Our Family Friday Vacation is a reader success story to Maui and Kauai. Imran, his wife and three children, and his in-laws created memories together thanks to points and miles. Here is his story—

I came across your IG account about a year ago, and I was an instant fan. I did know about using points for travel, but I was going about it the wrong way.

I opened the Chase Sapphire about 4 years ago when it had the 100K offer (note: we haven’t seen that since), and was patiently collecting points on it to maybe one day go to Hawaii. My plan was just to get cash back from points to offset our expenses. I would have had to collect points for another 4 years to do so. (This is a common points/miles misconception).

Little did I know that I already had enough points to go to Hawaii this spring.  After seeing ALL your posts and reels and reading your blog, I immediately opened the Chase Marriott card with 5 free night certificates after meeting the minimum spend. (We tend to see this offer about once a year.)

Imran and his cute family used points and miles for a Hawaiian vacation.

The Trip

The first week of March, 7 of us (my family of 5 and my 2 in-laws) flew to Maui for 4 nights and Kauai for 3 nights. My in-laws paid cash, and we paid points. We stayed at the Residence Inn Marriott in Maui and the Grand Hyatt in Kauai. My in-laws paid $8,463.99 for Southwest flights from Dallas to Maui, to Kauai, and back to Dallas, plus their hotel stays. I paid $84 after using my 160K Ultimate Rewards points from Chase and transferring them to Southwest.

The hotel stays cost an additional 30K points for Marriott (to top-off the certificates) and 60K points for the Grand Hyatt. (This stay is more expensive now since the Hyatt award chart updates.) Apart from the savings, I couldn’t believe we could afford to stay at the hotels we did. Saving on flights and hotel/resort stays allowed us to do activities like whale watching, helicopter tours, and eating out at nice restaurants.

Imran and his family loved the Grand Hyatt Kauai.

Thank you, guys, so much for making it possible for my family to have an amazing Hawaii vacation. (Thanks for your story, Imran! We love hearing your success stories!)