Our reader success story to Southern California comes from Amanda. She and her family of four just enjoyed a memorable trip to Southern California from Charlotte, North Carolina. Her family’s SoCal trip included amazing hotel upgrades, Legoland, a national park, tidepools, kayaking, the beach, the San Diego Zoo, and a wonderful strategy to get kids comfortable flying!  This is a single-player household and she made a great trip happen. Here’s Amanda’s reader success story to Southern California:
 

Points We Used for Southern California Flights & Hotels

Flights:  We booked our flights for 13k points per person, one way, on American Airlines, booked through Qatar (104k Avios total). I transferred American Express Membership Rewards® from my American Express® Gold Card welcome offer over to British Airways Avios, and then transferred those to Qatar to book the American flights. For hotels, we used 71k Chase Ultimate Rewards® from the card_name and then transferred those points to Hyatt.

Hotels: Y’all. My family has no idea there are people who travel and stay in one place for an entire trip. We stayed five nights in four different hotels:  Grand Hyatt Indian Wells, Legoland Hotel, The Seabird, and Hyatt Regency Mission Bay. (Note from TMS: You must be related to Pam, who loves to hotel hop!) We used two Hyatt Guest of Honor awards for two hotel nights. 

 

Grand Hyatt Indian Wells

Our first night was Grand Hyatt Indian Wells, which has recently been renovated and upgraded—it used to be a Hyatt Regency. I booked a 2-Queen ADA room for 17k points because that was all they had when we booked.

About three days before check-in, the hotel sent an email asking if we needed anything. I replied that we were a “fully mobile family of four and did not require the amenities offered by the ADA room. We are happy to switch either before or after check in should you need that room.” They responded that we had been switched to a standard 2-Queen with a possible upgrade at check-in. That “possible upgrade” turned out to be an 1,800 sqft Presidential Villa with its own back patio and plunge pool! We. Were. Floored.

They did mention that they were very full with two big convention groups, which was the reason all the standard rooms were booked, and they were trying to keep family guests separated from those groups, so that probably explains our fantastic upgrade. The hotel was amazing and had two large waterslides, a smaller waterslide and splash pad for little ones, a family pool, an adult pool, and lawn games. The Guest of Honor award I used allowed for breakfast in the morning (either buffet or à la carte), free valet parking, and late checkout.

We visited Joshua Tree National Park so we could hike and watch the sunrise, and we were back in time for breakfast. We used the pools until about 1:00pm using the late-checkout perk.

 

 

Legoland California Hotel

The second night was at the Legoland Hotel in an “Adventure Fully Themed” room and was NOT booked on points. This property had a decidedly different allure than the Grand Hyatt. This was just pure kid fun. And after all the points nights it KILLED me to pay $35 for parking and a $35 resort fee.

 

 

Seabird Resort in Oceanside, California

Our stay at the Seabird Resort was 25k Hyatt points per night, and I did not use a Guest of Honor award here. My husband self-parked the car across the street from the hotel for only $5, which was much less than the hotel would have charged.  When I checked in, the receptionist took one look at all of my kids and all of my Legoland glory and just handed me a prosecco welcome drink. 

Even with no Hyatt status, we loved this stay. We had a great room right outside of the pool area and the fluffy robes and slippers were fun. Oceanside was oddly dreary, but we got Parlor Donuts and breakfast sandwiches from Petite Madeline bakery and were happy.

The hotel had beach amenities that we used, including chairs, towels, and beach toys—that was SUCH a nice feature!! None of our hotels offered guest laundry so we used the Posh Wash in Oceanside to do some mid-trip laundry so we didn’t have to haul so much luggage.

 

 

 

Hyatt Regency Mission Bay

The next night, we moved down the coast from Oceanside to La Jolla and stopped at Torrey Pines for a quick hike. After spending the day kayaking with sea lions in La Jolla we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay for two nights.

 

 

I chose this hotel over the Manchester Grand because the pool had water slides and the rooms that sleep four had two queen beds instead of two full beds. I had also read a few reviews that the Manchester Grand really catered to a convention crowd and that was not us. The Regency was also 12k points per night and the Manchester Grand would have been 15K, so we saved some points, too.

 

 

I used a Guest of Honor award here and was given a higher floor with a great view and a balcony! This hotel was packed full with conventions as well but as we were on eastern time, we were up before everyone else and could avoid some of the crowds. The hotel’s restaurant breakfast was kind of meh. It was VERY overpriced and not enough food for the kids. They ordered an extra side of eggs the first morning and by the second morning just dropped all pretenses and ordered (and ate!) two kid entrees each. (A bowl of froot loops was $9—you have been warned!)

The staff here was very busy and overlooked the Guest of Honor award on my account at checkout. They charged my card for breakfastsES, (we note that nod to Pam 😜), valet, and $25 for not returning towels to the bin on the pool deck. A quick phone call and follow-up email resolved the issue, but I was initially panicking that I had applied the Guest of Honor award incorrectly!!

 

Activities in San Diego

In San Diego we went to the San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, Coronado Island, and the tide pools at the Cabrillo National Monument. We used my son’s Every Kid Outdoors Pass that gives free entry to all fourth graders to National Parks and Monuments. It was also “Kids Free San Diego” month (in October), in which kids get in free with a paid adult to Legoland, the Zoo, tours, restaurants, and all kinds of stuff! Even places that didn’t have set adult/child pricing (like the donut shop) did 25% off for October.  That’s something to keep in mind if you have San Diego on your Southern California itinerary.

For our rental car, we used Autoslash and paid cash. I was never prompted to go to Priceline or the individual rental car websites for payment (though you can put in your loyalty-account number if you pay through Priceline). I just chose the “Pay in advance with Autoslash” option and set the “alert me if this gets cheaper alarm.” My initial $368 economy-car booking through Avis was undercut by a $308 midsized SUV booking at Hertz about 3 weeks before we left, so I booked Hertz and cancelled the Avis booking.

 

 

Paying It Forward

We always bring treats for the flight crew and grounds crew when we fly. That investment pays off every time, especially with American Airlines. I started doing it when my oldest was four and he and I took a solo trip. At the time, he was VERY nervous about flying, so we made up some goody bags to “give to helpers,” filled with mints made near our hometown. He is very Type A and was so focused on who to give bags to that he forgot to be totally unglued about flying. It helps if you have tons of the treats and give them out to vendors, seat neighbors, baggage handlers—literally anyone.

The treats we handed out this time (Hershey bars) allowed us to meet the pilots and get pictures of the kids in the captain’s seat.  American has also bumped us up to first class on a very light three-hour flight once, and this time, too—the kids were delighted to have scoops of ice cream at 36,000 feet!

Did I drag chocolate bars all over the fine state of California? Yes. Yes, I did. But did those American Airlines flight attendants make my kids feel like a million bucks from their 17B and 17C coach seats? Also yes! Treats are also just helpful when someone does something small that you don’t necessarily need to give a cash tip for.  The Hertz lady who accepted my gold status? Treat. The receptionist who quietly poured a very tired Mom a glass of bubbles? Treat. The National Park Service employee who took our picture? Treat. It’s just a win all around!

 

 

Bottom Line

That’s my reader success story to Southern California!  Huge thanks to the Travel Mom Squad (including Megan and Claire) for all of the card advice and traveling tips. We were able to cut the cost of this trip in half by using points and miles!!

And a huge thank you to Amanda for this reader success story to Southern California! Your SoCal family trip sounds amazing and we’re thrilled that you had a blast!

 

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