Can you really book a Trip to Thailand for $500?
Points and cash.
Whenever I think about flying to Southeast Asia, I immediately think cha-ching for my flight and let out a breath when thinking about the cost of hotels. Most people have seen the hotels where people are kayaking to breakfast in the crystal clear water advertising rooms for less than going out to dinner with friends. I decided to challenge myself to find a way to get roundtrip tickets to Thailand, including my hotel stays for 7 nights for under $500 using cash and points in January as that is one of the best times to go.
I would not say it was a total failure, but I went over budget. This guide will show you how I got my flights and 7-night hotel stay in Thailand, Bangkok, and Phuket, for around $700, due to one mistake on my part. This one mistake cost me, but with the overall savings from not paying full price for my flights and first hotel stay, I was able to splurge on custom pants in Phuket.
Preparing to Travel to Thailand
I started looking for my flights fairly early, knowing I wanted to leave around mid-January and get back to NYC by the end of the following week. Flights can take up to two days to get to Bangkok and I had to take that into account in my planning. In addition, I was going to be booking two one-way flights.
In March 2023, I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which has an annual fee of $95. I chose this card because it can transfer to Hyatt Hotels, British Airways, and FlyingBlue. This will come in handy as I am getting ready to book my travel. It also gives great rewards for travel and dining which is where I spend most of my money. At this point, with the economy, it feels cheaper to eat out than cook each day. The welcome offer or sign-up bonus was 60,000 points for a $4000 spend in 3 months.
A few months later, since I am an independent contractor I signed up for Chase Ink Business Cash, which has 0% interest for 12 months and came with 75,000 points after spending $6,000 spend in 3 months. I put all of my contractor expenses on it to ensure I was getting the points for the sign-up bonus.
Finally, in May, I signed up for accounts with both Flying Blue and British Airways. Doing this would allow me to start to gather information about the cost of my flights in miles and prepare me to spend the points I had started hoarding. I was intending to fly from JFK to BKK and then HKT to JFK. I was not too picky about where my layovers would be.
Total earned from sign-up bonuses: 135,000 points
How to book a Flight to Thailand
I booked my flight to Bangkok using Flying Blue on AirFrance on August 23 for 35,000 miles + $148.40 in taxes. I used my Chase Ultimate Reward points to book this by transferring directly to Flying Blue and then searching Flying Blue for the flight I wanted, it was originally about 49,000 miles but once I saw that it dropped, I booked it immediately.
For my return flight, which was booked on August 28, I used British Airways, to fly on Qatar Airlines. It cost 47,500 miles + $166.05 in taxes. However, it only cost me 38,000 points because Chase was offering a 25% bonus on miles transferred to British Airways. Shoutout to catching that transfer bonus saving me over 9,000 points.
By the way, I did fly economy both ways. I have learned my lesson and will not do that again. It was not bad on the first flight but the flights after my layovers were rough for me. I could barely sleep.
Total Cost: 73,000 miles + $314.45 (taxes)
Booking the Hotels in Thailand
In Bangkok, I stayed at the Hyatt Place Bangkok Sukhumvit for 5,000 points a night totaling 15,000 points. I transferred points from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account to Hyatt. They included breakfast during my stay. The breakfast was a buffet and it was pretty good.
To see a video of the entire room, click here.
For Phuket, I missed out on an opportunity to utilize points to decrease my cost.
I stayed at the Grand Mercure Phuket Patong, which I did not realize was part of Accor Live Limitless. I could have utilized points from my Capital One Venture card to reduce the cost of this hotel or even stayed for free. Instead, I paid out of pocket for this Five-star hotel, with a swim-up room, for a cost of $388.50 per person. I have had my Capital One Venture card for years, but only recently have I started utilizing it for its transfer partners versus my Amazon purchases or purchase eraser.
To see a video of what my room looked like, click here.
How much did I spend on Flight + Hotel to Thailand?
For accommodations and flights, I ended up spending all together:
88,000 miles and $702.95.
As I prepare to head to Thailand, I need to figure out what my budget is going to be since there are so many things that I want to do and I need to start saving.
Tips
- Sign up early for any cards that you may need to get miles. Make sure they transfer to the airlines or hotels you want to book.
- Prepare to travel by determining how many miles you need by signing up for accounts with airlines/hotels.
- Start spending on your credit cards, especially those Amazon purchases.
To learn about how to prepare for your trip, including things you must pack, check out this Guide to Prepare for Your Trip to Thailand.
If you want to know what to do in Bangkok and Phuket check out the linked post.
Comment below your thoughts about the mistake I made or if you think this was a good use of miles!
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Credit card rewards are such a great way to get free flights!