How I Booked a $3,400 Hotel for FREE with Credit Card Points

In this video, I talk about how to travel for free with credit cards by showing how I used my Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card points to book a $3,400 hotel completely for FREE! I know that many people are looking for how to travel for free and credit cards are a great way to do that because credit card points are easy to earn through everyday spending habits. Chase credit cards are some of the best when learning how to travel for cheap, so hopefully this video explains how easy it can be to do this.
Now, when looking at good credit cards for beginners, especially the best travel credit cards, Chase is a great place to start with the Chase Trifecta that includes the popular Chase Sapphire Preferred. The Ultimate Rewards points that I earned with my Chase credit cards through welcome bonuses and everyday spending really helped me to book this trip to Puerto Rico.
I also try to go over a few useful credit card tips for those trying to learn credit cards 101. Always try to get the highest welcome bonuses and always do research to understand what you want. If you do want free travel from your credit cards, then I hope the videos on my channel can be helpful!
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*These offers are subject to change. The current offers are listed as of the filming of this video.
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CHECK OUT SOME OF MY OTHER VIDEOS:
Why the Chase Trifecta is the BEST Credit Card Setup for FREE TRAVEL: • Why the Chase Trifecta...
The 7 BEST Credit Cards That You NEED In 2021: • The 7 BEST Credit Card...
Chase Freedom Flex Credit Card Review 2021: • Chase Freedom Flex Cre...
Chase Freedom Flex vs Chase Freedom Unlimited (2021): • Chase Freedom Flex vs ...
Credit Card Minimum Spend Guide (Turn Your Spending Into FREE TRAVEL): • Video
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DISCLAIMER: Daniel Braun is not a financial advisor and the opinions in this video are his own. This video is for entertainment and educational purposes only, it is not financial advice. You must do your own research and should talk to professionals before making any financial decisions for yourself. This description contains affiliate links where Daniel Braun may receive a commission.
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[@JacobKustra]

Definitely a great use of those points and at such a good redemption value! This definitely highlights why I think points are so much better than cashback! Enjoy the well deserved trip Daniel!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks so much Jacob! Yeah exactly, just a perfect example to show the power of points over cash back!

[@KevinYang]

I usually value my Chase points at 2 cents a point to be somewhat conservative, so it's awesome to see redemptions of 4 cents a point like you did! Still waiting to make my big redemption with my points!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Yeah definitely many ways to get more than 2 CPP if you look in the right places! It felt really good to find 4 CPP for my trip here haha. I'm sure you'll find a great redemption as well and I'd love to see a video from you about it!

[@vishnurajiv99]

I love the CSP. I got over 1.4 cents per point when I transferred my UR points to Southwest to book a round trip domestic flight. Nothing to brag about, but I will never be staying in any of those fancy hotels, or travelling internationally anytime soon, so this is one of the best redemptions I could have made. Those UR points have been stagnant for many months now and are worthless until they get redeemed imo.

[@TylerSinden]

Dang, you're crushing it with those points and they're clearly paying off for you! So awesome you were able to get that hotel for basically free!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Haha yeah, thanks Tyler! Definitely cool to get hotel stays like this for basically free!

[@simbanuba]

Funny, I'll be at a Hyatt resort in Puerto Rico, early next year as well. My company is paying for my vacation however because we exceeded all the goals. Congrats on another great video and your upcoming vacation!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Nice, there were a few good Hyatt resorts in Puerto Rico so that'll be fun for you too! And very cool that your company is paying for it like that! I'll be down there in early March. Thanks so much and enjoy your trip!

[@moneybee]

It feels so great when you're able to maximize your points and cash in like that. Hope it's a great trip! 😊 🏝

[@Daniel_Braun]

Absolutely, always feels good to see your points going to good use like this! Thanks Courtney, I really appreciate it!

[@pg6299]

Great! I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve last summer. 15k points a night instead of the $450 cash plus taxes & fees. Only had to pay for parking, I had no problem with that 😅

[@Daniel_Braun]

Awesome! Yeah I'm really looking forward to the trip. Its such a great deal for Hyatt when booking with points vs cash. Sounds like you got such a great deal as well!

[@nicanzalone1]

Wow, incredible value! Been looking forward to a travel/points related video. Have a great and safe trip man!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks Nic! Glad you enjoyed the video! And yeah, very good value here which is why I really like that Hyatt is a transfer partner with Chase

[@FinancialFreedomMadeSimple]

The perks of it! This is a great point redemption. Enjoy the trip Daniel.

