TPG Reader Hall of Fame: A month of luxury down under

Today’s TPG Reader Hall of Fame story comes to you courtesy of Kevin, who spent an entire month visiting Australia, New Zealand and Singapore while still managing to log 30,000 butt-in-seat miles. Let’s check out how he did it.

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Kevin spent years accumulating the points required for his trip, using a variety of methods in order to earn the massive 535,000 points required to make his holiday happen. This included tons of actual flying, spend on credit cards, and welcome bonuses. Here are the cards he used:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred Card– Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.
• United Explorer Card– Earn up to 65,000 bonus miles: 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first three months your account is open, plus an additional 25,000 bonus miles after you spend $10,000 total in purchases in the first six months your account is open.
• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card– Limited-time offer: Earn 150,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 in purchases in the first three months account opening, plus a $100 statement credit after your first purchase within the first three months of account opening. Offer expires Dec. 31, 2019.
• Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express– Earn 150,000 Hilton points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.

Related: The best ways to use points and miles to fly from the U.S. to Australia

Kevin’s clever mix of business, first and economy flights means that he was able to fly nearly 30,000 total miles for just 235,000 miles out of pocket. Never one to shy away from a challenge, he swung the lengthy San Francisco — Sydney — Auckland legs of his flight in economy, which he snagged for just 40,000 United Airlines miles. In contrast, he spent 80,000 United miles for his Melbourne — Los Angeles — San Francisco return. Perhaps his best redemption, though, was his phenomenal Singapore — Bangkok — Sydney routing in Thai Airways first and business class, which afforded him eleven hours in top-notch first class for 65,000 United Airlines miles.

All flights aside, he spent a total of 26 days in high-end hotels, nearly all of them in Hilton properties. He took full advantage of the Hilton Diamond elite status afforded by his Aspire card to gain access to room upgrades, executive lounge access and tons of free drink vouchers.

Even better than that? He spent 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards, transferred to Hyatt, for a fantastic room at possibly my favorite hotel ever: The Park Hyatt Sydney. A cash upgrade to his award netted him this view:

Here are the total points he spent:

Here’s how he spent them:

These redemptions show how mixing points and miles with cash can really make your vacation stretch, even in high-end hotels and the pointy end of the plane. Great job, Kevin!

Featured photo courtesy of Kevin Lew.