Long Weekend in Napa for $11.20 Per Person

Napa had been on our list for a very long time so we decided to go for Ryan’s birthday last November.  I wanted to book this on miles and points, because in case you aren’t aware, hotels in Napa are expensive! Actually, Napa is just expensive, period. But there are a few ways around  that.  I will tell you how we used miles for our plane tickets and Hyatt points to stay at the Andaz Napa.

To give you an idea of what kind of money we DID NOT spend, here is some pricing info from dates this year around the time of year that we went last year.

Flights to Napa:

We will go with the nonstop flight, since it’s the most convenient.

Total Points: 8,224 Southwest Rapid Reward points per ticket but since we had the companion pass, we only had to buy 1 ticket instead of 2. There are many ways to earn the Southwest Companion Pass, but I will save that for a future post.

Total Value: $137×2=$274

Flights from Napa:

Total Points: 8,559

Total Value: $142×2=$284

Grand total points on flights: 8,224 + 8,559=16,783

Grand total Value: $137 + $142=279

Note that if you do not have the Southwest Companion Pass, for 2 people this will be 16,783 points x2 so 33,566 total or $279 x2 so $558 total

How to earn Southwest points:

• Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card welcome bonus
• Everyday spending on the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards card (Although Chase Sapphire is better for everyday spending!)
• Southwest’s shopping portal
• Chase Ultimate Rewards shopping portal
• Transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards since Southwest is a transfer partner!
• The old fashioned way: points earned by actually flying on paid Southwest flights

Hotel in Napa:

We stayed at the Andaz Napa for 2 nights and then on the 3rd day after our Sunrise Balloon Flight and brunch in Napa, we headed to San Francisco to hang out with a friend of Ryan’s who lives in the Bay Area. We were able to use the annual free night that we get from the Chase World of Hyatt credit card (another one of those “sock drawer cards”, meaning we keep it for the perks but hardly ever use it) for our night in San Francisco.  In order to keep this post a little more concise, I’ll save the details of the annual free night that comes with this card for a future post.

Andaz Napa

Andaz is a fairly new brand under Hyatt, and lucky for us, there is one in Napa.  We have stayed at a few different Andaz properties and our only complaint is that there aren’t more of them! They always feel more like boutique hotels, and the service is excellent.

We had a large stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards points from everyday spending, so after confirming availability on points at the Andaz for our dates, I transferred UR points to Hyatt.  The Andaz Napa is a World of Hyatt category 5 hotel, so a free night is 20,000 points.  Since the rate is more than $650 per night, this is an excellent value.  Click here to read about calculating the cents per point value.

There are no resort fees at the Andaz Napa, and our San Francisco hotel was free. So the grand total of our hotels for this trip was 0$

Grand Total for Flights: 22.40$ (5.60$ in taxes per person each way)

Grand Total for Hotels: 0$

Total Spent: $22.40 and ~57,000 points 

Total Value: $1827 (or $2106 without companion pass)

• $1318 (Andaz Napa)
• + $230 (Average rate at Hyatt Centric Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco)
• + $279 (flight with companion pass or $558 without companion pass )
• =$1827 (or $2106 without companion pass)

Spend your money on experiences and wine, not plane tickets and hotels

With all of the money we saved, we booked a driver for one of the days (with a credit card of course) who set up some amazing wine tastings for us!

We used Uber for our other day.

Wondering how we got our wine home safely? These wineskins are the best!

Reusable Wineskins (you can buy on Amazon) 

If you’re new here, check out the beginner’s guide.  Thanks again for everyone’s support and feedback so far and as always, contact me with questions and comments. Cheers! 🍷