I had booked most of the hotels for the trip in the early summer, but as we got closer to the trip, several priorities changed so I had to take advantage of the refundable rates.

San Francisco

As is a normal operating procedure for me, I will periodically re-check the prices of hotels to see if the price had gone down. With San Francisco, the price dropped several times. I saw the price drop as low as $140/night on a AAA refundable rate for the same room that I initially booked at $180/night. When I saw a lower price I’d book the room then cancel the old reservation.  I did this several times as the rate trended doward.

As we got within the last week before the trip, I noticed my wife had a free night certificate that was going to expire while we were on the trip.   With each of her three Marriott credit cards she gets a free night certificate each year. The certificate could be redeemed for a free night for a room valued up to 35,000 points. The hotel we were staying at is normally 50,000 points per night, but offering a special PointSaver rate of 35,000 points per night many of the nights we were there.  Due to that, it was eligible for using the certificate and since we had no other way to use the certificate on our trip (the other hotels all cost more than 35,000 points per night) I decided to book our first night using the certificate.

The cash rate for the hotel at the time was higher than what I had booked the 5 nights at so canceling that reservation and rebooking for the 4 remaining nights would have ended up costing more money.  To try to get around this, I called Marriott and asked if they could adjust the 5-night stay I had booked at the lower rate to be a 4-night stay that didn’t overlap with the certificate night. There was no problem at all and only took a minute to adjust and show up online so we got to keep the lower rate for those nights. WIN!

We weren’t getting the greatest value for that certificate since cash rates were so low, but the certificate was about to expire and we wouldn’t have a chance to use it otherwise. And we still got $140 worth of value out of it which is still much more than the $95 annual fee we pay on the credit card. Next year we’ll hopefully plan ahead to get even more value out of it.

San Diego and Palm Springs

The rate for the San Diego hotel remained pretty stable from the time I booked it.  Within the last month before the trip the rate increased a little bit, but we didn’t have to rebook this one.

I must have booked the Palm Springs hotel at the right time because the rate seemed to skyrocket after I booked it.  The price nearly doubled by the time it got within a month of our trip so we obviously didn’t rebook this one either.

Santa Barbara becomes Santa Monica

We were pretty excited about the Santa Barbara Ritz Carlton stay given the reviews. I wanted to make sure we’d be able to get my wife’s elite benefits and make sure the nights would count as elite qualifying nights for her since we wanted her to re-qualify for Titanium status next year. I called Marriot to verify and they gave me the bad news that the stay would not be considered under her name, but under my father’s, even though her name was on the reservation.  That would allow us to check-in, but ultimately we would be receiving his benefits and he would be getting the elite credits.

This changed the math for us a lot and Santa Monica looked like a much less interesting place to stay over New Year’s Eve as we were predicting we’d need those elite night credits for her to requalify for titanium status.

In the end we decided to cancel that reservation and my dad got his points back in his account. We’d have him transfer them 100,000 a year to my wife’s account which is the maximum amount you can transfer out and we’d be able to book a different trip with the help of those points.

We started looking at places in LA that were more interesting. We found some cheap places, but nothing really interesting. We found some that were decent value on points because the room rates were high, but the hotels didn’t seem like the type of destination we were looking for.

Finally, we ended up deciding on a Le Meridian near Santa Monica Pier. It was within sight of the pier and within easy walking distance of the beach. The hotel offered free bike rentals which we expected the boys to take full advantage of.

The hotel’s cash rate was on the high side which made it a reasonable if not spectacular value using points. It was borderline whether to use points or cash but we went with points because all the other hotels were on cash so we’d look to save some money.

Santa Monica becomes Long Beach

About 2 weeks before the trip things got a little more complicated. We’ve been Marriott loyalists for years but I’ve always been intrigued by some of the Hyatt properties. We have an upcoming trip where we’ll be using Hyatt points and I had just gotten approved for the World of Hyatt credit card. If you spend (a lot) on the card the spend helps you earn qualifying nights which count towards status.  You can even spend your way to the top-level status without staying a single night.  That would be a bit pointless but it’s an incentive to put more spend on the card.

Hyatt is also a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards points which we have earned a lot of, but haven’t spend a ton of (yet). We did use some of those points to book a few nights in a Hyatt resort we’ll be staying in next summer and with the new credit card I have a plan to spend a lot on it to earn some status before that trip. As a way of boosting that while minimizing the spend, actually staying in Hyatt hotels makes it much faster to earn status, which should not be surprising.

So with that in mind, I began looking at Hyatt properties in the LA area to see if we could get a few qualifying nights at the start of the year. There were a couple options including Huntington Beach and Long Beach. A review of the Huntington Beach resort was mixed, and the room rates were pretty high.  We’d be looking at cash rates for this trip. For the Long Beach location, it appears to be in a good location near the beach and across from the Queen Mary. On New Years Eve there are supposedly fireworks that are right near the Queen Mary so this hotel should be a great place to spend the holiday.

The room rates for the 30th and the 31st were on the higher side around $300/night, but on the 1st through the 4th, there is a refundable AAA special rate that is just over $150/night. This seemed like a great opportunity to get some qualifying nights in at the beginning of the year in hopes of reaching at least 20 qualifying nights before our trip next summer.

When I looked at booking the hotel, I couldn’t get the lower AAA rate unless I booked two separate reservations. The first two nights I could only book a normal room rate while the last three I got the cheaper rate. For the last three, I also made sure I booked a club level room with access to the lounge and free breakfast.  Since we currently don’t have enough status to get that for free, we’d have to pay for that, but the price increase wasn’t that much. To get that access the room with 2 double beds was $178/night.

Why I love AAA Rates

With Marriott, the AAA rates are often, but far from always, refundable rates. I always verify the cancelation rules whenever I book anything and I’ll often pay a slightly higher rate to ensure I have the flexibility to change my reservations. AAA rates aren’t always the lowest rates, but they are often the lowest refundable rates.

I don’t use AAA often for the roadside assistance most people get it for. It’s been years since I’ve needed that (fingers crossed), but I use the hotel discount rates almost every time I book a hotel. It more than makes up for the cost of the membership, plus I have it in case my car breaks down or I need a tow!

With just a few weeks left before our trip, we had finalized our hotel reservations.  We wouldn’t be using points for any of the hotels, but that was due to the relative lack of value the use of points would offer and our desire to build some status with Hyatt for the last hotel.  We weren’t necessarily headed for Christmas destinations, but rather places that usually cater more to business travelers and there are fewer of those during the holidays which allowed us to take advantage of the lower rates.

Next up, rental cars!