It had been many years since
we last visited Maui and with all these credit card points burning a hole in my virtual pocket, it was time to spend them. We decided to leave the day after Thanksgiving, and invited my parents to come along.
FLIGHTS
I had gotten 50,000 points from the
Merrill+ credit card sign up bonus (unfortunately the card has been discontinued), which was worth around $1000 in airfare, not bad for having no annual fee. I redeemed the points for two Alaska Airlines tickets going somewhere (I forget where), each costing a little over $500. If the departure date was more than 60 days away, you could cancel the ticket after 24 hours (so it wouldn't get refunded back to Merrill+) and the value would be credited into your Alaska "wallet" to be used on a future purchase. (unfortunately this 60 day benefit is no longer available) These wallet funds would come in handy for the next step.
I had two Alaska Airlines
$99 companion certificates from having their credit card - I received one when I opened the card, and got another one right before I canceled the card a year later as it was an annual benefit, which thankfully did not get revoked after closing my account. The certificate allows you to buy one ticket and get the second for $99. I used one certificate for me and Kaleb, and the other for my parents. The total cost for two tickets using the certificate ended up to be around $580. I canceled one of the tickets I purchased previously with Merrill+ points, receiving around $510 in my "wallet", then applied it to this transaction. I ended up only having to pay $70 for two tickets to Maui. But I didn't have to pay that either - Kaleb's
AMEX Business Platinum reimbursed the $70 since Alaska was the
designated airline for the annual $200 credit, and somehow airfare under $75 counted even though the terms disallowed it. Technically, the $70 isn't "free" since we paid an annual fee for the card, but at least the money went to something useful. I duplicated this process to get my parents' tickets.
At 24 hours before departure, during online check-in, I was able to move our seats into the exit row for free, as the seat map opened to everyone. At the time when I booked the tickets, the exit row was blocked for
Mileage Plan elite passengers. Recently though, Alaska Airlines has been allowing non-elites to buy those seats for a nominal fee.
HOTELS
I didn't have enough
Marriott Rewards points to stay the entire time at
Wailea Beach Resort, so we split the vacation between there and the
Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa, located next to Kaanapali Beach. I earned points from having the
Hyatt credit card and also transferred
Chase Ultimate Rewards points into my Hyatt account. I also had
Hyatt Explorist status, thanks to
matching my Mlife Gold status, made possible by
matching my Celebrity Cruises "Select" status, which I did sail. Cruise status never expires, so as long as Celebrity, MGM and Hyatt maintain their partnerships, I will always have those statuses even though I don't gamble enough or stay enough hotel nights. Royal Caribbean also participates in Mlife status match if you sail extensively with them, which in turn can help you get Hyatt status.
Hyatt Explorist status comes with four complimentary club lounge access certificates per year. I redeemed two certificates towards the two award rooms I reserved. The Regency Club lounge offers complimentary breakfast and snacks throughout the day, which helped save money on our vacation.
Even though I had
Marriott Gold Elite status from having the
AMEX Platinum card, offering free lounge access, resorts like the Wailea Beach Marriott do not have lounges, so no complimentary breakfast or snacks. Note that at the time of this writing, Marriott changed their policy on complimentary lounge access and you now need to be a
Platinum Elite to qualify.
CAR RENTAL
Great deals on rental cars can be found through
Discount Hawaii Car Rental.
FOOD/ACTIVITIES
I used
Yelp to find decent restaurants near our hotels, then made reservations in advance. Since we all had visited Maui (and Hawaii in general) before, I skipped the luaus and other must-dos (like the road to Hana) and mostly dined and relaxed. I did plan that our hotel in Wailea be close to a snorkeling beach, bringing our own gear from home.
Now onto the trip...
Our flight was early on Friday morning; my dad pre-reserved a taxi to the airport. I wanted to try
Uber, but I wasn't sure if there would be cars available at 4:30am and didn't want to chance not being able to catch a ride. When I woke up, I checked the app and there were three cars available, so it was possible.
Checking our bags took no time since the airport wasn't busy. No baggage fees thanks to Kaleb and I having the
Alaska Airlines credit card and having only two checked bags total in our group. With time to kill, we went into the
Club at SJC lounge using our complimentary
Priority Pass Select membership, provided by credit cards such as the
AMEX Platinum and
Chase Sapphire Reserve. There was very limited food selection, so no pictures. I remember having pre-peeled cold hard-boiled eggs.
