Taylor, one of our most successful readers, just sent us another success story. Her reader success story to Bali was with her husband and Player 2. Here’s her story:

 

Positioning to Dallas

We started the trip by positioning out from Charlotte, NC, to Dallas, TX, using a 35k free-night certificate to stay at the JW Marriott in Dallas for one night. We booked our flights using Qatar Avios, flying on an AA airplane for 9k Avios each plus ~$10 in taxes and fees. The JW Marriott was very nice, and great use of our free-night certificate since our room was $994 otherwise, but I wouldn’t recommend Dallas in June—it was too hot!

 

Flights to Bali

We flew from Dallas to Bali via Qatar Qsuites and had a layover in Doha.  We transferred our points to British Airways from American Express Membership Rewards during a 30% transfer bonus, so instead of costing 100k Avios per person each way, we used 77K Avios per person plus ~$200 in taxes and fees each! The best part of this trip was both flights were in the Qsuite business class in Qatar, so we got almost 26 hours in Qsuites! Plus, flying out of Dallas meant we got to check out the Capitol One Lounge!

 

 

Hotel Stays in Bali

Alila Villas Uluwatu

During our nine-day trip to Bali, we stayed at five different resorts (we love to hotel hop, like Pam). We started our stay at the Alila Villas Uluwatu, a stunning property on the southern tip of the island! We booked this hotel for 30K Hyatt points per night and stayed two nights.

The views here were gorgeous, and the staff was so helpful! We do not have Globalist, but the breakfast was well worth the $34 per person. We didn’t spend much time here, but we really enjoyed the sunset bar and fancy cocktails, the cliff-side massage, and the private plunge pool in the room!

 

MĀUA Nusa Penida

For our next stay, we headed via ferry (we used Blue Water Express) to the island of Nusa Penida. The ferry ride was about ~45 minutes, and I highly recommend Blue Water Express! We stayed on this island for two nights at a Mr. and Mrs. Smith property called MĀUA Nusa Penida. This hotel was INCREDIBLE.

We bought Mr. and Mrs. Smith gift cards back when Hyatt was running a promo for every $300 spent, you received an elite qualifying night. Hopefully, this hotel will be available soon to book through the new partnership with Hyatt and Mr. and Mrs. Smith!

Our room here had the most incredible private plunge pool overlooking the bay, and it is my favorite private pool to date! The property included free breakfast and two free cocktails!

We arranged several tours of Nusa Penida through the hotel, including the Sunrise East Side, West Side/Tembeling Beach tour, and the Private Manta snorkel, and they were all phenomenal! We also checked out the spa here, and the massages were well-priced and wonderful! This property was designed so well, and the staff was incredible. I will be coming back! For two nights, we paid $720 total for a One-Bedroom Suite Villa room.

 

 

Munduk Cabins

After leaving Nusa Penida, we headed north with our driver to the Munduk area in Bali, known for its waterfalls! We stayed two nights at the Munduk Cabins by Desa Hay. We booked through the Capitol One portal to utilize my $300 travel credit from my Venture X card and paid about $200 out of pocket for part of the stay!

We used Bali Holiday Secrets to arrange private drivers for the whole trip, and I highly recommend it! All drivers speak English and are vetted, and you can pay via credit card! We paid about $80 for 10 hours of having a private driver for the remote northern areas! 

We enjoyed our time in this area, exploring all the waterfalls and rice terraces! We visited Banyumala Waterfall, Gitgit Waterfall, Colek Pamor Waterfall, Sekumpl Waterfall, and Hidden Falls! We also visited Handara Gates, the famous temple, and Jatiluwih Rice Terraces. To be thorough, we also had massages in our room for only ~$30 each!

 

 

Oniria

Our next stay was somewhere I have been dreaming about visiting since I first saw pictures of bamboo villas in Bali years ago! We splurged on two nights at Oniria, an incredible bamboo villa that is bookable via Airbnb! Now, you could use Capitol One points to erase the stay here, but we didn’t because I like to save my points for business-class flights!

Let me tell you this stay was everything I imagined it would be. And in my opinion, it was also well worth the money! We added a romantic dinner, flower pool decorating, and two massages each here! No other villas are nearby, so you have the place to yourself, looking out over gorgeous rice fields. They have a whole staff at the villa for anything you might need! Our time here was magical and felt like a fairytale! We spent ~$1500 for our 2-night stay here. 

 

 

Alila Ubud

Our last stay was at Alila Ubud for just one night. Because of our flight time at 2 a.m., we actually only spent about 5 hours at the property. We used 12k Hyatt points transferred from Chase for our stay here.

I’ll be honest: this was our least favorite stay of the trip. The hotel room was very small, and the AC didn’t work well. Also, the gorgeous pool was very crowded, with no free chairs and many people. Up until this resort, we had stayed at smaller properties for the most part with private pools, so maybe we were just spoiled, but I wasn’t impressed. The food and staff were great from our limited experience but Ubud has so many other hotels I would stay elsewhere next time. 

 

Flights Home

We also booked our flights home with Qatar, flying in Qsuites from Bali to Atlanta with a layover in Doha! These flights were also Qsuites the entire trip, so another ~26 hours in Qsuites. We booked these flights again utilizing that 30% transfer bonus last year from Amex to British Airways. We got these flights for 77K Avios per person plus ~$200 in taxes and fees.

After flying to Atlanta, we booked flights to Charlotte in two different ways! I booked my ticket using Virgin miles, but I flew on Delta for ~6k points thanks to a transfer bonus. For my husband’s ticket, he had 12k Delta miles already in his account, so I used those before I canceled his Delta Biz card so I could take advantage of the 15% discount on flights. 

 

Final Thoughts

We have 30 credit cards between us, but for this trip, we mostly used points from Chase to Hyatt that we earned with various Chase Ink Business Cards and AMEX points. Our Amex points were a mix of Amex Platinum card welcome offers and Rakuten shopping trips! 

Overall, we used 416,000 points, one free 35K Marriott Night, and $3,300. Without points, this trip would have cost $43,330!

Coming up next, we have trips booked to Costa Rica, Finland/Sweden, Cabo, Kenya/Tanzania, and Tahiti/Bora Bora, and we can’t wait! We started in March 2022 after getting engaged and stumbling upon Travel Mom Squads’ Instagram, and here we are just 2.5 years later with previous trips to Japan, Maldives, South Africa, Mexico, Utah, and so many more! 

 

Bottom Line

Thanks, Taylor, for another great trip report. Your reader success story to Bali has me ready to make a return trip there! We’d love to hear more from you on you amazing future trips!

 

Related Posts

• Reader Success Story: Bali on Points and Miles
• How to Book Qatar Suites with British Airways Avios
• Positioning Flights for International Travel
• Reader Success Story to the Maldives (another Taylor adventure!)