Costa Rica is one of our favorite family vacation destinations. It offers beautiful beaches, lush rainforests, volcanoes, waterfalls, thermal hot springs, and endless opportunities for adventure like zip lining, riding ATV’s, and exploring animal sanctuaries. A family luxury vacation to Costa Rica can get quite expensive, but thanks to travel hacking it can actually be surprisingly affordable. We’ll show you how planning a trip to Costa Rica on a budget is possible thanks to utilizing travel reward credit card points to pay for your flights and hotel. With just 2 credit card sign-up bonuses, you could be relaxing at a luxurious Costa Rica beach hotel, sipping a piña colada with your toes in the sand. If that sounds good to you, let us teach you how to travel hack your way to Costa Rica. We’ll show you where to stay in Costa Rica for free, and how to fly there for about $80 in taxes and fees.

Planning a trip to Costa Rica on a budget? Pay for your hotel and flights with points

How to stay at a luxury Costa Rica beach resort for free

First we’ll cover where to stay in Costa Rica for free using points. We’ve visited twice, once as a romantic kid-free vacation to celebrate our anniversary, and the following year we came back with our kids because we loved it so much. We stayed both times at the Andaz Costa Rica at Papagayo Peninsula, a gorgeous beach resort nestled in the Costa Rica rainforest. This resort seamlessly caters to both couples and families, offering both a family pool and adults-only pool and even a free kids club. Check out our thorough review of Andaz Costa Rica to see how beautiful it is, and check out our review of its restaurants. Here’s how you can stay there for free.

Open a Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card

The Andaz Papagayo is a Hyatt Category 5 hotel, requiring 20,000 World of Hyatt points per night. To acquire points for your stay, we recommend opening the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card to earn 60,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points, which can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to World of Hyatt.  This card is widely regarded by travel hacking experts as one of the best travel reward credit cards available, and the very best card for beginners. Even seasoned travel hackers like us carry this fantastic card in our wallets.

The current sign-up offer for the Chase Sapphire Preferred is 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 within the first 3 months of opening the card.  The card does carry a $95 annual fee, but it is well worth the cost. Perks include trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance, baggage delay insurance, trip delay reimbursement, primary rental car insurance, purchase protection, extended warranty protection, and no foreign transaction fees.

Additionally, card users earn 2 points per dollar spent on all travel and dining out purchases, which is a huge benefit for those of us who travel or eat out often. Those points really add up, allowing you to take more vacations for practically free. Please apply for a Chase Sapphire Preferred card using my personal referral link, which will also help me earn additional bonus points at no cost to you. We haven’t seen a sign-up bonus this high on the Chase Sapphire Preferred for a long time, so don’t delay because you never know when it will go back down.

Meet minimum spend and transfer points to Hyatt

Once you’ve met your minimum spending requirement, you’ll earn 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards. The Chase Ultimate Rewards program has several travel partners, one of which is World of Hyatt. You can transfer your points online instantly at a 1:1 ratio to World of Hyatt. You’ll need to join the World of Hyatt loyalty program, which is free and can be done online in a few minutes by clicking here. So now your 60K Chase points are 60K World of Hyatt Points, which you can use to book 3 free nights (20K per night) at Andaz Costa Rica.

Rates for standard rooms cost around $400-$600 per night plus taxes and resort fees. We’ve seen prices as high as $753/night in high season after taxes and fees for a standard room, so this is a high value point redemption. In fact, this resort is very popular among travel hackers for offering excellent value redemptions. It used to be a Hyatt Category 4 property, requiring just 15,000 points/night. It was eligible for the Hyatt Category 1-4 award nights that come with the World of Hyatt credit card. We are hoping it changes back to a Category 4 so we can use our free night certificates there again. Even if not, we still think it’s a good value at 20,000 points per night.

Book your free stay with 20,000 World of Hyatt points per night

You can book your 3 free award nights online using your points, through the World of Hyatt app, or over the phone with a World of Hyatt representative. Taxes and resort fees are waived for reward stays at Hyatt properties, saving you more since resort fees at Andaz Costa Rica are $73 per night. We absolutely love the feeling of getting the bill and the total for the room is zero dollars!

If both you and your travel companion open a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, then you can have 6 free nights combined at Andaz Costa Rica. You will have plenty of time to both relax and explore with one week in Costa Rica. Check out our suggestions for things to do in the Guanacaste region. Save plenty of time for enjoying the infinity pool and beach club, which has complimentary paddle boards, kayaks, beach toys, and more to keep everyone entertained.

When you check in, just ask if they can link your reservations (3 nights under each person) so you don’t have to change rooms midway through your stay. We’ve done this both times we stayed and it wasn’t a problem.

At a rate of $753/night, you’re saving $4,518 on 6 nights. We’ve saved even more money on our award stays at this resort with complimentary suite upgrades that are a perk of our Hyatt Globalist elite status. We’ve saved well over $1,000 per night on suites at Andaz Costa Rica.

 

How to fly to Costa Rica for about $80 roundtrip

To fly to Costa Rica using points or miles, there are several airlines that operate flights to Liberia, including JetBlue, American Airlines, United, Delta, and Alaska. Our favorite choice is flying Southwest Airlines because they fly direct from Baltimore (our home base) and we have the Companion Pass, which allows a designated companion to fly for free (paying only taxes and fees, which are around $80 roundtrip to Liberia). Learn how to earn the Southwest Companion Pass and how it has saved our family over $15,000  in a few years.

To fly Southwest on points to Liberia, prices will vary greatly depending on the travel date, so we recommend traveling during off-peak dates to find the best flight deal. Costa Rica rainy season is from May to mid-November, and both our trips have been in August to celebrate our anniversary. We enjoy the lush green vegetation in rainy season and have been fortunate to experience very minimal rain during our trips. The one thunderstorm on each trip was actually really exciting since that’s part of the quintessential Costa Rican experience.

We’ve purchased roundtrip tickets during sales for around 20,000 Southwest points, but more frequently see roundtrips closer to 30K points in low season, plus about $80 in taxes and fees. To earn the needed 40K – 60K points for 2 people, or 80K-120K points for a family of 4, you can take advantage of a Southwest Credit Card offer.

Open a Southwest credit card

Which route you take will depend on how many flights you need to purchase, how often you fly Southwest, whether you have a small business or side hustle, and your spending level. The current offer for the Southwest Rapid Rewards personal credit cards (Plus, Premier, and Priority credit cards) is 40,000 points after meeting the minimum spending requirement of $1,000 within the first 3 months.  These cards have an annual fee ranging from $69 to $149 with perks offsetting the fee, such as anniversary points every year (ranging from 3,000 to 7,500) and double bonus points for Southwest purchases. Please apply for a Southwest credit card using my personal referral link, which means I’ll earn a referral points bonus at no cost to you.

However, there’s another option with a bonus twice the size if you qualify for a Southwest business card. Currently you can earn 80,000 points with the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card after spending $5,000 on purchases within the first 3 months. This card carries a higher annual fee of $199 but has perks that offset the fee including 9,000 anniversary points annually, 3 x points for Southwest purchases, Global Entry or TSA Pre check $100 fee credit every 4 years, and no foreign transaction fees. 

If you only need to purchase your own flight, just one Southwest personal credit card bonus  (40,000 points currently although I’ve seen this offer as high as 60,000 points in the past) should get you enough points for a roundtrip flight to Costa Rica on off-peak dates. Your travel companion can also open a personal card to get enough points for his or her flight. 

Open both a Southwest personal credit card and business card to earn the Companion Pass

If traveling as a family, you’ll need even more points, and there are several options to earn enough points to fly everyone to Costa Rica. If you qualify for the business credit card, and especially if you fly Southwest Airlines frequently, we recommend that you go for the Southwest Companion Pass. You can open both the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card to earn 80,000 points and then after meeting the minimum spending requirement can open one of the Southwest personal credit cards to earn an additional 40,000 points. This adds up to 120K points and needs to be earned in one calendar year to earn you the Southwest Companion Pass. This will also earn you enough points to fly everyone to Costa Rica and back, since one person will fly for free (won’t need any points, just has to pay taxes and fees).

Now you can designate someone in your family as your companion and fly that person for free the rest of the year and the following year. If both you and your spouse take this route, then 2 children can become companions and fly free (paying only taxes and fees). Basically the Companion Pass is like a Buy One Get One card for your family, saving you tons of money if you travel frequently. 

Time your Southwest applications right

It’s best to time the applications for the Southwest cards at the end of the year, in November or December, to get the most value out of the companion pass. Just make sure to not meet the minimum spending requirement for both credit cards until after January 1st so that your points will be earned at the beginning of the year in the same calendar year. If you meet minimum spending for both cards in January, you will have the companion pass for almost 2 full years.

Transfer points from Chase Ultimate Rewards if you still need more Southwest points

If you don’t qualify for a business credit card (although even small side hustles like selling things on eBay can qualify you), then you and your spouse will both need to open a Southwest personal card to earn 40K points each. If you need more points for your flights, you can transfer points from your Chase Ultimate Rewards to Southwest Airlines at a 1:1 ratio. So perhaps instead of staying 6 nights at the Andaz, you plan to stay only 5 nights. That leaves you with 20K Chase Ultimate Rewards points to spare. You can transfer those 20K Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Southwest to top off your account for your flights. The great thing about Chase Ultimate Rewards is that they are transferable to so many travel partners, giving you more flexibility when planning vacations. 

Will you be planning a trip to Costa Rica on a budget?

There you have it. By simply opening 2 credit cards and meeting the minimum spending requirements on those cards, you can earn enough points for a luxurious Costa Rica vacation. Please let us know if you utilize this strategy in the comments. We love to hear success stories from our readers!

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