TWG is Flying to Cabo this Weekend on Southwest Airlines
Buenos noches amigas! (No need for Google translate) Good evening friends, I am taking a really early or really late spring break trip to Cabo this weekend. As far as I know, Southwest only flies non-stop to Cabo from Orange County, CA (SNA) and Denver (DEN). I got a good deal on my flight and it only cost 11,400 SWA miles and $85.48 in taxes/fees (Mexico apparently has much higher taxes than the US).
Once there, I cashed in a few Hilton HHonors Points to stay at the Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort. The retail price when I originally booked was $273.58 per night, but I instead used 27,859 Hilton HHonors Points per night. That is probably one of the great deals I have ever gotten with Hilton HHonors Points.
Plus, the resort has great reviews on Trip Advisor. My friend George from Travel Blogger Buzz stayed at this property a few years ago and had a great time, check out his lengthy trip report here.
In an effort to stay as safe as possibly, I reserved room in a Super Shuttle van for a round trip to/from the airport and the hotel. I used a coupon code I found on Retail Me Not and signed up through the SWA website to earn bonus SWA points.
They even provided a helpful map to find the Super Shuttle driver and avoid the timeshare scammers salesmen.
My brother really wants to go on a sea kayak tour under/around the sea arch.
We are also a big fan of ATV tours, so we need to decide between these two tour operators:
If you have any other suggestions for things to do in/around Cabo, please share them in the commend below.
Here are my steps for prepare for the trip:
- Make airfare, hotel, and rental car reservations and print out all reservations.
- Bring a few credit cards with no FOREX fees (Chase Southwest Airlines for in-flight purchases, Chase Hyatt for 2x at restaurants, Citi AA Exec for lounge access at SNA, Citi Hilton HHonors for Hilton incidentals, and Priority Pass card for lounge access in Cabo).
- Call your credit card companies and tell them you are traveling internationally so they can put a travel notification on your card to prevent any transactions from being declined.
- Save the contact info of your credit cards in your phone in case you lose your credit cards. Include the international number since the credit card company will pay the collect charges.
- Since I am going to Mexico and the US Dollar is widely accepted, I will bring some cash with me.
- Bring your passport, print out copies of your passport, put copies in your suitcase and carry-on bag, and email pictures of your passport to yourself/family member.
- Pack light and don’t forget to bring your swimsuit and plenty of sunscreen.
- Have fun!
Have a great weekend everyone!
P.S. I will be swimming in this pool soon:
P.P.S My AMEX statement credits posted earlier this week (link):
Enjoy your trip! Be careful though since I heard it’s kinda unsafe in mexico lately.
BTW you forgot to add chase sapphire preferred into your card arsenals. It doesn’t charge forex fee and also 2 points on every dollar spent in dining and travel! It’s my favorite card whenever I travel aboard.
I would bring the CSP, but I canceled/downgraded to the Chase Freedom card last year. I’ve stated in the past that the CSP card is worth less and less the more Chase cards you have. I currently have 6 personal Chase cards and 2 business Ink cards. The CSP’s benefits are available on the other Chase cards I have, so there is no reason to keep it and pay the annual fee. But if I did have the CSP card, I would definitely bring it with me.
I see, wow I didn’t know that, I always thought CSP is indispensable since it has 2x on dining and travel. Can you please point me to the link of your post or any post that has a review of CSP is worth less and less as the more Chase cards we have.
Darn, I can’t find it. I was looking for 20 minutes, but I think I may have deleted it in the past. The main points from the article were that you get 2x on restaurants and travel. Travel is airfare, hotels, rental cars, etc. With my Chase Hyatt card, I get 2x on restaurants, airfare, rental cars, and Hyatt hotels. I think Chase Ink Bold offers 2x at other hotels, plus I earn way more points from MSing the Chase Ink cards that I could ever earn paying for restaurants and travel. The 7% annual dividend was also so small, that it did not sway me to keep the card. If I have the Chase Hyatt and Chase Ink Bold, I can essentially do everything the Chase Sapphire Preferred can do, and I don’t need to pay the $95 annual fee for the CSP. As for restaurants, I have a Citi Forward card which offers 5% cash back at restaurants, so I think that is actually better than 2x or 2.14x with the CSP. That was my logic.
