My husband and I are going to Aruba in January. I found availability on U.S. Airways flying direct from Philadelphia to Aruba, but we do have to connect in Charlotte on the flight home. The one benefit about the connecting flight is we will have more time on the beach the last day of our trip. The flight to Charlotte departs a few hours later than the direct flight costing almost double the miles.

We used 60,000 U.S. Airways plus $179 for taxes and fees for both of our round trip tickets to Aruba. Since my husband has the U.S. Airways Premier World MasterCard, he gets a 5,000 mile discount for each award reservation. Usually the lowest amount of miles needed to fly on U.S. Airways to the Caribbean is 35,000 miles per ticket. By having this credit card if you are able to find availability for the lowest miles each way, 17,500miles, the total is 30,000 miles for each passenger. Here the link to my blog post about the 35,000 free U.S. airways miles credit card from Barclay. My husband received 35,000 free miles from this free card which were added to the miles in his account giving him enough miles for these two round trip tickets. USAirways Miles

If you are looking to book a trip using U.S. Airways miles and you are short the amount you need, U.S. Airways is having a special for the month of June. They will double the amount of miles you purchase up to 50,000 miles for free. Here is the link to this offer with the costs to purchase U.S Airways miles. There is tax charged in addition to the amounts indicated. Here is the link. Need Miles

The Westin in Aruba had availability for 10,000 Starwood points per night, but the cash and points option was not available. The Westin charges a resort fee of $25 per night. So I booked the Westin for now, even though I would prefer to stay at the Hyatt in Aruba since they have a club lounge with free food and drinks for Diamond Gold Passport members. I am going to have my husband apply for the Chase Sapphire card. It should give us enough points for two free nights at the Hyatt Regency Aruba and I plan to apply for the Chase Hyatt card which has an annual fee of $75. It will give me two nights in a suite for us to use in Aruba. We are looking forward to being in Aruba in January.

This is the link for the Hyatt two nights credit card offer. Hyatt Nights

Here is the link to my blog post about the Chase Sapphire card. Free Points