Luxury Trip to Taiwan: How a round trip Business Class flight and 2 weeks in Luxury Hotels in Taiwan cost under $100!
Summary
Route: Bloomington, IL (BMI)>Chicago (ORD) >Portland (PDX) > Seattle (SEA) > Taipei (TPE)
Airlines American Airlines (First Class)/Delta Airlines (Delta One)
Hotels Grand Hyatt Taipei (Club Lounge Access)/ Wyndham Sun Moon Lake Resort (Club Access)/ The W Taipei
Cash Price: <$10k
Points Used: 38,000 AAdvantage Miles +$11.20, 178,000 Delta Skymiles + $45, 60,000 Wyndham Points, 96,000 World of Hyatt Points+ 1 Suite Upgrade Certificate, 1 85k Marriott Free Night Certificate, $300 Fine Hotel and Resort Credits from American Express Platinum Cards x3
The Strategy
The Goal: Delta was offering a sale on Business Class Tickets to Asia that prompted this trip. The timing coincided with Taiwan Independence Holiday, so I focused my stay near Taipei 101 to enjoy the festivities. I also wanted to explore the geopolitical environment, and the semiconductor industry based in Hsinchu Science Park, as well as take in some of the incredible natural beauty which was highlighted with a stay at Sun Moon Lake in the central part of the island.
The Card Strategy: Signing up for two American Express Delta Skymiles Credit Cards provided enough miles to book this round-trip flight. The Barclays Wyndham Business Earner card offers 8x at gas stations and previously had a sign-up offer of 60k miles. Chase points can be transferred to Hyatt 1:1, and the 100,000-point sign-up offer for the Chase Sapphire Preferred was enough for 8 nights at the Grand Hyatt. I transferred the AAdvantage Miles from Citi Thank You Rewards also at a 1:1 ratio. The Citi Prestige has a 60,000 Thank You point sign-up offer.
The Booking: DDelta Skymiles are a dynamic-based point system, so it is rare to get outsized value from this program. The one outlier to that are the flash sales that Delta commonly runs. This round trip in Business Class can often cost nearly 500,000 Skymiles! At that cost, this never would have been an option. I typically stick with booking economy sales, but the rarity of this offering got me to pull the trigger. I also booked Seattle to Tokyo at the end of February ‘26 (more to come!). The downside was that the sale was primarily based on the West Coast, and I am based in Western Illinois, so I used AAdvantage Miles (American Airlines) to book a positioning flight out of Bloomington ,IL(BMI). An advantage of departing from BMI is free parking. That comes in handy for extended trips such as this one. I was able to find First Class award availability with a connection at O’Hare for 19,000 miles each way. Another advantage for booking domestic American flights is that they are a member of the One World Alliance. Earlier in the year, I was able to meet spending requirements on the Qatar Airlines Prestige Card from Cardless, which gave me Qatar Gold Status. This would seem unrelated. But Gold status with Qatar translates to Emerald Status on all domestic One World flights. This meant that I would have access to the exclusive American Airlines Flagship lounge during my layover in Chicago.
The Flight Experience
Lounge Access: The Flagship Lounge at O’Hare was fantastic. I like to use espresso machine to make myself Ice Lattes. Fresh Sushi. Large Selection of fresh, delicious food. Because I woke up early for flight out of Bloomington, I took advatage of the private shower facilities in the lounge before boarding the first class flight to Portland. Because I booked the positioning flight out of Bloomington on American and the flight to Taipei was on Delta on a different itinerary, when I arrived in Portland, I collected my checked bag and rechecked it in with Delta. This was a smooth process, as I made sure to leave myself plenty of time. The recently complted renovations at PDX were beautiful! It felt like a completely different place from my time in Oregon just a few years ago (besides the classic green carpet). Business Class tickets include lounge access, so I made my way to the small, underwhelming Delta Sky Lounge at PDX. I was greeted well, and it was sparsly attended so it was quite serviceable. The flight was delayed so I chose to make my way down to Capers Bistro and take advantage of the $28 restaurant credit thanks to the free Priority Pass membership from my USBank Altitiude Reserve Card.
The Flight: The delayed flight out of Portland could have been disastrous. Instead, it ended up leading to the most memorable part of the trip! My connection pulled onto the tarmac in Seattle with only 15 minutes remaining in the boarding process for the flight to Taipei. I was feeling defeated. To my surprise, when I stepped onto the jetbridge to hustle to my next gate, a valet was standing there to take me down to the tarmac and escort me via private Delta Porche Transfer service across the tarmac directly to the next flight. This is an exclusive service and one that I never thought I would have the opportunity to experience. Not only was it wonderful, but it saved the day as I made the flight in time and was able to settle into the nicest seat I’d ever experienced! Being able to lay flat on the 13-hour flight across the Pacific was WONDERFUL! Not to mention the amenity kit, the delicious Taiwanese dinner options, and the wine and coffee menu!
Taiwan
Being near the 101 story skyscraper and the pride of Taipei for the National Independence Holiday was a fantastic experience. The firework show was stunning! Having such easy access to a fantastic view from the Grand Hyatt Taipei across the street worked out better than I had even planned!
I took a few day trips from my base in Taipei. The lanterns and views from the teahouse in Jifuen were incredible.
TSMC is based in Hsinchu which is about an hour away on the high speed rail and while not exactly a tourism hotspot, was really fascinating to soak in the campus and the free tickets to the TSMC museum of innovation were well worth the price!
There was so much to see and do! Even after two weeks I felt like I could have spent much more time. The food, the culture, the geography….I can’t wait to have another chance to visit!
Hotel Redemptions
Properties: "Grand Hyatt Taipei /Wyndham Sun Moon Lake/ W Taipei"
The Redemption: Cash rate at the Grand Hyatt Taipei averaged around $300 per night. I used the $300 Fine Hotels and Resorts Credit from multiple American Express Platinum Cards to reserve the first three nights each on separate stays. Booking through FHR also allows for a $100 property credit per stay, which I spent in one of their Michelin-starred restaurants.
The next three nights I stayed at the Wyndham Sun Moon Lake, which costs 13,500 Wyndham point per night after the 10% point rebate courtesy of the Wyndham Business Earner Credit Card. This card also provides automatic Diamond status, which granted me access to the Diamond Lounge at this resort property, which was fantastic! A free dinner menu, which included lobster and 4 hours of happy hour, was included. The lounge was scarcely attended, and it was well-staffed. It felt like personalized service. This was an incredible surprise and made the 3 days at the lake so much more special!
The next 7 nights, I used Hyatt Points to book into a club access room. The standard rooms were 12,000 points per night, but were unavailable for the period that I was there. However, I was able to apply a Suite Upgrade Award that I earned as a milestone reward for nights stayed within the World of Hyatt program. Applying this award opened up standard rooms at the 12,000 price and also provided automatic club access for up to 7 nights. The value that this upgrade award offered cannot be understated! The lounge was phenomenal. They offer both breakfast and happy hour hourlongs, both of which were top quality and plentiful enough that most nights I ate dinner in the lounge.
The final two nights were spent at The W Taipei. The first night was booked with another FHR American Express $300 credit. I used the $100 for dinner in the rooftop lounge that evening. The second night was booked using an 85k annual free night certificate that I receive annually from the Ritz-Carlton Chase Credit Card. The views from the room were outstanding, and the location of the W really couldn’t be beaten.
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