Visiting Charleston, South Carolina has always been on our bucket list. For going on 9 years, it’s also been the backdrop to one of our favorite Bravo reality shows, Southern Charm. This reality TV show follows the professional and personal lives of a group of Charleston singles. While some people might be ashamed to watch a show like this, we have two friends who also enjoy it as much as we do. It’s our collective guilty pleasure!

While the show has it’s share of ridiculousness, it also highlights southern culture and modern day aristocracy, which is quite interesting. So earlier this summer, the four of us decided to plan a long weekend together in October to visit Charleston.

We’re eager to doing some of the typical touristy stuff on this trip. But we’re also looking forward to learning about the history of the “Holy City” and especially to tasting some quintessential Lowcountry cuisine. Additionally, we’re going to be silly and visit some popular spots from Southern Charm, like Craig Conover’s pillow store and one of Leva Bonaparte’s restaurants.

Airfare

Fall is my busy season, so I can only take one day off of work for this. So the plan was to fly into Charleston first thing on Saturday and fly home on Monday, so I can be back at work on Tuesday. That round-trip itinerary would’ve cost $868.

Instead of round-trip flights, though, I typically book two one-way flights to get more flexibility. That way, if I choose, I can use miles one direction and pay cash for the other.

United Airlines offers multiple nonstop flights per day between Chicago and Charleston, whereas American Airlines only offers one. While I prefer to fly American because of my Platinum Elite status, their daily flight to Charleston is right in the middle of the day. We want to get as close to a full day in Charleston that Saturday, so we went with United.

Chicago to Charleston

I booked us on the first United Airlines flight of the day on Saturday. It gets us into Charleston around 10:30am, so we’ll have essentially the entire day to enjoy. The cash price for two one-way tickets was just under $214, which is pretty cheap. However, I have a bunch of United MileagePlus miles, so I decided to save the cash and use miles. United charged 17,200 miles for the two tickets. The value of that miles redemption is 1.2 cents per mile. Most people value UA miles at 1.1 cents per mile, so the redemption is just a little over average. However, it really just came down to saving the money.

Whenever you redeem miles on a domestic flight, the airlines still charge nominal fees. In total, I paid $11 for the two one-way tickets and saved $203 on this leg of the trip.

Charleston to Chicago

United was charging $586 or 51,800 miles to fly home on the mid-day Monday flight. Neither option was a good deal, so I looked at flights leaving Tuesday instead. There’s a flight at 6:15 a.m., which gets to Chicago before 8:00 a.m. That means I could still get in a full day’s work on Tuesday. Besides giving us all-day Monday to enjoy Charleston, the cost of the flight is also way less than the Monday flight.

The price for two one-way tickets on the Tuesday morning flight was $218, and I decided to use some of my United TravelBank credits to cover the cost. One of the perks of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card is that it annually reimburses up to $250 in airline incidental fees charged to the card. Adding money to TravelBank qualifies for reimbursement, so at the start of every calendar year, I add $250 to my TravelBank to use at some future time. Wtihin a few days, that money is credited back to me as statement credit. So I used $200 in my TravelBank towards the purchase, taking my out of pocket costs down to just $18.

The bottom line is that flights which would’ve cost $868 in cash, were paid for instead by changing the date of our return leg, redeeming 17,200 United MileagePlus miles and spending a total of $29.

Hotel

The Lindy Renaissance Charleston

When it came to hotel options, I wanted to use my free night award with Marriott before it expired in December. As a cardholder of the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card, I receive a free night award certificate every year. The award, valid at hotels costing up to 35,000 points per night, is given annually on your card-opening anniversary. Even better, you can add up to 15,000 extra points from your account to redeem your free night award at hotels above the 35,000 point redemption limit. The certificate must be used within a year of receipt, so the time to use it was now.

There are four Marriott properties right in the center of Charleston. There’s the Grand Bohemian Hotel, the Hotel Bella Grace, the Courtyard Charleston Historic District and The Lindy Renaissance Charleston. The Lindy Renaissance was the cheapest at around $427/night and charged around 45,000 points/night. Since I can add up to 15,000 points to my 35,000 point free night award, this was the only one of the four properties that worked.

When I booked our 2-night stay, the total cash rate was $979. So I’m getting great value by using my free night certificate and 55,000 Marriott points. The $125 annual fee on my Marriott Bonvoy Amex card is well worth it when I can use the free night award to erase a $300+ hotel night cost.

All in all, I saved $979 on our 2-night stay in the heart of downtown Charleston!

Courtyard Charleston-North Charleston

Once I booked the 6:15a.m. flight on Tuesday, I decided it would be better to stay near the airport Monday night. It means getting to sleep in a few extra minutes and save us money as well. Spending Monday night at The Lindy Renaissance would’ve cost $373, including taxes and fees.

Instead, I booked us at the Courtyard Charleston-North Charleston, which is about 10 minutes from the airport. I reserved it through my wife’s Chase Sapphire Preferred account to take advantage of the annual $50 statement credit for hotel stays purchased through the Chase Travel Portal. The portal is just like any 3rd party booking site (i.e. Expedia or Orbitz), and the cost is often higher than booking directly with the hotel. You also don’t get any status benefits when booking through 3rd party sites. However, I wasn’t concerned with status benefits at this kind of hotel and getting $50 back made it well worth it.

Booking directly with Marriott would’ve cost $133, including taxes and fees, or 13,600 Marriott points. Instead, going through the Chase Travel Portal, our one night stay at the Courtyard Charleston-North Charleston will cost $135 – $50, for a total of only $85.

Charleston 2023 Redemption Table

	Retail Cost	Our Cost	Miles and Points Used	Points Source
2 one-way tickets from Chicago (ORD) to Charleston (CHS)	$107 per person ($214 total)	$5.60 taxes and fees ($11 total)	17,200 UA miles	- United Explorer Card - Miles from flying, dining and shopping portals - Opinion Miles Club surveys
2 one-way tickets from Charleston (CHS) to Chicago (ORD)	$109 per person ($218 total)	$18	$200 United TravelBank credits	- Amex Hilton Aspire card
2 nights at The Lindy Renaissance Charleston Hotel	$428 per night + taxes ($979 total)	$0	1 free night certificate and 55,000 Marriott points	- Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card
1 night at the Courtyard by Marriott North Charleston	$119 + taxes per night ($135 total)	$85	$50 statement credit	- Chase Sapphire Preferred
Total	$1,546	$114	- 17,200 UA miles - 1 free night certificate - 55,000 Marriott points - $250 travel credits	- $1,432 in total savings - 93% off retail cost

Bottom Line

All in all, we’re going to save around 93% off the retail cost of this trip by using points and miles. Annie and I have only heard great things about Charleston, and we’re really looking forward to spending time there. We can’t wait to immerse ourselves in this old world southern charm and eat some classic southern comfort food. And maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll run into some of the stars of Southern Charm!

Trip Report Index

1. Using Points and Miles to get to Charleston
2. The Lindy Renaissance Charleston Hotel
3. Where to Eat in Charleston