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks so much, I'll definitely enjoy it! Yeah for sure, one of the many perks of using credit cards the right way!

[@MannyCovington]

Being able to use points like that is a great way to get that full value of transfer partners. Great video and have fun in Puerto Rico!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Absolutely! I love getting value like this from my points when I can. And thanks, I'm really looking forward to the trip!

[@AngelTorresPR]

Yoo, follower here from Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 Hope you enjoy your stay!

[@Daniel_Braun]

That's awesome, thanks so much for watching my videos! I can't wait to see Puerto Rico and I'm sure it'll be a great stay! It'll be much warmer down there compared to where I am in Philadelphia haha

[@gabrielcastillo3236]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I did something similar with the chase bonvoy card.

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks Gabriel! Yeah lots of good hotel cards out there to get free stays like that. Appreciate the comment!

[@MikeMaye]

Thats solid 🙌🏽... good for you ... Thanks for sharing Daniel

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks so much, happy to share and hope you enjoyed the video!

[@JoseRojasYT]

This is a great point redemption, great work Daniel! Keep up the awesome content 👍

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks Jose! Appreciate it man!

[@lindabreu983]

Hi Daniel, I just "liked" this video too. Great explanation! We're planning a trip to PR later this year. Now that you're home from your trip, are you going to talk about your experience at the hotel? Or could you just let me know which one it was, and if you loved the hotel, the location, etc. All I know is we're going to San Juan part of the time and deciding on one other location. I have points burning a hole in my pocket, but want to have a great stay. Thanks so much!

[@AveryHeilbron]

Awesome work! Did you do points for the flight too? I've got about 180k UR points so I should use those for something nice eventually

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks Avery! Yeah my girlfriend actually got the 100k welcome bonus for the Sapphire Preferred a few months ago so we used her points to just book the flight through the Chase travel portal so both the hotel and the flight there and back was basically free. Nice, that's a solid amount of points that you've got so I'm sure you'll find a good use for them!

[@codyhamilton7822]

VERY Happy Holidays & free Hotel stay!!!!!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks Cody, you too! Happy holidays and I hope you're enjoying the end of the year here. I'm definitely excited about the free hotel stay haha

[@codyhamilton7822]

@@Daniel_Braun yes

[@jeffreystewart7202]

Great tips Dan, thank you!!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks so much for watching and for the comment Jeffrey! Glad to hear you liked the video!

[@sjg6158]

You certainly draw out max value Sir. Great stuff Danny.

[@Daniel_Braun]

Haha yeah I definitely tried in this video! Thank you so much as always for the support here!

[@happilyG]

How amazing (hotel stay) thank you for breaking this down for me. I mastered couponing for my family and now I am wanting to tackle this beast of travel hacking. We are a large family and I hope to document our journey with this! I just subscribed! I do have a question about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card I have this card and it says one benefit is $50 hotel credit how does this work? I haven't really found out how and I have to spend about another $1k to get the sign up bonus. I wasn't sure if it would pop up after that came through. Thank you!

[@UnconventionalMoney]

Hey Daniel if I were you I would ghee yourself the name the credit card king or CCK since your content is about this hey also I would like to see you do a video on a prepaid credit card vs a regular credit card

[@Daniel_Braun]

I like the sound of that! I like talking about this stuff under my own personal brand with my name here on KZbin right now but maybe some sort of branding like that could be useful for a website in the future! I can definitely look into making a video about that topic too!

[@popap1995]

What? no Henley today?! 😂 Awesome vid as always man!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Lol it seems like a lot of people have picked up on my consistent henley shirt wearing 😂 I decided to change it up a bit for once! Its always a pain to clip on the mic the right way which is why I like how the henleys are designed. Appreciate having you here and watching my content as always man!

[@haasmanning]

Great video!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks Haas! Appreciate you watching my videos man!

[@PointsInbound]

That looks like a really good redemption, great job! What card are you looking at next?

[@Daniel_Braun]

Yeah definitely a pretty good redemption, thanks! I'm still thinking about what card will be next but will probably wait a few months to get my next card because of the 9x on groceries I'll have on my Freedom Flex until the end of March and the 6X on everything else I'll have on my Blue Business Plus.

