Our daughter Brynn is a freshman volleyball player at Northeastern University in Boston. Once her team’s schedule was released over the summer, we wanted find a weekend to see her play in her home arena. We had a few dates to choose from and decided to visit the last weekend of October. That weekend was also parents weekend, so Annie, Rory and I traveled to Boston to visit her.

I began researching flights and hotels while we were still deciding which weekend to visit. In general, I found prices to be pretty high across the board. After watching airfare for several months, I noticed that as soon as the calendar flipped to August, prices went up and never came back down.

These days, most flights are full flights, so there’s no incentive for airlines to reduce prices as the departure date nears. For future air travel, I’m going to book tickets at least three months in advance. In this case, I had a stash of airline miles, travel credits and points, and used all three to book this “free” trip!

Airfare

Brynn had games Friday and Saturday afternoon. So we chose to fly to Boston on a 7a.m. flight Friday morning. For the trip home, we knew we were going to leave on Sunday but were very flexible on the departure time. I compared costs on multiple airlines, both using miles and paying cash. After an extensive amount of research, the best options for us were a United Airlines flight out to Boston and an American Airlines flight coming home.

Chicago to Boston

Initially, we planned to visit Brynn in November and I had booked one-way tickets on United. The cash price was $475.41, but I used $400 in United TravelBank cash to bring the cost down to just $75.41. I received those TravelBank credits from my Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. Until late 2023, the card had a $250 annual airline reimbursement perk, meant to offset incidental airline fees. However, adding money to TravelBank was a loophole that would qualify for reimbursement. So at the start of every calendar year, I would add $250 to my TravelBank to use at some future date. Within a few days, that money would be credited back to me as statement credit.

Note: The Hilton Honors Aspire Card airline credit perk now offers up to $50 in statement credits each quarter, for a total of up to $200 back each year on eligible flight purchases.

When we changed the weekend of our visit, I cancelled the original United flight and received $475.11 as a travel credit. The new flight cost only $355.41, so I applied my travel credit, which covered the entire amount. Plus, I still have $120 in travel credits to use on my next United flight.

Boston to Chicago

Flights back to Chicago on Sunday were expensive. It didn’t matter what airline or the time of day. So I decided to use some of my American Airlines AAdvantage miles to book our tickets home. I didn’t get amazing value from this redemption, but it still reduced my cash cost to almost nothing.

The cash cost for three tickets on the 10:23am flight was $835. Instead of paying cash, I used 79,500 miles and paid $16.80 in taxes and fees.

Hotel

Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall Boston

Northeastern University is located in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. It’s a nice neighborhood but doesn’t have as many restaurants or activities as downtown Boston. Since the school is only a handful of subway stops from downtown, I decided to book a hotel downtown instead.

I had free night awards available from both Marriott and IHG, so I started my search with them. The issue I ran into is that those free night awards are capped at 35,000 points (Marriott) and 40,000 points (IHG). While it’s possible to top those off with some points, I still couldn’t find any hotels in the area with point prices low enough for me to utilize my award certificates.

So I turned my search over to Hyatt. I had Hyatt points that I intended to use for a trip to Hawaii in 2020 that never happened. Those points were basically a sunk cost at this point, so I decided it was time to put them to use.

I was deciding between the Hyatt Regency Boston and the Hyatt Centric Faneuil Fall Boston. The Hyatt Regency didn’t have any two bedroom rooms available, so the choice was made for the Hyatt Centric. The Hyatt Centric brand is described as full-service lifestyle hotels located in prime destinations. That was certainly true for the Hyatt Centric in Boston. It’s located next door to the Old Statehouse, which is a stop along the Freedom Trail. Plus, as the hotel’s name suggests, it’s also very close to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, other vary popular tourist attractions.

Cash prices were sky high, coming in at $1,337 the day I finally booked the hotel.

Luckily they had rooms with two beds available for 29,000 points per night. I already had 43,000 points in my Hyatt account, so I transferred another 15,000 points from Chase to Hyatt. I’ve been rapidly building my Chase Ultimate Rewards points balance recently, so I didn’t mind parting with some points to top of my Hyatt balance. Chase Ultimate Rewards is my favorite transferable points program because it’s relatively easy to earn points and you can transfer those points to airlines and hotel partners.

So two nights in Boston cost me 58,000 Hyatt points, saving me $1,337.

Boston 2024 Redemption Table

	Retail Cost	Our Cost	Miles and Points Used	Points Source
3 one-way tickets from Chicago (ORD) to Boston (BOS)	$118 per person ($355 total)	$0	$355 United TravelBank credits	- Amex Hilton Aspire card
3 one-way tickets from Boston (BOS) to Chicago (ORD)	$278 per person ($835 total)	$17	79,500 AA miles	- Amex Hilton Aspire card
2 nights at Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall Boston	$549 per night + taxes ($1337 total)	$0	58,000 Hyatt points	- Chase Ultimate Rewards
Total	$2,527	$17	- 79,500 UA miles - 58,000 Hyatt points - $355 travel credits	- $2,510 in total savings - 99% off retail cost

Bottom Line

All in all, we saved 99% off the retail cost of this trip by using points and miles. Better yet, we spent some quality time with Brynn and got to see a Northeastern volleyball victory!

Trip Report Index

1. Using Points and Miles to get to Boston