The INSIDER Summary:
• Daniel Gillaspia of travel website UponArriving had enough Starwood Preferred Guest points to cover his entire three day, two night stay.
• A room is usually $534 a night.
• Its futuristic décor makes it worth a trip.
Travel hacker Daniel Gillaspia has 45 credit cards, and knows how to put their various points and miles to good use (and explains how you can too on his site, UponArriving).
A recent trip took him to what he considers the best hotel he's ever stayed at — the W Dubai in Al Habtoor City.
Even better, Gillaspia's Starwood Preferred Guest points (20,000 per night) covered his and his partner's entire three day, two night stay there.
Let's take a look at how he did it.
Gillaspia's Starwood Preferred Guest points covered his entire three day, two night stay.
He uses the American Express SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) card to collect those points through purchases and Starwood hotel stays.
He only spent 20,000 points per night — nothing out-of-pocket.
When he signed up for the card it had a 35,000 point sign up bonus. He made the rest "in about a month’s time after putting some big purchases on the card. I already had a couple of thousand SPG points in my SPG account from a recent stay, so that’s how I was able to hit the 40,000."
The actual cost would have been $534 per night.
"That particular redemption wasn’t the most efficient use of points from a cents per point perspective. SPG points are typically worth around 2.5 cents per point, and I actually only got around 1.3 cents per point (the cost of the two nights was $534 and $534/40,000=1.3 cents per point). However, it was still worth it to me because I really wanted to experience such a unique hotel, and we were still able to save over $500 and use those savings to do a shark dive in the Dubai Aquarium!"
See the rest of the story at Business Insider