How To Pay For A Dream Honeymoon Trip
When it came to planning our wedding, I was primarily in charge of 2 things: the cake and the honeymoon. The cake was easy. My wife does not eat cake so she had no expectations. Planning the honeymoon was a different story. My wife grew up on a tropical island. She has been to over 40 countries. I needed to find a place that would not only be new to her, but would also surpass all of those prior experiences. In my mind that left me with 2 options, Bora Bora or the Maldives. Turns out the Maldives is twice as far as Bora Bora which makes it more difficult and expensive to get to from Indiana. So I zeroed in on French Polynesia.
If you are planning a trip to Bora Bora the first thing you notice is how expensive it is (even in terms of points). There are not many ways to do the trip cheaply and because this was an aspirational trip we wanted to do it right. The trick is to strike a balance between where to spend money and where to save….and when to get overruled by your wife.
With an expensive honeymoon in mind, I began working on a strategy to make it as “affordable” as possible.
- The Registry. My wife and I got married in our mid 30s. Living on our own for so many years we had already accumulated your typical wedding registry items like cookware and linen. Combining our households meant that we had 2 of most household items and we were actively trying to reduce the number of things we owned. So we registered for a honeymoon! We setup a wedding website with Zola.com to provide information and pictures. The site also had a registry section that allowed our guests to gift cash towards experiences. Some people do not like to give cash as a gift because it can seem impersonal. However many of these cash funds are designed to gift experiences, like airfare, hotel accommodations, snorkeling, a dinner cruise, or a couples massage. It is still a cash gift but it feels more personal this way. Some of the many websites that will set this up for you are:
- Zola.com
- The Knot
- Honeyfund
- Traveler’s Joy
- Blueprint Registry
- The Hotel. While my wife and I live in Indiana, many of our guests live all over the country (and the world). That meant that we needed to have a block of rooms available that would be convenient for our guests. So we set it up as a “meeting” with Marriott. Because we were bringing the hotel business (our guests), we earned Marriott points for every room night booked under our room block. With our wedding so close to the Indianapolis 500 and other late spring conventions, having the room block ensured our guests would have rooms available as well as earn points we could spend towards our honeymoon and credit towards elite status! We earned about 30,000 points that way.
- Credit Cards. If you are paying for your own wedding, that gives you the opportunity to earn points on credit card spend. I use a points earning credit card whenever I buy something, and the same applies for wedding spend. It is important to note that you should not go into debt for the sake of points. I pay off my card in full and carry no balance from month to month. That being said there are 2 things to consider regarding wedding spend on credit cards:
- Bonuses. Most of the best point earning cards will offer sign-up bonuses if you can meet certain spending requirements within a certain period of time. Most cards have fairly easy to meet requirements. However some of the more premium cards may have spending requirements as high as $10,000. The average cost of a wedding is over $20,000, which means that even the highest spending requirements should be within reach. Credit card bonuses are the fastest way to earn a large amount of points in a short period of time. If you have major wedding expenses to pay for it might be a good idea to apply for a rewards earning card early during the wedding planning process, so that you can earn the bonus in time for the honeymoon.
- Category Spend. Many point earning cards give you more points for spend in specific categories. For instance the Chase Sapphire Reserve is 3 points per dollar spent in travel or dining categories. If you hold multiple point earning card you should make sure to spend on cards that will give you the most points for the category. Most of the time category spend is obvious (rehearsal dinner = dining spend). However there are times when you might think an expense is in one category and the credit card company categorizes it as another. Chase did not count my caterer as a dining expense so I used Chase Freedom Unlimited card for 1.5x points. If you get married in a hotel or restaurant your venue expenses may count towards travel or dining.
- Bonus Portals. Whenever I need to buy something online, I make sure to check a shopping portal in order to earn additional points. All of the major airlines and some credit cards have a shopping portal. You simply navigate to the portal, click on the online retailer that you are looking for, and start shopping. This allows you to double dip on points (points earned via the portal and points earned via credit card). My wife and I exchanged gifts on our wedding day. I bought her earrings from Neiman Marcus through a portal and earned thousands of points. Some of the major portals are listed below:
- Mileage Plus App (MPX). United not only has a shopping portal but they also have an app that allows you to earn points on the purchase of gift cards. The nice part about this app is you can buy a gift card for an odd amount. If my wife is standing in line at Sephora to purchase items costing $57.32 ( I made that number up) you could buy a gift card for that exact amount while standing in front of the cashier. Just show the cashier the barcode on the app. This works in the store or online. Certain retailers allow for the triple dip (go through shopping portal and use MPX giftcard to pay in order to earn points from credit card, shopping portal and MPX app).
- Airbnb via Delta. Rather than book a hotel room for the day before the wedding my wife booked a house on Airbnb as a place to stay and get ready before the wedding. All of the bridesmaids got their hair and makeup done at the Airbnb before heading to the venue. By booking via the Delta Airbnb website, you can earn 1 skymile per $1 spent. Be sure to use a MPX gift card to triple-dip points (points via credit card, airbnb, and MPX).
So how did I pay for my 13 day 3 location honeymoon? Well the Bora Bora leg of the trip was paid for entirely with cash from our registry honeymoon fund. Overwater bungalow rooms at the Intercontinental require an astronomical amount of points and just wasn’t feasible. Air Tahiti flights were also cash. Air France had a flight bookable on points but my wife preferred the Air Tahiti Nui itinerary that I had to use cash for (Happy wife, Happy life). The Hawaiian legs of the trip were almost all points! We used over 600,000 points total but we had alot more options in Hawaii than we did for Bora Bora. I applied for the American Express Business Gold Card that had a 50,000 point sign up bonus. I transferred 55,000 points to Hawaiian Airlines to cover the premium economy flight from Tahiti to Kauai. The Koloa Landing Autograph collection was booked with Marriott points and the Andaz Maui was booked with Chase points. It was an expensive trip, but you only get one honeymoon!
| Flight/Hotel | Booked Through: | Paid Using: |
| Flight: IND-LAX-PPT one way | Qantas (operated by AA and Air Tahiti Nui) | Honeymoon Cash Fund |
| Flight: PPT-BOB round trip | Air Tahiti | Honeymoon Cash Fund |
| Hotel: Intercontinental Bora Bora Le Moana bungalows | Intercontinental (IHG) | Honeymoon Cash Fund |
| Flight: PPT-LIH one way premium economy | Hawaiian Airlines | 55,000 point Amex MR transfer |
| Hotel: Koloa Landing | Marriott | 328,000 Marriott points |
| Flight: LIH-OGG | Hawaiian Airlines | Honeymoon Cash Fund |
| Hotel: Andaz Maui | Chase Ultimate Rewards | 184,938 Chase points |
| Flight: OGG-LAX-IND one way first class | American Airlines | 80,000 Aadvantage points |
