Honeymoons — they’re expensive, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for you and yours. And since you can’t redo a honeymoon, you should splurge on nicer hotels and a destination that looks great to both of you. But did you know that you can use travel rewards to splurge without breaking the bank?
That’s what I’m doing next year. My fiancee and I are getting married in Prague, then heading directly to the Maldives for our honeymoon. The main expense is our resort stay in the Maldives. Our desired resort — the new Alila Kothaifaru Maldives — would have cost over $8,000 for our five-night stay.
Needless to say, that’s out of my price range by a long shot. But with the power of travel rewards, I could book the same stay for less than $1,400 out of pocket. Let’s look at how I booked my Maldives honeymoon with travel rewards — and how you can do the same.
How I booked a Maldives honeymoon with travel rewards
The Alila brand is owned by Hyatt, which means the Alila Maldives participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. This program is one of my favorites and a favorite among many travel rewards enthusiasts as it’s kept a standard award chart over the years. All Hyatt hotels are priced within off-peak, standard and peak award pricing bands, so you have a general understanding of how many points you’ll pay for an award night if award space is available.
For hotels and resorts — but not including all-inclusive resorts — World of Hyatt has eight award pricing categories. For standard rooms, Category 1 hotels cost 3,500 points on off-peak dates, 5,000 points on standard dates and 6,500 points per night on peak dates. Meanwhile, top-tier Category 8 hotels cost 35,000, 40,000 and 45,000 points per night for off-peak, standard and peak rates, respectively. You can see the full chart above.
The Alila Maldives is a Category 7 hotel, and I booked on peak dates. This means I had to come up with 35,000 points per night for our five-night stay, totaling 175,000 points.
But there was just one small issue: I only had 35,000 World of Hyatt points in my account when I booked. Thankfully, I leveraged credit card partnerships to come up with the remaining 140,000 without buying points.
As you might expect, you can earn World of Hyatt points when you stay at Hyatt hotels or spend on a Hyatt cobranded credit card. But there’s an easier, lesser-known way to earn Hyatt points quickly: you can transfer points from transferable points credit cards.
Looking to stock up on Chase Ultimate Rewards points? You can earn them with three of my favorite Chase credit cards:
- I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card and most of my earn Chase points by putting travel purchases on the card. It earns 3 points per dollar on all travel purchases and earns a higher 10 points per dollar on Lyft rides, 10 points per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked with Chase Travel and 5 points per dollar on flights booked with Chase Travel.
- My Alila Maldives stay isn’t completely “free”
- One thing to know about the Maldives: International flights go into the country’s main airport in Male (MLE), but most resorts are elsewhere and require an extra flight. In the Alila Maldives’ case, you have to fly Maldivian Airlines from Male to Ifuru (IFU) and then take a speedboat to the resort. The hotel arranges all of this for you — but it isn’t cheap.
- The Alila Maldives requires you to book the round-trip flight and speedboat ride directly with the hotel. This costs $655 per adult and $328 per child at the time of writing. There’s no way to get out of this charge, even if you book your stay on points.
I view this as an essential expense for making the trip possible. Whether I’m using World of Hyatt points or paying in cash, this cost is unavoidable. But if it ensures we have the honeymoon of a lifetime, then it’s well worth it.
Bottom line
Using all my Hyatt points, most of my Chase points and still spending $1,310 to reach the resort makes booking the Alila Kothaifaru Maldives one of my most costly travel rewards redemptions. However, it’s also set to be one of the most memorable trips of my life with my soon-to-be wife. For me, that’s absolutely worth it — award travel is about creating aspirational experiences that would be impossible without points and miles.
Naturally, you don’t have to travel to the Maldives to leverage travel rewards for your five-star honeymoon. Hotel loyalty programs like World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors offer accommodations in every corner of the globe. Take the time to research and see how you can enhance your honeymoon experience with the points you already have.