[@anthonypurpura8505]

I recently got a pre offer in the mail for the preferred with the 100k offer. Is there any over hanging concerns with this? It’s the normal $4k spent in 3 months but I don’t know if it’s different with pre approval offers

[@ericyother1512]

Jump on that.

[@Daniel_Braun]

Hey Anthony, wow that's interesting! I didn't know that they were sending out 100k offers via mail. But that's a great deal if you're interested in the Sapphire Preferred, I agree with Eric's comment!

[@anthonypurpura8505]

@@Daniel_Braun was quite surprised! I’m certainly interested and knew I was preapproved from the app, but I haven’t seen many people mentioning the mail offers. I’ll be getting the card next month to work towards my own free vacay ;) great vid!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Awesome, glad to hear that Anthony! Yeah definitely glad you commented that because that was news to me about those 100k mail offers. Thanks so much for watching and I’m glad you liked the video!

[@arey256]

@@anthonypurpura8505 where in the app can you check if your pre approved?

[@julio94klk]

Great video and keep up the great work!! By the way what hotel did you stay?

[@huongtoituonglai24]

Beautiful upload 👌 Amazing video 📹 Stay connected. Stay bless. ♥️

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks so much for watching and commenting!

[@jefuryo]

Did that but with an airline

[@Daniel_Braun]

Nice! I'm looking to use my Amex MR points to book some flights soon because I'm sitting on a lot of points. So I'm hoping to find some good value there as well

[@callmeNeno]

Wow that’s amazing 🤩 !

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks for watching! Yeah pretty cool and always feels good to get good value like this!

[@jaxpon2010]

Good video Daniel but next time please put which hotel you get. Because we can have the whole picture what we can get for those points.

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks Gabriel! Yeah I'll be sure to show the exact hotels next time. Its just for an upcoming trip and I just like to leave it out mainly for privacy. But I'll definitely share which one it is after the stay!

[@mintico]

Almost 4 cents value is high. Congrats

[@ahmedsantaliz4295]

Hey Daniel! Great content here and i hope that u had fun in my island!!! Do you need any kind of Hyatt subscription to redeem at that rate? Or just transfer the points at check out? Thanks Always!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks so much Ahmed! Beautiful island and had a great time! As long as you create a free Hyatt account and link it to your Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve then you'll be able to transfer Chase points over to Hyatt at a 1:1 rate and get great value like that!

[@olimpiadamunteanu3052]

@@Daniel_Braun How did you open a Hyatt account ? Did you try to do that with other hotels ?

[@Re3iRtH]

Wow great. Are you using the Chase portal or Hyatt portal to book this hotel?

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks! I used the Hyatt website to book this hotel. But first, I had to transfer my UR points from Chase to Hyatt on the Chase Ultimate Rewards website which I didn't show in the video

[@manandi573]

I would love to learn how to do this with airlines or how does one really find a good one

[@Daniel_Braun]

I definitely want to make an airline redemption video soon! I have a lot of Amex MR points and might be traveling over to Europe next year so I'll be trying to book some good international flights then!

[@ArtswithTubaMunir]

Hello friend enjoy full Video 🤩💯

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks so much for watching! I really appreciate it!

[@rj5795]

I didn't know you can transfer points from low tier cards to higher tiers, how is that done. I look into my account and cannot see that option? Will be applying soon for sapphire since chase has pre-approved me.

[@Daniel_Braun]

Yeah it is an option for any card that earns Ultimate Rewards points! All you have to do is go to the top of your Ultimate Rewards Page where there are options to use your points and there will be a combine points icon

[@PurpleDrazi]

Sooooo . . . are we going to be talking about airline redemptions next video? 😉

[@Daniel_Braun]

I'll definitely document any good airline redemptions I do in future videos! For this trip we actually used my girlfriend's Ultimate Rewards Points to just book our flights through the Chase travel portal at 1.25 CPP. So not as high of a redemption value but the trip was still entirely covered by points!

[@northinvestor]

Damn those credit card points really seemed to paid in that case!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Haha yeah for sure! Really glad that I was able to redeem them like this for such good value! Thanks so much for watching and commenting 👍

[@XBLOODxVISIONX]

Welcome to PR

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thank you! I'm really looking forward to finally seeing Puerto Rico!

[@ritacristobal1285]

How do you transfer points from chase ultimate to hyatt? When you transfer points to hyatt, does it expires or you need to book right away once you transfer the points to hyatt???? Thanks and great video.