Thanks for trying to locate it, yes that’s what I thought too, I was trying to find it but couldn’t find it anywhere. Perhaps you can write about this again in your future blog post (maybe more detailed breakdown for comparison between CSP and alternative cards which can replace it), if you want to and have time for it. I believe this would be helpful for a lot of people, since many (including me) are probably still don’t know about this.
By the way, about the Citi Forward….that’s the card that already discontinued, right? Are you grandfathered with the benefits until now?
Hope you enjoy your vacation in Cabo and cannot wait to read your travel report if you plan to write about it later!
Yes, I may write about it again. My credit card affiliate network was not very happy when I wrote it. But now that I don’t have any Chase affiliate links, I may write it again. Yes, the Citi Forward is discontinued now, but I’m grandfathered in with the original bonus points. The Hilton Cano is amazing. Great view from my room. I posted a pic on Twitter a few minutes ago. Have a great weekend!
Nice! That is a great “premium” reservation on Hilton. I have to say that I’ve never had good luck with those – they always seem to be crazy more expensive than regular redemptions.
My experience has mostly been with Homewood Suites and trying to get 2BR suites instead of just 1BR. The 1BR will go for 30K HHonors points, but a 2BR costs 63,679 (and why is it so precise!??). That’s compared to a rack rate of $139 vs. $199. So it’s 50% more cash but over 100% more points.
I don’t get it….
Ya that doesn’t make much sense. I’ve seen some rooms go for 164,587 HH points for 1 night. I would reserve the regular room and hope for an upgrade at check-in. Kind of risky, I know.
Nice post. That’s a heck of a deal on the Hilton! Eating the breakfast on the patio and lounging in the pool and just enjoying the view from the room balcony is fantastic. Definitely one of the better Hilton hotels in the world in my opinion. They show movies in a conference room every night…go for the popcorn…again and again ;-) And thanks for the link.
Sounds like a good idea. My parent’s don’t want me in Downtown Cabo late at night, so watching movies and eating popcorn sounds like a good alternative!
Another great post Grant! Glad you showed the terminal map with timeshare salesmen area to avoid. We got “intercepted” upon arrival at Cancun airport, because they said they would give us a ride to our hotel. We did not know that our real shuttle driver was patiently waiting just outside the terminal, while we got signed up for a sales presentation. We did not buy a timeshare, but later we found out that the timeshare salesmen have valuable exclusive rights to that part of the airport they work, courtesy of the Mexican government.
Have fun down there!
Must be nice to have “valuable exclusive rights” to part of an airport. I think 2 college-aged kids heading to Cabo are not the ideal target for timeshare salesmen too :)
The Mrs. and I just did an impromptu weekend (booked trip day before leaving) at this Hilton on points and really enjoyed it!
– We booked a car with National for next to nothing (so cheap I opted for $ over using points). Much cheaper than taxis to/from (duh) and we preferred over shuttle so we could easily drive to Cabo and to stop at the Mega to stock up on cheap eats/drinks. (NOTE: Use your booking credit card rental insurance for added REQUIRED coverage in Mexico. That’s where they get ya.)
– Tollway vs. City Route: I prefer paying <$3 (accepts U.S. currency) to get to the hotel pool faster.
– Hilton Gold/Diamond breakfast includes the "light" buffet tables at El Meson, or you can pay to upgrade to the full (hot) breakfast.
– Bring some spare travel magazines (you picked up free at the airport lounge?) to keep your poolside seats reserved while you grab breakfast.
– There's WiFi down around the pool, but it can be spotty. Just be careful that Gary Leff doesn't snap a picture of you blogging poolside! :)
Thanks for the tips Mark. Too late to grab the magazines, just left the AAdmirals Club a fews ago. Not sure I will be doing much wifi by the pool. If you have any more tips of things to do at/near the resort, that would be great.