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| empty terminal at 6:30am |
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| inside the Club at SJC |
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It was an easy non-stop flight to Maui, made more comfortable by having exit row seats. Free mai-tais and POG (passionfruit orange guava) juice were selections on the refreshment cart (though it seems mai tais have been discontinued since early 2018). Note that if you want to watch in-flight entertainment, currently you'll need the
Gogo Entertainment app on your device, which should be downloaded ahead of time before departure. Having the
Bose QC35 noise-cancelling headphones helped cut out cabin noise. Wi-fi is also provided by Gogo - if you have certain credit cards like the
US Bank Altitude Reserve,
AMEX Business Platinum, or
Crystal Visa Infinite, you can get free passes to use on your flight.
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| plenty of legroom in exit row |
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| got "POG" since we're headed to Maui |
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After landing, retrieving our luggage and getting the rental car, we headed to
Tin Roof Maui for lunch. It was located in a small complex and not much seating inside. My parents were able to snag two seats at the counter, whereas Kaleb and I enjoyed our meals sitting on the shady sidewalk next to the parking lot.
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| reasonable prices |
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| tasty poke bowl |
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When we got to the
Hyatt Regency Maui, our rooms were not yet available since it was still over an hour before official check-in, but the helpful front desk agent gave us key cards to enter the Regency Club lounge in the meantime, and would text me when the rooms were ready.
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| lounge pretty empty in the afternoon |
Once I got the text, we went to the lobby to get the keys and also received complimentary flower and shell leis. Both our rooms were upgraded - one to a golf/mountain view and the other to oceanfront. The oceanfront view was spectacular, though it was still nice to see the greenery of the golf/mountain view.
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| double rainbow off our balcony |
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| oceanfront view from the other room |
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| towel cards and resort map |
Each room had an option to forego housekeeping and receive either a $10 food and beverage credit or 500 Hyatt points in return by hanging a door tag with the preferred color showing. We opted for the $10 credit.
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| orange side for $10 credit |
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| grey side for 500 Hyatt points |
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The room also came with two complimentary Hyatt water bottles. Filtered water stations were available on our floor next to the ice machine.
Tonight's dinner was at
Monkeypod Kitchen in
Whalers Village. Reservations were easily made on
OpenTable. It was about a 20 minute walk along the beach path from the Hyatt to the restaurant.
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| lobster deviled eggs...pretty good |
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| fish tacos and seared ahi steak |
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| fish and chips, and also seared ahi |
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After dinner, we took a quick look at the shops in the mall, then returned to the hotel and stopped by the Regency Club to have something sweet.
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| desserts in the lounge |
Saturday morning, we were back in the lounge, enjoying a wonderful breakfast with a variety of selections such as fresh fruit, baked goods, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, and even a whole filet of cooked smoked salmon.
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| everything was always restocked quickly |
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| fruit was so good |
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We spent the rest of the day exploring the hotel grounds and shops. Kaleb and I fit in a bit of video game time - it was easy to hook up the
Nintendo Switch to the room's TV.
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| Hyatt pool area |
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| herb garden for the restaurants |
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| playing Super Mario Odyssey |
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| another double rainbow day! |
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And yes, the area is
Pokemon Go friendly...
Tonight's dinner was at the on-site restaurant
Japengo, serving Asian-style cuisine with a Hawaiian twist. Reservations were made on
OpenTable. We visited the Regency Club for pre-dinner hors d'oeuvres; the selection was extensive and you could possibly have supper here if desired. Dinner at Japengo was good, but if I were to come back again, I'd order more sushi.
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| veggies, cheese board and hot appetizer dish |
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| salad bar |
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| chef's special roll and amaebi at Japengo |
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| seafood curry bowl |
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| pork belly and shrimp |
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| China Town chow fun |
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After dinner, we went into the lounge for some hot beverages and dessert.
Sunday morning, guess where we went for breakfast? Everything was almost the same as yesterday's offerings except for the egg dish - quiche was served.
We hung out in my parents' room watching NFL football until it was lunch time. Since we had a large breakfast, a simple meal would suffice - we purchased sandwiches and instant noodles from the hotel's convenience store and ate it...guess where?
Afterwards, Kaleb and I walked to the
Ululani's shack on property to indulge in the best shave ice - with ice cream on the bottom, snow cap on top, and don't forget the azuki beans!
For dinner, we returned to Japengo and ordered mostly sushi, which was delicious. Of course we stopped by you know where for dessert.
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| miso soup...okay |
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| kabocha squash and fried calamari |
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| lahaina roll and chef's special roll |
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| super fresh uni, plus unagi |
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| small moriawase sashimi plate |
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| sweet bites from the lounge |
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We check out of the Hyatt tomorrow morning and head down to Wailea...stay tuned!
***
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Another disclaimer: The intention of this blog was to remind Future Me in full detail about where I went and what I did. I could have made it private, but I frequently get questions from family, friends and internet folks about how I planned things, got deals, etc., so instead of repeating the story over and over, I direct them here. If you are offended by anything I say or do, save yourself the discomfort and kindly click away from my blog. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
