One of the many perks of being an IHG Rewards Club Premier cardholder is the free night award certificate. The award, valid at hotels costing up to 40,000 points a night, is given annually on your card-opening anniversary. Even better, IHG recently made it possible to add points from your account to redeem your free night award at hotels above the 40,000 point redemption limit. The certificate must be used within a year of receipt, so I needed to decide how and when to use it before I lose it. 

In July, I used the free night award certificate to book a one-night staycation in Chicago for my wife and I. Unfortunately we ended up having to cancel the reservation. After that didn’t pan out, we decided to do something bigger than just a one-night staycation. So we pivoted to taking a trip over Christmas to Orange County, California to visit friends and get out of the cold.

Airfare

When I began looking for flights to Orange County, cash prices were hovering around $1,200 for 2 round-trip tickets. Alternatively, I could get those same tickets for 124,000 miles. Then this past weekend, I noticed that these flights had dropped in cost, both in cash and miles, so it was time to book.

Note: It pays to watch flight costs over a period of time to get a sense of what’s a good deal and what’s not. When you see a change for the better, don’t be afraid to pounce!

Chicago to Orange County

For the outbound flight, United Airlines beat American Airlines in both cash price and miles redemption cost. I decided to use miles and booked my wife and I on a flight for a total of 41,200 miles. At a cash cost of $472, the value of my miles redemption is 1.15 cents per mile ($472 / 41,200 miles). That’s a little under the standard value of 1.4 cents per mile, but I’d rather have the money in my pocket!

Orange County to Chicago

One the way home, it was the opposite — American Airlines had the more economical options. I chose to use miles again instead of paying cash even though the redemption value was just mediocre. At a cash cost of $490, the value of my miles redemption is 1.11 cents per mile ($490 / 45,000 miles).

In the end, flights costing $962 were paid with 45,000 AAdvantage miles and 41,200 MileagePlus miles, for a net cost of only $22.

Hotel

Once we decided to go to Orange County, it was time to find the hotel. Armed with the free night award certificate and around 200,000 IHG One Rewards points, the plan was a six-day, five-night vacation. One night will be covered by my free night award certificate and the other four nights by points. I chose to stay four extra nights because of another perk from the IHG Rewards Club Premier card. This perk allows cardholders to get a fourth night free when redeeming points to book award stays of four nights or more. The discount is applied automatically, so it couldn’t be easier to use.

IHG has a ton of hotels near Irvine, where our friends live. While there are lots of Holiday Inns and other middle or lower-tier hotels in the area, we want to stay somewhere special. In our search, the two options that really stood out were the Kimpton Shorebreak Resort in Huntington Beach and Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa in Laguna Beach. Kimpton is one of IHG’s upscale brands and the Shorebreak Resort is oceanfront, which made it very enticing. However, as I kept scrolling to the bottom of the search page, I noticed a Mr. & Mrs. Smith property that intrigued me.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa

IHG has partnered with Mr. & Mrs. Smith hotels, a chain of boutique luxury hotels with properties all around the world. IHG members can earn and redeem points at Mr. & Mrs. Smith properties as they would at any other IHG property.

So we looked further into the Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa and it looks fabulous! The photos and reviews paint a picture of a serene oasis with many rooms overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Being a small adults-only boutique property, we should be able to feel the luxury, tranquility and relaxation. In addition, they provide a complimentary bottle of sparkling wine upon arrival and free daily European style continental breakfast.

Booking the Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa

Unfortunately when it comes to booking with IHG, you have to book the free award night separately from the rest of the trip. So I started with the one free night. In this case, due to availability, the free night will be the final night of our stay.

Booking the One Free Night

The award certificate is valid at hotels costing up to 40,000 points a night. The Casa Laguna nightly rate is 70,000 points, so I had to add 30,000 points to my certificate in order to book it. I didn’t love having to add points for the free night, but we’re super excited about this hotel and thought it was worth it. Even better, for some unknown reason, the hotel was charging the same 70,000 points no matter what room I chose. The hotel only has six room types:

• Garden Room (the cheapest room type)
• Deluxe Ocean View
• Deluxe Ocean View Patio
• Junior Suite
• One Bedroom Suite
• “The Bungalow” (the most expensive room type)

So of course I booked “The Bungalow”, which has a cash price of over $1,000 on the night we’ve reserved it!

The Bungalow Suite

Here’s a description of the room from the hotel’s website:

The property’s most exclusive accommodation, the Bungalow Suite was originally built in the 1930s. It is located in its own section of the property with a private entrance and features breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean from both the living room and jetted claw foot tub. At 600 sq. feet, the Bungalow features a separate living room and bedroom, and a well-equipped kitchenette. The Bungalow also features a large private balcony with a hammock for two boasting panoramic views of the coast, pool and gardens.

Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa

Booking the Other Four Nights

When you book rooms with IHG points, it’s only valid on standard rooms. So for the other four nights, I had to book a Garden Room, for a total cost of 190,000 points. My hope is that the Bungalow Suite is free and the hotel will be generous enough to upgrade us to that room for as many nights as it’s open.

Because I ended up having to add 30,000 points to my free night award certificate, I was just short on points for the other four nights. Luckily IHG was running a points promotion at the time. I needed around 20,000 more points and IHG was giving a 100% bonus on all points purchases. So I spent $135 to purchase 10,000 points and received 20,000 points in total.

So in the end, we’ll be staying four nights in a Garden Room ($1,708 value) and one night in the Bungalow Suite ($1,015 value). And if we’re lucky we might get another night or two in “The Bungalow”. The total cost for the stay is 220,000 IHG points, a free night award certificate and $135. That’s a savings of $2,588!

Rental Car

The best rental car deal I could find for this trip was through Costco Travel. As I always do, I also input my reservation details in AutoSlash and they’ll email me should they find a better deal.

Update: AutoSlash has been emailing me slightly better deals for a few weeks but today I finally jumped on one. The combination of reserving a car through Priceline.com and using a corporate code brought the cost of the car rental down by $148! My new reservation is also with Budget for the exact same car class as before.

Laguna Beach Redemption Table

	Retail Cost	Our Cost	Miles and Points Used	Points Source
2 one-way tickets from Chicago (ORD) to Orange County (SNA)	$236 per person ($472 total)	$5.60 taxes and fees ($11 total)	41,200 UA miles	- United Explorer credit card - Opinion Miles Club surveys
2 one-way tickets from Orange County (SNA) to Chicago (ORD)	$245 per person ($490 total)	$5.60 taxes and fees ($11 total)	45,000 AA miles	- Citi AAdvantage credit cards - E-rewards surveys - Miles for Opinions surveys
5 nights at the Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa	$544 per night ($2,723 total)	$135	1 free night certificate and 220,000 IHG points	- IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card - IHG Points Purchase
5 day car rental	$538	$389	N/A	N/A
Total	$4,223	$546	- 41,200 UA miles - 45,000 AA miles - 1 free night certificate - 220,000 IHG points	- $3,677 in total savings - 87% off retail cost

Bottom Line

We’re both really excited about this trip! During the last week of December, things are always a little boring at home, not to mention cold and potentially snowy. We haven’t traveled during this time of year in such a long time, so it’s wonderful to have something to look forward to. Plus we always have a great time with our Irvine friends and can’t wait to enjoy some much needed relaxation and warm weather. It’s even sweeter knowing this $4,200 trip will cost less than $600!

Trip Report Index

1. Using Points and Miles to get to Laguna Beach
2. Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa