My family and I haven’t traveled for Thanksgiving before. While I do enjoy family gatherings, Thanksgiving has never been a “big” holiday in my family, so I was eager to explore possibilities and make the most of the extended holiday weekend.
I’ve always been attracted to the idea of traveling during Thanksgiving, but I’ve historically shied away from actually jumping the gun.
I’m not necessarily intimidated by a busy airport and chaotic travel day; what’s really prevented me from considering it all together was the impression that I’d be facing exorbitant prices.
This month flew by, and considering that we didn’t have any traditional Thanksgiving plans to speak of, I opened up Google Flights in my browser on a quiet evening last night when the kids fell asleep. That alone can be a dangerous step, right? Thank goodness wine wasn’t involved.
My search criteria was simple:
a. somewhere warm
b. something reasonable from EWR (no thanks to holiday traffic to JFK or LGA).
To my surprise, I saw a decently-priced nonstop United flight from EWR to NAS populate. While I don’t necessarily love the Bahamas, the first thing that popped into my head was the new Grand Hyatt Baha Mar that Mommy Points recently visited with her family. Her review was solid, and I was instantly sold.
Photo credit: Hyatt.com
The Grand Hyatt Baha Mar is currently the largest property in the Hyatt portfolio, and I’ll be the first to admit that I have been eying the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar since its inception.
When the hotel was first introduced, it was marketed as a category 4 property, bookable for just 15,000 points a night – which is an incredible redemption.
Of course the deal was too good to truly last, and it did increase a category, but it’s still a great deal on points – 20,000 per night. Since I often strive to get at least 2 cents value with my Hyatt points, I decided that booking the cash rate would be a better value.
Even at the last minute, room rates for Thanksgiving weekend were surprisingly reasonable. I found a $227.50 rate, and booked the 4 nights using my Citi Prestige, utilizing the 4th night free benefit.
Keep in mind that although the nightly rate is $227.50, the resort tacks on a hefty resort fee ($129 total for 4 nights), and a mandatory “service charge”. Pfft. With the 4th night free benefit changes that took affect over the summer, Citi only credits the room rate, and no longer reimburses for resort fees and/or taxes.
Granted $1060.09 is steep for a 4 night hotel stay, at least we will get free breakfast and lounge access with my World of Hyatt Globalist status. Quite honestly, I’m counting on that to cover the majority of our food and beverage consumption at the resort. Plus, Hyatt just announced a Double Points promotion and the extra points will be a nice little return.
As far as flights, I had about $950 in United Travel Bank credit to play with from various credit cards from 2016 that I used towards our 4 tickets: $250 from the Citi Prestige, $200 from my Business Platinum® Card from American Express OPEN, $300 from the Chase Sapphire Reserve, and $200 from my husband’s AmEx Platinum. With the new year around the corner, that $950 will replenish in no time.
For the return, I booked 4 JetBlue award tickets for 8,000 points a piece. I’ll be getting a rebate of 3,200 points back after the fact thanks to my JetBlue Plus Card.
Bottom Line
This definitely was an impulsive booking, but I am excited that I was able to string together several benefits and programs to make it affordable… even at the last minute. Plus, my family and I can make new holiday memories; if it all goes smoothly, this may be the start of a yearly tradition.
Have you ever booked a last-minute getaway that ended up being affordable? Where did you go? Did your miles and points help?
Based on what I’ve seen from a few of your fellow travel bloggers, the executive lounge seems to have pretty weak food offerings in the evening.
Food on site also seems obscenely expensive and fairly mediocre. There aren’t many off site places close by like there are near the Hyatt Regency Aruba.
Let us know how things are when you are there. If things are too expensive in the Bahamas I might be better off using my Hyatt points in Cancun.
For a North America lounge, I think it is above average for sure, and enough to turn into an evening meal for a night or two if that is the goal and you aren’t picky as there will only be 1-2 hot dishes per night. With kids and given food costs there we totally made the lounge into dinner on our trip, but on a four night stay I would personally throw in at least one real meal one evening, maybe two. Still, the lounge will save you a ton and I hope you have an awesome trip!
My husband and I went to Secrets Jamaica a couple of years ago for Thanksgiving, the plane was packed. I was surprised how many people actually go on vacation during that time. Although it was nice not thinking about Thanksgiving dinner I did miss eating it!
Just got back. The lounge is beautiful and the staff is very friendly. Unfortunately the kitchen is on the other side of the hotel. Takes forever to replace a empty tray of food. The rotation of differnt food each night was non existent. Also even though they had pots that are heated most food was warm at best. For breakfast Eggs with sides was the only hot food option. While very good and bacon was amazing after 3rd day a change would’ve been nice. Evening hot dishes was chicken wings and coquettes most nights. Our first nite was fish fry with rice that was really good. But after that nite it was most wings and coquettes.
Some positives
Hotel is beautiful new and clean
Awesome pools,
El jefe great cheap lunch spot
Sharks and string rays pool was awesome
Great free drinks in lounge (patron and other top shelf options)
Friendly staff
Negatives
Casino doesn’t comp table players for above avg players ( played 15 hrs with avg bet 50.00 and got 0 comps
Restaurant food was just ok with high prices.
No 24 hr food options besides room service. At 11:30 all restaurants and small snack store were closed. Was in casino and didn’t want togo to room to eat.
Construction still going on even early mornings
While the staff was very friendly they didn’t seem to know how to deal with problems and didn’t offer good solutions.