How to Stay at a Luxury Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico: Top 2 Most Affordable Methods (Hilton Honors)

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How to Book a 5-Star Luxury Resort, and Perhaps One of the Best Hilton Properties in the World, for a Huge Discount!

Los Cabos is a beautiful place to visit. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to stay at one of their most luxurious resorts in Mexico? The cheapest room will run you about $1,500 to up to $3,000 a night during peak season. Of course, we are talking about the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal! This has to be one of the coolest resorts that we have ever seen! We have personally never stayed at this resort, but we will show you how you will be able to stay at this incredible property for a fraction of the cost!

Option #1: Using Hilton Honors Credit Card Sign-On Bonuses for Rewards Nights and Points

Overview

Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal may be one of the most popular luxury Hilton Honors resorts to stay in Mexico. In fact, several celebrities are known to vacation at this property. Finding a standard rewards night can be quite difficult due to the demand of travelers booking this property. However, there is sometimes occasional availability of standard rooms at this property, and we will show you exactly how you will be able to redeem at least 5 nights for a fraction of what you would have paid in cash! There are two primary methods to be able to accumulate enough Hilton points to book this property appropriately, and we will go over both of them. These methods do require you to have a second traveler. However, you still may be able to use a combination of these methods if you are a solo traveler looking to stay at this property!

Method

We will show you the first method of landing a reservation at this property without spending a fortune, through the use of Hilton Honors credit card bonuses! The personal Hilton Honors credit cards and business credit card are listed below:

Hilton Honors Co-Branded Credit Cards (American Express)

Here is a step-by-step guide of how you can accumulate many Hilton points through sign-on bonuses with Hilton’s credit cards:

First, you should apply for the lowest tier card (Hilton Honors credit card) and hit the minimum spend ($2,000 in the first 6 months) to get 80,000 Hilton Honors points.
After you hit the bonus on the Hilton Honors, you will want to move to the Hilton Surpass credit card, which is the mid-tier card and hit the minimum spend ($3,000 in 6 months) for the Surpass to earn another 130,000 points.
Finally, you will want to apply for the highest tier card (Hilton Aspire) and hit its minimum spend ($6,000 in 6 months) to earn 150,000 points. Be sure to hit the Surpass minimum spend first before applying for the last card (unless you are able to hit both spends quickly).
At the end of the minimum spends, you will have a total of 393,000 points, which includes 360,000 from bonuses + at least 33,000 from x3 points on all spend on Hilton Honors credit cards.
You will repeat this sequence with a second traveler applying for the same cards to get an additional 393,000 points towards the end the minimum spends and obtaining all of the bonuses and point multipliers.
You will use the “pool points” option to combine all earned points through bonuses and spend to get a total of 786,000 points! You can pool points with your travel partner using this link. Pooling points is a free method to combine points, as gifting points (previously free) will now have a fee associated..
Once you have all of the points in one person’s account, you will need to find (at least) 5 nights of standard room availability when going to book the resort.

On the calendar you will have to look for standard room (190,000 points) availability! As this is a popular resort, it may be a bit difficult to find multiple nights in a row, so you will need to check vigilantly and be flexible with your travel dates. With some luck, you will eventually be able to find the standard room dates!

Look for nights that are **190,000** (Standard Room)

Once you have found standard nights for (at least) 5 nights in a row, select the room option, “King Pacific View with Plunge Pool“. This is the resort’s standard room.

Select **King Pacific View with Plunge Pool** for 190,000 points per night!

This is an amazing 856 sq. ft. room that also has its own plunge pool inside the room!

If you are lucky enough to find the availability for 5 nights in a row (for 190,000 points per night), you will be able to book 5 nights with only having to use points for 4 nights! This is because if you have at least Silver status with Hilton Honors (which you will through the credit cards), you will be able to take advantage of the “fifth night free” benefit! This benefit allows you to book a fifth night free when booking 4 nights all on points.

Fifth night free on reward stays if you have at least Hilton Honors Silver status!

Additionally, if you are lucky enough to find additional standard room availability (6 or even 7 nights in a row), you can use your two free night certificates (one from each Aspire card holder) to book two more nights at this resort, completely for free! These free night certificates are not capped like other hotel loyalty free night certificates!

