Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  I just returned home from a relaxing trip to Hawaii with Laura for our 2 year wedding anniversary.  We spent 4 nights on the Big Island in Kona at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa using 4 50K Free Night Certificates and then 6 nights on Kauai; 4 nights in Princeville and 2 nights in Poipu at 2 different Vacasa vacation rentals that cost 13,500 Wyndham Rewards Points per night (thanks to the 10% discount for Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card holders).

Sunset view overlooking the pool and ocean at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort and Spa

We flew through Seattle on our way to Kona and had time to exit security to enroll Laura in CLEAR.  Thanks to the new American Express Business Platinum Card benefit of $179 CLEAR credit, I was able to reactive my old CLEAR account, get the discounted rate of $109 because I am an AMEX Delta Credit Card holder and add Laura as a family member for $50.  I will provide more details of our experience in a future post, but the basics are covered in this Frequent Miler CLEAR Guide.

Back in May, I wrote PSA: Rental Car Rates are Sky High, Book ASAP.  When I originally booked my 2 rental car reservations for Hawaii, the cheapest rates I could find were $1,900 total for 2 rental car reservations.  Thanks to AutoSlash, they were able to find me several cheaper rates over the past 2 months and my total for both rental cars was only $633.

Last but not least, I wanted to write about the activities we did on the Big Island and on Kauai and tell you which 2 activities to skip.

If you have any questions about any of these topics, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!