This post will be a travel budget breakdown. I will show you the costs for each of the travel components for this trip and how we reduced each of those costs by utilizing points, miles, or program perks. My goal in doing this is to show you how easy it is to save on YOUR travel costs. Even if you can’t get a deal on every aspect of your trip, any item you can save on will put money back into your trip budget.
You don’t have to have a million credit cards to make this work. Sign up for some free hotel and airline loyalty programs and work from there. You can earn points by using your loyalty number on your reservations. It’s also helpful to get on their mailing list so that you receive alerts for sales and promotions.
If you decide to add one or two credit cards later on, choose ones with small annual fees and that include solid travel tools that will save you money. Look for things like:
- Annual Free Night Certificates at a hotel chain you like
- Hotel or Airline Status that provides extra benefits
- Free Hotel Breakfast or Checked Bags when you fly
- Discounts like booking 4 hotel nights and getting the 5th night free
- Points that can be transferred to several different hotel or airline programs
- Travel Credits
- Accelerated earnings for Hotel, Airline, or Travel Purchases
Our Travel Plan
The plan for this 7-night trip was to fly from Detroit to Miami, get a rental car, and drive down through the Keys. We wanted to spend our arrival night in Miami, followed by 3 nights in Key Largo, and 3 nights in Key West, then fly home from there.
In addition to the sections outlining how we are saving now, watch for these blue sections for how we will be earning for later too.
Flights
By utilizing some free flight credits that I had with Southwest Airlines, I booked our one-way flights from Detroit to Miami for only $11.20 in taxes and fees. Because I was booking in advance, I chose the Wanna Get Away Plus fare which allows for a full refund if we needed to cancel. The cash rate for these flights would have been $233 per person. After booking, I added Early Bird Boarding separately to our flights for $20 each. This allowed me to pay with the Hilton Aspire credit card which has a $50 quarterly Airline Fee Credit, and I was fully reimbursed for the cost. All these little savings add up when you are planning a trip. Southwest savings $506.
The flight home from Key West to Detroit was a little trickier. It’s a small airport with fewer flights to choose from. I found some decent Delta award flights and was able to book them for 18,700 Skymiles and $5.60 per person (which was reimbursed by another airline fee credit). This redemption saved us $619.00 per person.
Total for flights: $22.40
Flight Savings $1,125.00
We will not earn any points for our Delta flight because we booked it as a points redemption, but since we paid for the Southwest flights with (free) flight credits, we will earn points on those flights. I am hoping to earn a Southwest Companion Pass for next year and our points will count toward that goal as well.
Hotels
Baker’s Cay Resort – Key Largo
In October hotel availability for February was already dwindling, so I had to push our 3-night stay at Bakers Cay Resort in Key Largo out one day to secure 3 consecutive nights in the same room type. That meant that I had to shuffle our itinerary a bit to make our plan work.
Baker’s Cay Resort is a very nice property and we love staying there. You really never need to leave because there is so much to do and it has a fantastic beach. We used 3 Free Night Certificates to secure our reservation for a King Waterfront Junior Suite in the Coconut Wing. If you stay here…you want a high room in the Coconut Wing for the fantastic views.
When booking with Hilton Free Night Certificates or loyalty points you also avoid all the taxes, fees, and resort charges ($416.41) on top of the ($700) per night or more room cost. So for this reservation, we saved $2,523.71 at the time of booking.
If a hotel has a Resort Fee, find out everything it includes. There is generally a list on their website. Some hotels waive the Resort Fee for award stays, but you are still entitled to all of the benefits. These fees are usually loaded with “junk” but you may also find some hidden treasures like drink coupons, free classes or complimentary access to beach equipment.
We always try to get the maximum value possible from our Free Night Certificates while still traveling where we want to go. For this booking, we picked the highest-level standard room available. Maybe we will get an upgrade to a larger suite with my Hilton Diamond status, but even if we don’t get an upgrade, I am very happy with the $2,500 value we got from these certificates.
Hilton properties offer a Food and Beverage Credit that can be used for items at their mini store, meals or snacks any time of day, or drinks from the hotel bar. The amount differs for each property, so find out how much credit you get each day and make sure to use it all each day. **Important note: Each days credit must be used that day and can’t be combined with other credits for other days.**
DoubleTree – Key West
Next, I booked our 2-night stay at The DoubleTree Key West. We were able to reserve a King Balcony Room for 80,000 points per night. Another good redemption that saved us $949.62 in room rates and $186.20 in taxes and resort fees.
This is a very cool hotel with a great pool and a free shuttle into Key West. By utilizing their complimentary shuttle service, we can return our car when we arrive in Key West and save $183 by cutting 2 days of car rental costs.
