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I haven’t been very motivated to shop lately… and its because I’m thinking about taking a vacation!

I’ve collected nearly 170,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and 32,000 Starwood points over time and now its time to redeem them.

After some thinking, Justin and I have decided to use up most of the points for a trip to Fiji.  I was thinking about Thailand instead, but I don’t think I’d ever go to Fiji using my own money in the first place.  Plus the USD goes much farther in Thailand and I can save up money for that trip one day.

Two economy RT tickets to Fiji cost 140,000 United miles.  Normally a single RT ticket costs $1,500 to $2,000.

8 nights at a Starwood Category 4 hotel (specifically The Sheraton Fiji Resort) will cost 4,000 Starwood points/night plus an extra $60/night, where the normal rate is about $218/night.

I haven’t booked anything for Fiji yet, because I’m waiting for more airline rewards dates to pop up on their site.

I’ve also just redeemed two hotel nights using Chase Ultimate Rewards points at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey for Memorial Day weekend for the Cal Roots Festival.  The normal rate is $186/night with the AAA discount.

Thinking about collecting miles and points?  Check out these links here for an introduction:

I was introduced to the miles and points game from a post by Well Heeled Blog and lately miles and points research has taken up a lot of my time.

Just to note:  I’ve applied for the AMEX Starwood, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Bold, and Chase United Explorer starting October 2011.  My credit score has only dropped 2 points since then according to my credit score monitoring on Credit Karma.  Before you get into the miles and points game, make sure to do your research first and see if its right for you.  

♥ E&I