Savvy Itineraries
Real award trips, broken down
Hand-built examples of the trips Savvy Roam is designed to help you plan. Each itinerary shows exactly how much cash, which points, and why this redemption beats the alternatives.
Tokyo in Polaris business + Park Hyatt for ~$50 cash
Five nights in Tokyo with United Polaris business round-trip and Park Hyatt on points. The Cosmopolitan play: one Chase UR balance feeding two transfer partners.
- Cash
- $50
- Points
- 160K UA + 140K Hyatt (≈ 300K UR)
Italy 13-night grand tour: cash one-way out, Polaris home for 80K UA miles
A savvy itinerary built on points and miles: Florence → Tuscany → Cinque Terre → Amalfi → Munich, 13 nights, ending in Polaris business class on miles. We ran it in shoulder-season March; the one-way arbitrage (~$559 cash out, 80K UA miles open-jaw home from Munich) holds up in summer too at last check.
- Cash
- $559
- Points
- 80K UA + 130K Hyatt (≈ 210K UR)
Park Hyatt Tokyo + Park Hyatt Kyoto + the Kumano Kodo: 12 nights in Japan on points
A savvy itinerary built on points and miles. Tokyo → Kyoto → Wakayama for four onsen-to-onsen nights on the 1,000-year-old Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail. The play: two Park Hyatts booked the moment the 13-month award window opens, Polaris on UA miles both directions, and the cultural reset most luxury Japan trips never make room for.
- Cash
- $120
- Points
- 160K UA + 200K Hyatt (≈ 360K UR)
Venice + Verona over Thanksgiving: the Lufthansa lay-flat upgrade trick, and when not to burn your Hyatt points
A savvy itinerary built on points and miles, with a twist: the points play wasn't about awards, it was about Plus Points. Denver → Venice on Lufthansa over Thanksgiving 2023, cash economy upgraded to lay-flat business with Premier 1K Plus Points using a seat-map trick. 3 nights on Murano, 2 in Verona, 2 in the Valdobbiadene Prosecco hills. And the savvy non-move: paid cash twice when the points price was a bad value.
- Cash
- $2000
- Points
- 40 UA Plus Points confirmed both directions (no copay)
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