Last month, my wife and I flew to New York for a wedding up in the Hudson River Valley. Neither of us had been to New York in quite some time. The last time I was in New York was for callback interviews in the summer between my first and second year of law school (in 2011) and the last time my wife was there was even longer ago than that. Since it’d been so long since we’d been to New York, and since we were already heading out that way for this wedding, we figured we’d make a little weekend trip out of it.
I don’t write about travel much on this blog because, honestly, I don’t travel as much as I’d like. Work often gets in the way. And until this year, I was too scared to even try travel hacking, which meant that travel could get pretty expensive.
A lot of my conceptions about how much travel actually costs has changed in the past year as I’ve dived headfirst into this world of travel hacking. Turns out that if you do it right, you can travel pretty well without spending much.
I thought this trip to New York was worth sharing due to the fact that we were able to do some interesting things to make this five-day trip really affordable – including travel hacking a $1,000 per night hotel and miraculously winning a travel stipend to a SoFi “Payoff” Party that just happened to be held on the same weekend as when we were already going to be in NYC.
*Note, this post is not sponsored in any way by SoFi – I just happen to be a SoFi member that won a nationwide contest. Winning the contest was not related to this blog. In fact, they didn’t even know I had a blog.
Free Nights At The Park Hyatt-New York
We planned to go to New York for five days, leaving on a Wednesday and coming back on a Sunday. About a month or two before our trip, I found a decent flight deal using my favorite travel app, Hopper. It tracks ticket prices for you and tells you when it thinks is the best time to book your flight. Since flights to NYC weren’t all that expensive, I decided to save my Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
In addition to our flight, we also needed a place to stay for a few nights. Originally, we planned to go with Airbnb since my wife and I have $100 in Airbnb credit that we earned from being Airbnb Superhosts. It’s a nice little perk of being a good Airbnb host – for every year that we remain a Superhost, we get $100 in Airbnb credit.
Still, New York is an expensive place, even if you go with Airbnb, so getting a few free hotel nights didn’t seem like a bad idea.
To snag our free hotel, we went with the Chase Hyatt Card. At the time, the Chase Hyatt card was offering two free nights at any Hyatt hotel after spending $2,000 on the card in the first three months (note that the current welcome offer on this card will be different than what I got back in 2017). Hitting this spend wasn’t a problem – we just put our regular spend on it and we were easily able to earn our two free nights.
With our two free nights in hand, we went ahead and snagged the most expensive Hyatt Hotel in New York City – the Park Hyatt. It’s located in the heart of midtown Manhattan, across the street from Carnegie Hall and just a block away from Central Park and Broadway. Rates for this hotel can go for over $1,000 per night, which made the value of our two free nights really extraordinary. Essentially, we spent $2,000 just as we normally would and were rewarded with $2,000 worth of hotel stays.
Without a doubt, the best part of the hotel was its location, just steps away from anything we wanted to do. We ended up seeing two Broadway musicals while we were in the city (snagging rush tickets in order to do it).
The room itself wasn’t bad either – forgive me for the bad pictures, I suck at taking pictures.
One thing that’s annoying about fancy hotels is that if you’re a regular chump like I am, you can’t really afford to take advantage of the amenities in the hotel. They had a fancy spa for example, but that kind of thing was way too rich for my blood.
Breakfast also wasn’t free, which is something that a lot of more affordable hotels provide. When we checked-in to our room, however, they didn’t have the exact room that we had signed up for. We had asked for a double room just in case anyone needed to stay with us, but they only had a king room available. As a result, they offered us complimentary breakfast for our stay, which we “reluctantly” accepted.
All in all, I think we used our free Hyatt nights pretty well. New York is already an expensive place, so being able to get two nights for free in a $1,000 per night hotel was a nice treat. When it comes to U.S. properties, the Park Hyatt in New York is probably the most luxurious Hyatt hotel you can find.
SoFi Debt Payoff Event
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I’m a huge fan of student loan refinancing companies. If you’re earning a good income, then it doesn’t make sense to pay more interest than you need to.
I’ve always been a big fan of SoFi, in particular, because of all of the community events they hold. It seems like every quarter, they hold a fancy dinner, happy hour, rock climbing event, or some other thing that my wife and I like to take advantage of. In the two years that I’ve been a SoFi member, my wife and I have easily helped ourselves to over $1,000 worth of free food and drinks at SoFi member events. That number went up significantly with our recent trip to New York.
About a month before our trip, I found out that SoFi was planning to host what it was calling a “Payoff” Party in Brooklyn. The idea behind the event was to celebrate all of the SoFi members that have either paid off their student loans or were very close to doing so. As part of the payoff event, SoFi held a contest where ten grand prize winners would win a $500 travel stipend to fly to New York, plus two free nights at a hotel in Brooklyn. As luck would have it, the Payoff Party was scheduled for the very weekend I was already going to be in NYC! This was just too perfect.
The prompt from SoFi was “What does being paid in full mean to you” (or something to that effect, I can’t actually remember the entire prompt, to be honest). I wrote up my essay, sent it in, and figured maybe I could get lucky.
To my surprise, a few weeks later, I found out that I was selected as one of the ten grand prize winners! What a score!
We were already trying to figure out what to do about the other nights, but with the SoFi win, it meant that we had another two free nights of hotels in New York, plus $500 to cover the plane tickets that we’d already purchased!
The actual Payoff Party event was great. It was held at the Green Building in Brooklyn, which is basically a brick, warehouse-looking building that’s made for parties.
Dinner itself was pretty good – and then as a bonus, they brought an ice cream food truck from Van Leeuwen, which is a popular ice cream in New York.
So with this most recent trip that I won from SoFi, I’d say that I’ve easily received more than $2,000 worth of food, drinks, and now, hotels and plane tickets, from SoFi. This is just another reason why refinancing with SoFi worked out so well for me.
I think this also goes to show that sometimes, it’s not a bad idea to just tell your story. You never know what might happen.
Other Things We Did In New York
The hotel and the SoFi event were the two highlights of the trip that I thought was worth sharing, but we also did some other things that worked out well. These included:
An Airbnb On The Hudson River. We had two nights booked at the Park Hyatt, and then two nights booked at a hotel in Brooklyn thanks to me winning that SoFi grand prize. Since we were going upstate for one night with my wife’s family, we still needed a place that could hold all of us after the wedding. We ended up finding an Airbnb on the Hudson River that cost $50 bucks per person. Not bad at all.
Met up with Biglaw Investor. The other highlight of the trip was my Sunday lunch meetup with my friend, the Biglaw Investor. If you don’t know who he is, I’d say he runs the definitive personal finance blog for lawyers. By sheer happenstance, the hotel that SoFi put us up in was only a few blocks away from where the Biglaw Investor lived. We met up at a restaurant in his neighborhood, grabbed some food and drinks, and talked about blogging, personal finance and biking to work.
My $300 Mistake. Without a doubt, the stupidest thing I did was oversleep and miss my early morning flight to New York. I booked my flight on a budget airline, so the next flight out didn’t leave until that evening, which meant I wouldn’t get into New York until after midnight. That was too late for me. In order to get there that day, I ended up purchasing a ticket on a different airline that brought me into New York that afternoon. The total cost for the new ticket was $300, which meant that I essentially cut my $500 travel stipend from SoFi down to $200. Don’t say that I don’t share my money failures too.
Depending on how you travel, a trip to New York can be expensive. We ended up with an affordable five-day trip with some clever travel hacking and some sheer luck (thanks, SoFi). Definitely not a bad way to get our travel game going.
More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes/scooters I've had the chance to do a review for:
- GEN3 Outcross Bike – The GEN3 Outcross is a solid, affordable fat tire ebike that does a good job of doing what I need it to do. It works great for city riding, giving me a smooth ride in all conditions. It’s works really well as a winter ebike since the fat tires give it good traction over snow and ice. Check out my GEN3 Outcross Review.
- Himiway Escape Bike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Bike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
- M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
- SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with $100 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
- Moomoo (5 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 5 free stocks (usually worth around $75-$100) if you open an account using a referral link and deposit $2,000. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
- Webull (5 free stocks) – Webull also gives you 5 free stock valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free stocks using Webull.
- Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
- Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.
More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses
If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.
- GO2Bank ($100) - GO2Bank is an easy bank bonus that I recommend people take advantage of if they have an easy way of meeting the direct deposit requirement. I like that it’s easy to open the account and that the bonus pays out quickly. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your GO2Bank $100 referral bonus.
- Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
- US Bank Business ($750) – This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
- SoFi Money ($275) – SoFi Money is a free checking account from SoFi. They’re currently offering a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi account with a referral link and deposit $10. You can also make an additional $250 as well if you complete a direct deposit. This is a good bank that is also 100% free, so you won’t have to worry about managing this account. Here’s a post I wrote with instructions on how to earn your SoFi Money bonus: SoFi Money Referral Bonus: Step By Step Guide.
- Fifth Third Bank ($225) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. If you don’t live in one of those states, you won’t be able to open an account online but you can still open an account in-branch if you happen to be visiting a city that has a branch. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, especially since there are plenty of data points showing what will trigger the direct deposit requirement. In addition, you can open the Fifth Third Momentum Checking bank account, which comes with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. Read my guide on this bonus here.
- Fairwinds Credit Union ($100) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
- Netspend ($40 + 5% Interest Savings Account) – Netspend is a company that provides 5% interest savings accounts. If you sign up using my referral link, you’ll get a $40 signup bonus once you make your first deposit into your Netspend account of $40 or more. That means you get a 5% interest savings account and a free $40 to start! Make sure to check out my in-depth guide on how to set up these accounts.
- Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link.Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
- Digital Federal Credit Union ($20) – Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $20 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a saving account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000. Check out my in-depth post on how to set this account up.
- Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
- Varo ($30) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $30 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $250 if you complete a direct deposit.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $750 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- DCU. Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $20 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a savings account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000.
- Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
Nice coincidence! I want to get on the travel hacking bandwagon but am a bit hesitant to do it. Why exactly I’m not quite sure…
I totally get it. I only had one credit card for 10 years because it scared the crap out of me. Like, I assumed it must trash your credit and all that jazz. And I still get people in my regular life who tell me how dumb it is to do this stuff. As long as you’re disciplined and understand what you’re doing, it’s a no-brainer to do this hobby. I’d say everyone, at a minimum, should be able to open up a mere 1 card per year and get themselves at least one free flight each year. That’s really doable!
Congrats on your luck with SoFi. Cool to hear about all the freebies at local gatherings. I was unaware of those. SoFi didn’t exist when it came time to refinance (consolidate) my loans. But sub-2% rates with the federal government did, so I’ll shut up now.
Except to say that it’s very cool you got to meet up with Big Law Investor. I expect I’ll be seeing both of you in a couple short weeks in Dallas. Should be an excellent time with plenty of complimentary food and drink.
Cheers!
-PoF
Yeah, with sub 2% rates, you didn’t even need to refinance!
The SoFi thing was a pleasant surprise. The funny thing is I haven’t had any loans with SoFi now in a long time, but I still go to all the SoFi events. The SoFi people who do these events know me and my wife by name now, which is funny. Shows how big a mooch I am.
Was definitely great to meet up with BigLaw and talk shop. Super convenient how close we were to each other. Dude is biking 45 minutes to work these days too!
And for sure, you’ll definitely be seeing me anywhere that has free food or drinks. I’ve got a knack for finding that stuff.
That sucks that you missed your flight, man! Thanks for the tip on the Chase card for Hyatt hotels. We’re looking for a place to stay for an upcoming trip to Boston. We will likely AirBnB it so we can get a kitchen and cook some of our own meals. Hotels in Boston are super expensive – so we may splurge just a little on a nice AirBnB!
That was just so stupid of me to do that. It was a 7am flight and I woke up at 6am. Pretty much no way I could get to MSP in time.
Great score! The breakfast looks nice! I’m always reluctant to start new credit cards that have a fee, but as you described it, that would work out nicely. Maybe it’s time to revisit that 60,000 Amex platinum that keeps popping up.
That breakfast was good, but not worth 45 bucks a person! I laughed when I saw those prices. But nice to get it for free.
It’s definitely scary when you start the travel hacking game, but it does pay dividends if you do it right. If you’re looking to get started, I’d say just get the Chase Sapphire Preferred, earn your points, use them for a trip, then downgrade the card to the no-annual fee Chase Freedom card. It’s basically the lowest risk way you can get into this hobby, and a nice way to get your feet wet.
So glad we were able to meet up too! Didn’t realize your SoFi event was in the Green Building. You really were in my neighborhood the entire day. Looking forward to hanging out some more at Fincon.
Ha, yeah, I was right near you the whole time. I’ll see you next week!
Free food is my ministry in life and would you know I have yet to go to a single SoFi event. I’m so ashamed.
how do you go about to refinance a loan of 90.000 when you cannot even find a job that is capable of meeting your needs.
Unfortunately, refinancing a loan is pretty much just an underwriting equation thing – they’ll only let you refinance if you have a job that makes them confident you won’t default on the loan. You need income, in other words.