket. The very tricky part is Turkish Airline often don't show these Star Alliance flights online and we have to resort to phone calls or emails to book those tickets. Even then, many agents don't see these availability and we have to keep trying to find that one agent that know what he/she is doing to locate those flights we requested with the exact info (including airline, exact date/time, cabin class, flight number, from and destination, segments of the flights, and the information of each passengers). Once these tickets are reserved, the hardest part is done. But we also learned that we need to confirm all info are accurate and updated (like TSA-Precheck) on United Airline side as well since is better / more accurate / less issue using boarding pass directly from United Airline instead of boarding pass from Turkish Airline (technically either one would work).
Why we go through all these troubles? Because it is ONLY 7500 points per person one way ticket to Hawaii when booking this way! Roundtrip to Hawaii for family of four only need 60,000 points. Our one credit card sign up bonus was already over 60,000 points!
Lesson learned. Daddy actually had a even more complex plan for airline ticket. In addition to using the Turkey Airline Miles and Smiles miles to Hawaii from U.S. mainland, we also planned to take advantage of the Excursionist Perks from United Airline for inter-island flight. We would book two one-way flights like this.
1st ticket - Maui to Kauai, Houston to New York (any domestic), Kauai to Kona (any Hawaii inter-island)
2nd ticket - Kaui to Honolulu, New York to Houston (any domestic), Kona to Honolulu (any Hawaii inter-island)
We would pay for the 1st segment and the 3rd segment of each ticket (using United points) just like normal, but the 2nd segment of each ticket is free! The beauty of some creative thinking using Excursionist Perks! With this example, the 1st segment of each ticket is the itinerary of the our first Hawaii trip, then we can enjoy the second roundtrip free to New York, and then later fly inter-island for 2nd Hawaii trip in the future. As you can see, it is stringing 3 trips together.
We didn't get to use this strategy because we ran out of time planning for the 2nd and 3rd trip as the award availability for Hawaiian Airline (booked via United Airline point) inter-island flight that fit our schedule appears to be very limited and we don't want to miss that. We ended up only booking a direct one-way inter-island flight. We did used our Southwest Rapid reward points for Southwest flights whenever possible with the free companion pass so the kids fly free.
Another tips when booking airline ticket is to use a credit card that has travel protection or insurance for trip cancellation, trip interruption / delay and lost luggage. When the ticket is paid in part with the credit card (eg. paying tax and etc for an award ticket) should activate the protection. Check your credit card for details.
Accommodation
Accommodation has gotten very expensive. This was out of our expectation. We have heard Hawaii is expensive. We didn't know the hotels are super expensive! This is especially true for Maui and Kauai island. We searched through Expedia, Airbnb, multiple travel portals and found that for a room with 2 beds costs at least $300+ a night in Maui during March! And that is just a normal inn. After much research, we booked most of our accommodations in Hawaii at Hyatt hotels with World of Hyatt loyalty points. We feel it has the best values and for the experience. We transferred our Chase Ultimate Rewards points to World of Hyatt program to book Hyatt hotels.
For example, a night at Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa costs 25,000 Hyatt points.
During the time of our booking, it costs an eye-popping $750+ if book with regular payment for the same exact room!
But since we transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards 25,000 points (which is $250 if redeemed to cash, or slightly more value if book through Chase travel portal), we are spending so much less this way and it is a very nice category 6 Hyatt hotel! Also, when booking Hyatt hotel with Hyatt points, the resort fees are waived (in this case $45+ per night).
Lesson learned. Even the points required to booked these Hyatt hotel is much higher than what we usually spend, the point redemption value of the Chase points in this case is pretty good in our opinion. Transferring them to Hyatt reward program and use it to book resort also avoiding the resort fees, and some of Hyatt hotels come with free breakfast. Plus the resort is very nice :) We are all pretty happy of our Hyatt resort/hotel stays in Hawaii.
Transportation
If you have rented a car recently, you likely know how crazy high rental car cost since Covid. We usually book Enterprise with a much reduced prices through company program. But Enterprise has no car available in certain island (eg. Kauai)! We have to do more research for other rental car companies with various promo code and backup plan (in case it doesn't work) to reduce costs.
Lesson learned. If you use some company code or promo code for discount, is good idea to have a backup plan. You might have to pay the normal listing price if it doesn't workout and you don't have a backup plan. Also, check the business hour of the rental location if you are flying in after hours or during public holidays.
Simlarly, use a credit card that offer car rental insurance preferably primary rental insurance.
Activities
Again, Hawaii is very expensive. Almost any activity we are interested in cost $100++ per person. It adds up very quickly with a family of four. Given that we are only spending a week (which is very short time given how many island we go), we have to prioritize the activities. We have gone back and forth on which island to visit and etc. We spent quite some times researching the activities on each island and discounts / promotions we could use on each activities as well. We found a great discount program, Shaka Gold Card that give pretty good discount for few activities that we were interested in. At the time of writing, the program cost $30 and covers up to 4 people. If you book the activities directly via hawaiifun website, it is good idea to verify the reservation with the activity vendor themselves to make sure they received it on their side. You may also choose to reserve directly with the activity vendor themselves and mentioned about the program. Check the list of activities this program work with and the type of discounts if offers. Don't hesitate to call when you have any question, people in Hawaii is super friendly and helpful.
This is an example of how much the saving per ticket with Shaka Gold Card.
Lesson learned. There are many discount websites and advertised programs out there for activities in Hawaii. Check several sites and compare, and more importantly check their validity. We discovered the Shaka Gold card program through an activity vendor website when we attempted to make the reservation. This program may be one of the very few legit discount program in Hawaii that actually save you money, at least from our research.
Our Hawaii Trip
Hawaii Family trip to Maui
Hawaii Family trip to Kauai
Hawaii Family trip to Oahu
Future reference
Due to our very short stay in Hawaii, we couldn't do as much as we initially planned. Here are some notes perhaps for our future Hawaii trip.
- Volcano National Park (Kona)
- The Byodo-In Temple (Oahu)
- Wainanae swim with dolphin (Oahu)
- Banana Boat Ride Waikiki (Oahu)
- Kailua / Hanauma Bay (Oahu)
- Honolulu International Marketplace (Oahu)
- Mountain Tubing at Kauai Back Country Adventure (Kauai)
- Ferm Grotto - Garden Luau (Kauai)
- Kauai Coffee (Kauai)
- Lydgate Farms Kauai Chocolate (Kauai)
- Ke'e beach (Kauai)
- Helicopter ride in Kauai (Kauai)
- Kilauea Lighthouse (Kauai)
- Hanalei Beach (Kauai)
- Old Lahaina Luau (Mauai)
- Black rock torch / Kaanapali Cliff Diving Ceremony (Maui)
- Waianapanapa State Park (Maui)
- Hanauma / Kailua Bay (Maui)
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