Travel on Points: Jamaica, Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall

Jamaica holds a special place in my heart because Steve and I had our honeymoon there over 12 years ago! Time flies, and we haven’t been back!

Our trip was 4 days and 5 nights at the Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We booked round-trip tickets as well from Denver and also paid for a taxi back and forth from the airport. How much would this trip cost?

The resort stay was supposed to be $3,32,8 and instead our bill was $0. Our flights were supposed to be $1,576 and instead were $300 for both of us round-trip. Our taxi was $78 round-trip for two people.

The total cost should have been $4,904, but instead it was $378 total!

That is the power of using points when booking travel! It covers the heavy part of the vacation costs and leaves you with some fees and taxes to pay for. It isn’t completely free, but that is a good deal if you ask me!

Let me walk you through how I booked this trip on points. If you want to dive in and learn the basic foundations of points and miles, grab my FREE guide and get started!

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Booking Jamaica on Points

Cards We Used to Earn Points

I opened up the Ink Business Preferred card, which, after meeting the $8,000 spend, gave me 100,000 points, and the annual fee for that card was only $95.

I then referred my husband using my link, so I earned an additional 40,000 points because at the time, referrals on this card were 40,000 points. The referral offer is now 20,000 points. Also, the referral link works for all Chase business cards, so even though my husband didn’t get the same card, I still got a referral bonus because he opened a Chase business card.

My husband opened the Ink Business Cash, which was a no-annual-fee card and offered 75,000 points. We opened different cards because the Ink Cash had a lot of business perks with points that we were interested in using, like the 5x at Office Supply stores.

Our point total from 2 cards was 215,000 points, and we only needed 112,000 to cover our 4 nights at this all-inclusive!

The other cards we opened were the Southwest credit cards earlier in the year, and we both earned the companion pass. Allowing one of us to fly for FREE and just paying the taxes and fees. This allows us to use fewer points and fly more!

With the Southwest companion pass, you have to earn at least 135,000 points, and then you get the pass that allows you to bring a companion with you on every flight for free, and you just cover the taxes and fees.

Want to learn how to score that companion pass? Don’t worry, I’ve got your back with a whole guide explaining everything you need to know! Grab the Southwest Companion Pass Guide HERE.

Booking the Resort-Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall

  • Called Chase and had them transfer my husband’s points over to my account since I had access to the Chase Travel Portal. Remember, the cash back cards don’t have access to this
  • Logged into my Chase Travel Portal and went to Transfer Points to Partners
  • Found World of Hyatt and clicked on their logo to start the transfer point process
  • I put in my World of Hyatt number and transferred 120,000 points which had to be in increments of 10,000
  • Logged into my World of Hyatt account and booked my hotel directly through the World of Hyatt, which allowed me to earn perks and status with World of Hyatt, and they waived resort fees on award stays.
  • We booked a standard room and it averaged 28,000 points a night. The rates have gone up over the last year, so rooms start at 35,000 points a night now.

Booking Flights From Denver to Jamaica

Flights were pretty simple. My husband put me as his companion for the flight. We booked both our tickets for 21,000 each way. We paid 43,00 points and the fees were $150 a person.

Southwest is really easy to book flights using points because you just click the points option instead of money, and can book the same way.

Our flight was our biggest expense of $300 in taxes and fees. When you fly domestic with Southwest, it is only $5.60, but international flights have higher taxes and fees.

  • You can use MaxMyPoint.com to search for what days have lower points with hotels. Always double-check the hotel website, though, before transferring points.
  • When you book Southwest flights, if the price goes down, you can change your flight and get the points or cash back if the price drops!
  • Not flying Southwest? I like to use Daily Drop Pro; they have a free and paid version that helps you find flight deals.
  • When you know hotels are going up in point value, book before the change. They will honor future travel at the lower rate as long as you book before the price goes up.