INTRODUCTION | Hello again!

I’m incredibly excited to start a new Travel Report series with my wife. It’s been a few years of ad-hoc travel flights and hotels, but with us being in September of 2022, I knew I had to take a chance on a new aspiring travel trip with my wife. With Covid-19 restrictions still impacting certain places like Japan and Taiwan, along with inflated prices across Europe, my eyes were set on a different country, one that I’ve been wanting to visit in a while.

So here we are, countless weeks later.

A $15,000 trip to Korea. Paid for by 330,000 miles, 355,500 points and $,1,536.34 USD. Let’s begin.

FLIGHTS | Hawaii to the Rescue

This was such a hard booking, especially with all the pent-up demand for business class travel. Award availability across multiple alliances were close to 0, and made for incredible routes and changes to make this trip actually happen.

Going into these bookings, I knew the flights were going to be the hardest, and boy did they put me to the test. Week after week, I was stumbling across so many airline platforms to only find 1x seat available or a flight that routed into Narita, which would have been a nightmare due to its border closure and its lack of transit hotels. Skyteam and Star Alliance flights were non-existent for any business class bookings, and thus Oneworld was my only hope.

In an interesting turn of events, I stumbled across award availability from Hawaii - a quick search on AA allowed me to locate 2 spots on Hawaiian Airlines to South Korea on October 23rd, 2022. For 52K AA miles in business class per person and with time running out, I made the first booking of the trip. The cost was for 2 people on Business Class to South Korea. For 105,000 AA miles and $11.20, I think the points did its job. It’s not as great as the JAL or Cathay redemptions, but hey, it’s still a nice airline to fly across to Asia! Cash price at time of writing was $3,412 USD.

On the return leg, I ran into the same problem. There were simply no JAL or Cathay Pacific flights available, and all ICN flights were going to DFW, which charged a ridiculous 120K miles per business class seat. No thank you! Once again, Hawaii came into the picture and I was able to book two flights from ICN to HNL on Hawaiian Airlines business class for 52K AA miles per person, with the award fees being $75.94. Thus, total cost was 105,000 AA miles and $75.94. Cash price at time of writing was $4,005 USD. Not a bad redemption!

To get back home, I took a hoard of Alaska Miles that I’ve been hoarding for the last two years and placed them to work. While not the best redemption value, I wasn’t going to spend dollars on a domestic business class flight. To that end, I splurged on 120K AS miles and $11.20 from HNL to SJC on Alaska Airlines business class. Total cash price at time of writing was $1,518 USD.

Now, you might be wondering, where’s the flight from SJC to HNL? I had been pondering what the best use of my Alaska Miles would be for a while, and when the news of Japan and Taiwan were opening up, I knew I had to at least pay a portion of the trip in cash. And of course, when the news broke out that those countries were opening up, award bookings became non-existent. I paid $1,438 USD out of pocket for two business class seats on Alaska Airlines. At time of writing, the cash price has gone up to a mind-boggling $2,598 USD! Glad I booked those tickets early!

It’s an interesting layout, especially for a trip to South Korea. Nevertheless, I’m pretty stoked about this flight itinerary and the net savings I had with this. To recap:

210,000 AA Miles
120,000 AS Miles
$1,438 USD for 1 flight
$98.34 in fees and taxes

The net cost, if paid all in cash, would have been close to $11,600 USD. Minus the cash price and the fees, I saved close to $10,122.66 in USD for a complete business class flight to Korea. When it’s all said and done, I’m glad I finally put some miles to use. Now, where to stay?

HOTELS | Battle between Brands

To note, the Korean Won is at a incredible low point against the dollar as of Sept 2022, which meant for every $1 dollar, I would be getting 1,390.50 won in return. This is incredibly valuable for travelers like us heading into Korea, as our dollar amount would stretch way further than ever before.

Booking hotels has become something a hilarious passion and one that’s quite…intriguing. I’m always scouring for maximum value from my stays, and with the latest additions of IHG Ambassador status, I decided to opt for a IHG vs. Hilton vs. Hyatt battle. But before all of that…

Before heading to South Korea, we’ll be enjoying a great night at the Ritz Carlton Residences, Waikiki Beach. Luckily for me, I wasn’t exactly bonvoyed by Marriott and was more than happy to spend 95,500 Marriott points for a Deluxe Ocean Review room. At time of writing, the price out of pocket would have been $778.55. I’m not looking for anything special with my Marriott Platinum status, but I’m excited to stay on another Ritz Carlton premise, especially in Hawaii.

Our first hotel in South Korea is none other the Conrad Seoul, which was always a stop that I’ve wanted to stay at during my Conrad feast in Asia back in 2019. Interestingly enough, the cash prices were almost too good for me to plop cash on, until a few days later, the hotel prices started going up. As a Hilton Diamond member, I knew that spending points on the nights would be easily worth it, as we’ve been upgraded on every occasion in every Conrad we’ve stayed at.

To make it even more worthwhile, I also utilized my wife’s Amex Platinum Card’s $200 hotel credit benefit and applied it to our very first night, would essentially would grant me:

Room Upgrade on Arrival (hit or miss)
Daily Breakfast for Two (i eat for three so all good here)
Guaranteed checkout at 4pm (not needed in my case)
Noon Check-in (also not really a factor)
Complimentary Wifi (come on…)
$100 USD Property Credit (super valuable - about to splurge on this bad boy)

From there, it was a matter of applying 171,000 Hilton points to the remaining nights, which costed nothing out of pocket. So for four nights in October, it essentially costed us $0.60 cents (that’s right). Not bad for a retail price of $1,503.73 USD for four nights (based on the Executive Room).

Up next, it was time to tap into the Hyatt brand. I had stayed at the Park Hyatt Seoul before and while it was great back in 2016, the reviews and the latest gossip about that hotel suggested that I looked someplace else. The Andaz Gangnam Seoul recently opened and the location was ideal for where I wanted to visit with my wife. I also was keen on using a Suite Upgrade Certificate as I knew the suites there were quite massive. Thus, a quick phone call on the Globalist Concierge line allowed me to book four nights for 89,000 Hyatt points and a Suite Upgrade Certificate, netting at the very minimum the Andaz Suite with 1 King Bed. Cash price with taxes would be close to $2,200 USD.

And lastly, we head into IHG with the Intercontinental brand. I had a plethora of IHG free nights that I was dying to use, and what better way than to spend it all at the Intercontinental Grand Seoul Parnas? For now, I’m going to assume at the very minimum a King Bed Class High Floor, though with our IHG Ambassador status, I’m excited to see if I could grab either a junior suite or an Intercontinental Suite. My recent stays at the Intercontinental Singapore and Robertson Quay has been nothing short of fantastic, and I’m excited to see what the renovated Grand Seoul Parnas will bring to the table. Total cash price at time of review would be close to $1,300 dollars.

I’m incredibly excited to stay at 3 premier 5 star hotels in Seoul, and see what each brand brings to the table. These are three hotels I’ve never stayed at, so my expectations going in will be at base level. Nevertheless, with a summary report, here’s what I spent for 12 nights:

95,500 Marriott Points
171,000 Hilton Points + 0.60 cents
89,000 Hyatt Points + 1x Suite Certificate
4x IHG Free Night Certificate

Compared to previous travel reports, this one was definitely the hardest and clearly one of the most intriguing design for a award booking. Using Hawaii as a base and leveraging AA miles while applying as many status upgrades as possible for our stay will make this trip incredibly interesting. Nevertheless, I’m excited to see this trip unravel in a few more weeks! Stay tuned for each report on the flights and hotels!