Once again, I hope my Hilton Diamond Status will get us bumped into a Suite. The last time we stayed there we ended up in a corner suite with a huge balcony overlooking the pool. The balcony was the perfect place to take a break from the sun and have a snack or do some reading.
Baker’s Cay Resort and the DoubleTree Key West are both Hilton properties. I made sure to register for the current Hilton Honors loyalty promotion in order to earn as many points for our stays as possible. Because we booked Baker’s Cay with 2 of my Free Night Certificates and 1 of my husbands, it will code as 2 stays. Therefore, we should earn 5,000 bonus points there and 2,500 at the DoubleTree. We just have to make sure to use the Digital Key at least once per “stay“ to trigger 500 extra points.
Both of these hotels also qualify for the Resort Credit on the Hilton Aspire credit card. Currently card members receive $200 January-June and another $200 July-December. If I used my card at check in, any hotel charges (dining, spa, activities) would post to my account and then up to $200 would be credited back to me within about 5-7 days.
IHG InterContinental Doral (Miami)
We had a late arrival in Miami for our February 2023 trip, so we used a Free Night Certificate for a stay at the InterContinental Doral Hotel which is located near Miami International Airport. We ended up really enjoying our stay at this chic hotel. Not only does it offer a good location, but it also boasts a club lounge, a very nice restaurant, and a large pool which is perfect for plane spotting.
This hotel was listed at 46,000 points per night for a standard room. I earn an IHG Free Night Certificate each year on my credit card anniversary. The certificate is good for properties up to 40,000 points. IHG recently added the ability to pay the difference with points, but I was hoping to wait it out and catch a points break sale. To my delight, a sale hit on 1/8/24 and I was able to book the room with just my certificate for 39,500 points! This redemption saved us $291.99.
Hyatt Regency – Coral Gables
Because we had to push out our 3 nights at Baker’s Cay Resort ahead, we had another hotel night to book at the beginning of our trip. We decided to use a Hyatt Free Night Certificate that my husband earned from his World of Hyatt credit card. These certificates can be used at category 1-4 hotels. The Hyatt Regency in Coral Gables was a perfect fit for this trip. It has a great location and qualifies to be booked with our Free Night Certificate. This redemption saved us $402.90 for the room, taxes, and resort fee.
Total for 7 Hotel Nights: $0
Hotel Savings: $4,363.42
As an added bonus, this hotel stay also checks off another Hyatt Brand Explorer property type for my husband. One more and he will earn an additional Free Night Certificate.
Car Rental
In 2023 we paid $270. 08 for a 5-day car rental with Hertz round trip from Miami. For the 5-day one-way car rental we needed for this trip, there just were no great deals to be had. I submitted multiple quotes to Autoslash (usually a good deal), tried corporate discount codes, and AAA discounts, but the rates were all over $1,000 for 5 days. Yikes!
In October, American Express changed the benefits on their Hilton credit cards. One of the new features of the Hilton Surpass card is Emerald Club Executive Status with National Car Rental. I set up an account with National and ran a search and it came back with a rate of $458.24! This is not the rate that I was initially shooting for, but it was less than 1/2 of what I was seeing everywhere else so I booked it.
We made the reservation using our Chase Sapphire Preferred card. It offers primary auto rental coverage which saves us paying another $60 in additional insurance to the rental company. Primary auto coverage is preferred because the card covers vehicle damage before billing your auto insurance.
Saving money on car rentals by managing the number of days I rent for is something I have been doing for several years now. For example, when we stay in Oahu, we take a cab from the airport and then walk or take public transportation. If we want to drive to the North Shore, we just pick up a car for those days. This is a double savings because we save on expensive hotel parking fees and we aren’t paying for days that the car would just be parked anyway.
Total for Car Rental: $458.24
Car Rental Savings: $183.00 by reducing the reservation by 2 days
The National Emerald Club offers you an option to earn points with them for your rentals or with one of their travel partners. Because we don’t rent cars that often, we chose to earn 500 points per rental with Delta Airlines instead. It’s another easy way to earn some points for future travel.
Final Thoughts
To get the best deals for this trip, I had to be a bit flexible with our itinerary. Since we didn’t have anything specific planned, that wasn’t a problem. Our total out-of-pocket for all flights, 7 hotel nights, and a 5-day car rental was $480.64. I can totally live with that. There will be plenty left in the travel budget for lots of key lime pie!
Travel can be expensive. I have learned to plan amazing trips while trimming the travel costs using points, miles, and perks. It takes a little bit of planning but it isn’t too difficult to do. You can save money on your travel too. I hope these illustrations have given you some ideas of what is possible. Start with a few small things and build from there.
I hope you found a helpful nugget and that you will keep following along for more travel reviews and tips on how to save money when you travel.
The World According to Dev 