[@Daniel_Braun]

Its a very easy process, all you have to do is go to either your Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Preferred card's account page on the Chase Ultimate Rewards website. Then go to transfer points and select Hyatt. Enter your Hyatt membership number (its free to get one from Hyatt first by creating an account) then select the amount of Chase points that you want to transfer. As a good rule of thumb, don't transfer points away from Chase until you are sure that you want to do so because Chase points are very flexible and transferable to many travel partners, but once you transfer them it is permanent and can't be reversed. The Hyatt points won't expire, but I believe that you may lose them after 24 months if you're account is completely inactive. But that shouldn't be a problem if you only transfer the points to Hyatt when you are ready to book. The points will transfer over from Chase to Hyatt instantly in most cases and then you can use the Hyatt points to book the stay on Hyatt's website. Hope that helps and thanks so much for watching the video and asking those questions!

[@ritacristobal1285]

@@Daniel_Braun thank you thank you for a very well explained. Now I understand how it works then transferring points to other partners. Have a good day.

[@williamfeliciano6003]

Will you ever get the world of Hyatt credit card from chase since you like Hyatt?

[@Daniel_Braun]

I think that is the card that I plan to get next!

[@jamemee8795]

I only used delta sky miles Gold about 6 moth and I can fly to Thailand for free

[@Daniel_Braun]

That's awesome! So many great ways to use credit cards to get trips paid for like that. Cool to hear!

[@jay215215]

Do u ever pay interest on your credit cards monthly cuz 7500 in 3 months is a lot of money to spend for some points if u not paying it off in full

[@kabbuddin]

Did you have to book through the Chase portal? Or does this apply to any third party booking service like Expedia?

[@rayansingh9948]

Go to UR rewards: 1. Top left drop down, Transfer points 2. Hyatt, input your Hyatt Membership number 3. Transfer however many points to Hyatt 4. Login to Hyatt Membership online or via mobile app, to book 5. When booking, select Award nights/Book with Points - You can start at step 4 to see how many points you need to transfer prior to booking cheers

[@Daniel_Braun]

Good question Kabir! Rayan described the process perfectly in that other comment! It's a very easy process to transfer Chase points to Hyatt which is where you can get the highest value for those points. You technically could book directly through the Chase portal, but you would only get 1.25 cents per point when booking that way compared to 4 cents per points in the example I talked about in the video. Thanks for watching!

[@olimpiadamunteanu3052]

@@rayansingh9948 Hi. Where do you find UR rewards ?

[@olimpiadamunteanu3052]

Through Chase Portal this does not work.

[@thiemvuong7163]

I have a question, if I book a hotel through Hyatt's website, does it count as 5x points or just 2x for regular traveling, I compared the prices between the two and Chase is a little bit more expensive but it's a guaranteed 5x points. However, I'm leaning toward the Hyatt's website because it's cheaper. Does anyone know how many points do I gain if purchase a hotel through Hyatt's website?

[@scottb_02]

Think the UR points will come back to the ink cards? The 750 cash back not very enticing to me.

[@Daniel_Braun]

It’s still earned as UR points, but Chase just markets it as cash back. So it 75,000 points as the bonus

[@ChaseYokoyama]

Do you have any more Chase points to book a trip for me too? 🥺

[@Daniel_Braun]

Lol, I've got plenty to go around! Maybe I'll use the points to at least fly out to Hawaii sometime haha

[@ChaseYokoyama]

@@Daniel_Braun BET!

[@mr.ssj3847]

Its not technically free... you payed 870 for 5 nights. That adds up to 174 per night...tbh its kinda still expensive for a hotel in puerto rico

[@Daniel_Braun]

That’s why I tried to explain and make the point that those points are viewed as free to me because I’m not doing anything to earn them other than by using credit cards. Plus $174 per night is very cheap considering it’s more of a resort style hotel for a vacation. But I understand what you mean, it’s just all about perspective so you can easily make the argument that it still costs that if that’s how you view it. Thanks for watching!

[@olimpiadamunteanu3052]

Hi. Why you are not honest. You speak about everything, but not about how you really paid your trip with points ( if you really did ).

[@wesleycoats]

Hahaha you’re kinda dumb

[@simesh4548]

CSR is not happy by this video!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Haha yeah I'm sure Chase doesn't always like when people take advantage of their rules like this!