Spending Thanksgiving in Arizona with my wife and two daughters is an idea that dates back three years now. The pandemic put our plan on hold, but late last year we decided to make this trip a priority again. We’re determined to make this trip happen this Thanksgiving! With that decided, I was ready to start planning, even though it was too early to actually book anything. What I could do was take inventory of my points and miles and be on the lookout for new opportunities to save money.

Airfare

My idea to save money on airfare is to book the flights in two one-way segments, with one on American Airlines and the other on United Airlines. The reason is is that I have free money to use on both airlines. I have $700 in American Airlines gift cards that I accumulated from credit cards benefits and redeeming points on Mypoints.com. In addition, I have $375 in United TravelBank cash available.

American Airlines

Most of the American gift cards came from the annual airline credits that are a benefit of owning a Hilton Honors Aspire® Card. That card offers $250 in annual airline credits, and prior to 2022, the American Express® Gold Card also offered $100. These credits are intended to be used for incidental fees like baggage, seat assignment or change fees. However, up until last year, there was a loophole whereby the credit would trigger when buying gift cards. So every year I would buy $350 in American Airlines gift cards, whether I had plans to travel or not, and American Express would reimburse those purchases making the gift cards completely free.

The other source of American Airlines gift cards is through MyPoints.com. MyPoints is similar to other shopping portals which give you points or miles if you start your purchase from their website. MyPoints is unique in that they have even more ways to earn points, like doing surveys or watching videos. After earning enough points, you can redeem them for gift cards to lots of different merchants, including American Airlines.

If I end up booking the American flight using cash instead of miles, I’ll have $700 in gift cards to help offset the overall cost.

United Airlines

While the loophole of purchasing American Airlines gift cards no longer works, it still exists in a similar fashion with United Airlines. Instead of buying gift cards, you add money to United’s TravelBank. You can use that money towards booking a United or United Express flight directly with United. At the beginning of this year, I added $250 to my TravelBank, paying with my Hilton Aspire Card. American Express reimbursed that purchase meaning I had $250 in free money to put towards flights. My current TravelBank balance also includes $25, a benefit of the IHG® Rewards Premier Credit Card, and $100 received after I enrolled in CLEAR for free.

If I end up booking the United flight using cash instead of miles, I’ll put my United TravelBank cash to good use. That probably won’t cover everything, so I also plan to utilize Chase’s Pay Yourself Back feature on my Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card. This allows me to redeem my Chase Ultimate Rewards points to receive statement credits on recent eligible purchases. Points are worth 1.5 cents apiece, which means that 25,000 points equals $375 in redemption value.

Hotel

For the hotel, there were a few factors that influenced our decision on where to stay. We have family on the north side of Scottsdale, so we wanted to be within a 15 minute drive of them. Since it’s been such a long time since we took a family vacation, we also wanted the trip to feel luxurious.

With those parameters in mind, we searched for resorts in northern Scottsdale/Phoenix. There are plenty to choose from but we zeroed in on the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. It seems perfect with it’s northern location, five pools, lazy river, spa, golf, pickleball and plenty of dining options. Rooms can go for $500+ per night, so I started researching Marriott-branded credit cards to see how they could help with the cost.

As luck would have it, late in 2021, the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card had a limited time and best ever sign-up bonus. The deal was 125,000 points plus two free nights, up to 50,000 points each, after meeting the minimum spending requirements. During my research, I found that nights at the Desert Ridge Resort typically cost 50,000 points or less per night. So I immediately applied and was approved for the card. With my free nights and points, I won’t need to spend anything other than the resort fee and taxes out of pocket.

Car Rental

Finding a cheap auto rental is as difficult as it’s ever been after car rental companies sold off inventory during the pandemic. Combine that with chip shortages and increased demand and you have a situation where renting a car is very expensive. There’s no magic bullet to solve the problem, so I’ll regularly check prices directly with the the car rental companies. I’ll also check third parties like Costco Travel, AutoSlash and the Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express travel portals to compare prices.

The next post will detail which airfare, hotel and car rentals I booked and how much I saved.

Trip Report Index

1. Introduction and Planning
2. Using Points and Miles to get to Scottsdale
3. Flight from Chicago to Phoenix
4. JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa