I’ve written a few posts about our recent surprise trip to San Juan Puerto Rico
- [VIDEO] Preparing for a surprise trip
- Keeping the secret in a secret trip - planning the trip
- Hotel Review: Fairfield Inn Dayton North
- Using Barclay Arrival miles on small transactions under $25
- #SouthwestHeart Scavenger Hunt January 2015
- Why it pays to check the Chase Ultimate Rewards mall before transferring points
- Hotel Review: Hyatt House San Juan
- Touring the Condado region of San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Old San Juan: a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Navigating the Old San Juan Trolley
- Update on Southwest TV on Android devices
- Updating my travel maps
- The ledger: Total trip cost breakdown
While I have a few posts left to write, I thought it would be good time to give an idea of how much my “free” trip cost. We often like to talk about how travel hacking can give you “free” vacations, but even if we discount the value / opportunity costs of getting those miles and counts (which you shouldn’t do), it’s generally very hard to take a trip and have NO expenses at all.
Even us, who are pretty frugal folks, had SOME expenses for our trip which lasted for about 4 days (Wednesday night to Sunday afternoon). Here is the breakdown
| Date | Place | Cash | Miles | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/21/2015 | Fairfield Inn Dayton North | 7,900 Chase Ultimate Rewards (paying cash would have been $98.75) | Purchased through the Ultimate Rewards mall - Why it pays to check the Chase Ultimate Rewards mall before transferring points | |
| 1/22/2015 | Southwest | 29,120 Southwest Rapid Rewards miles (paying cash would have been $483 per ticket or $966 total) | Carolyn's ticket paid for with Southwest Companion Pass | |
| 1/22/2015 | Southwest | 2,016 Barclay Arrival miles | $22.40 for fees on 2 tickets (this was actually part of a $25 gift card then credited with Arrival miles (with 10% rebate) - Using Barclay Arrival miles on small transactions under $25 | |
| 1/22/2015 | Hyatt House San Juan! | 24,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards - cash rate was $279 / night. For 3 nights plus taxes that would have been $1049. | 3 nights @ 8000 each - transferred to Hyatt | |
| 1/22/2015 | Taxi | $22.00 | ||
| 1/22/2015 | Don Jose Hacienda | $18.00 | Thursday lunch/ dinner - $13.91 + tip | |
| 1/22/2015 | Pueblo Supermercado | $7.94 | Food | |
| 1/23/2015 | National Park entrance fee | $10.00 | 2 adults (kids under 15 are free) - good for both castles for 7 days | |
| 1/23/2015 | Casa Cortes Choco Bar | $16.89 | ||
| 1/23/2015 | Taxi | $17.00 | We walked to the Old Town (about 45 minutes) but decided to take a taxi back. Flat fare from the Old Town to Miramar was $15 + tip. We did find 37 cents in coins in the back seat of the cab but I'm not counting that 😀 | |
| 1/24/2015 | Don Jose Hacienda | $17.00 | Thursday lunch/ dinner - $14.54 + tip | |
| 1/25/2015 | Taxi | $22.00 | ||
| 1/25/2015 | Dayton Airport parking | $24.00 | $6 / day | |
| 1/25/2015 | Gas from our house to Dayton airport and back | $7.25 | 127 miles @ 35 mpg * $2 / gal | |
| TOTAL: | $162.08 | 63,036 miles (of various currrencies) which saved us approximately $2113.75 |
Categorizing the cash portion of our expenses, we have:
- Food: $67.83 which covered all of our meals (for 2 people) for 3 days plus Sunday breakfast. We took snacks from our plane trips as well as some of the breakfast snacks, and took advantage of our hotel having a kitchen to go to the grocery store to make meals cheaper than eating out. We could have possibly cut some costs if we were staying at a hotel that offers free dinner (or lounge access) as well.
- Transportation: $92.25 – this was the one downside of our hotel – far from the places we wanted to be. Even though we walked more than I would say your average tourist would have, all the taxi rides added up. We did consider taking the bus as well
- Entertainment: $10 – though some of the taxi rides (or the trip to Casa Cortes Choco Bar) could also be considered part entertainment.
I hope that this breakdown is instructive for you – I think that it shows while a COMPLETELY free trip is likely not feasible in most cases, it is possible to use miles and points to travel for much cheaper than you might otherwise be able to do. As you can see from the graph, the 63,036 miles saved us about $2113.75. Now that two thousand dollars is kind of funny money since if we were actually taking a trip like this we might have done things differently (like pick a cheaper hotel), but still – this in a nutshell is the beauty of this travel hacking game that we play!
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
We went to Puerto Rico for 10 days/9 nights during Christmas. Flew AA to San Juan ($630 per round-trip ticket). Stayed 3 nights at HI Express Condado ($180 per night), 3 nights at Hyatt House ($380 per night), 1 night at Intercontinental ($1100 per night), and 2 nights at Sheraton Old San Juan ($430 per night). I used miles and points to pay for all the flights and hotel, so it was a huge saving!!
BTW at the Hyatt House hotel, I had to request three times to get a real “bay view” room. And this hotel was awesome!
That is so awesome! Another reminder of how lucky / blessed / fortunate we are in this hobby!
Thanks for the breakdown. My family will be going to Puerto Rico later this year and this is very helpful.
Glad you liked it! IMO setting (and trying to stick to) a budget is super important, no matter WHAT your budget it