Total Cost

The total cost to implement the credit card welcome bonus method is estimated with the following fees you should expect:

No annual fee from the Hilton Honors Credit Card (x2) = $0
$150 annual fee from the Hilton Honors Surpass Credit Card (x2) = $300
$550 annual fee from the Hilton Honors Aspire Credit Card (x2) = $1,100

When we add up the total cost. The cost of this method would be: $1,400

This would give you the potential to book 5 nights with points, as well as another 2 nights with the free night certificates, meaning you have the potential to book up to 7 nights for $1,400 using this method!

One night in a Standard Room would cost **$1,374.90**!

If you were to book one standard room night here with cash, you would already have to pay almost $1,400 out of pocket for one night! If you do the math, you would get over an 85% discount if you were to fully utilize Hilton Honors credit cards to book your stay here versus paying the room rate with cash! Pretty incredible!

These are some disclaimers to note when talking about credit cards:

NEVER carry a balance on any credit card! We do not (and never will) advise you to go into credit card debt for this strategy!
Keep in mind your financial situation when going for a card member bonus. Please only spend on purchases that you would have otherwise made already! We would recommend saving this strategy for an already planned big future purchase that you are able to put on a credit card (wedding costs, tuition, furniture, etc.).
Always follow the terms and conditions of American Express. Keep your cards open for at least one year before making any decision to cancel. Attempting to “game” the system will blacklist you from American Express.
Keep in mind of American Express “pop-up jail” (American Express may inform you that you will not qualify for another sign-up bonus when applying past your first Amex credit card). This is Amex’s way of suppressing the amount of rewards offered to you, and usually time will resolve it. You may have to adjust this strategy for the longer-term if you run into this issue.

FAQ Section

How to Combine Hilton Points Between Two Accounts?: You will need to pool points between you and your travel partner to stack the total amount of points to use the fifth night free benefit! Pooling points is completely free and would be our recommended option, as “gifting points” (previously free) will now cost you a fee.
How to Earn “Fifth Night Free” Benefit?: The fifth night free benefit is available to Hilton Honors Silver, Gold, or Platinum status. The Hilton Honors American Express card will give you automatic Silver status while the Hilton Honors Surpass American Express card will give you automatic Gold status! Additional ways of earning the required Hilton Honors status is through:
- Holding the American Express Platinum card (complimentary Gold status)
- Having T-Mobile Magenta status (complimentary Silver status)
- Requesting a status match with Hilton Honors (for Gold status) if you have a similar status tier with another loyalty program (good for 90 days).
Why is the Point Redemption Much More Expensive?: This method will only work with standard rewards nights. If you see dates costing more than the specified point redemption amount, this means that a standard rewards night is not available at the property on the specified date. Having four people on the reservation will probably be much more difficult to find standard rates versus only having two people on the reservation.
Unable to Purchase Hilton Points?: You will be able to purchase Hilton points after 90 days of opening a Hilton Honors account (free to sign up) or 30 days with qualifying account activity (booking hotel stays, earning Hilton Honors points, or redeeming Hilton Honors points)
Do Hilton Points Expire?: Hilton Honors points do expire after 24 months of inactivity (be sure to either reserve nights, earn points through Hilton spend or Hilton Honors credit card spend, or redeem your points to keep your points from expiring)
Do Hilton Free Night Certificates Expire?: Hilton reward night certificates will only be good for one year. You may have the option to extend the rewards night for up to two weeks past the expiration date via customer service chat. Additional extensions may be granted if you directly call customer service, but these are not the standard. Keep this in mind when having to hit your minimum spend for the credit card sign-on bonuses because you will need to take account of time with the expiration dates of your rewards nights.
How to Redeem Hilton Free Night Certificates?: You will need to call Hilton Customer service to redeem your rewards nights, and they will be able to merge any separate reservations that you booked with points.
Why Do I Have a Different Amex Hilton Honors Welcome Bonus?: American Express welcome bonuses are also usually targeted, so your welcome bonus offers may be different. It may take some time to be able to implement this strategy. If you are lucky, sometimes cards will include a free night certificate in addition to the large point bonus that you receive after hitting the minimum spend!
Why Don’t I Qualify For a Second Hilton Honors Welcome Bonus?: To qualify for an additional sign-on bonus, be sure to apply for the lowest tier Hilton card first, then apply for the mid-tier (Surpass) second, and finally the high-tier (Aspire) last. American Express has a family card sign-up bonus restriction, meaning that if you have received a higher sign-on bonus from one of the cards in that “family” (Hilton Honors co-branded credit cards) you no longer qualify for a sign-on bonus from a lower-tier card. Additionally, see the disclaimers above regarding Amex “pop-up jail”.