Flight: Frontier from ONT-SFO, 40000 points and $22.40 in taxes and fees. Parked at self-parking lot 5. In hindsight, since we were departing from terminal 2, it might have been smarter to park at at the $20/day lot since it was closer. Ate some food from the Aspire lounge and boarded the mostly empty flight.
Rental: $90 Rented from Hertz at SFO for $120 before the $90 off $360 Amex Offer. Smooth experience, picked a Camry with about 8000 miles from the PC lot. Gas ended up being $17.
Hotel: $184 for one night at the Fairfield Inn and Suites Oyster Point and one night at AC hotels Oyster Point. We saved on parking since there was plentiful street parking right outside the Fairfield Inn. We earned a 35k cert from the two stays, as well as $120 back from Amex Offers.
Food: $230 on various restaurant options. Ended up being roughly $13 per meal per person. Got some cheap and amazing food from a Chinatown bakery. Also ate at a place that happened to take inKind. Spent $16 for taxes and tip at a priority pass restaurant. In hindsight, it might have been faster and cheaper to just eat at the Amex lounge.
Parking: $73 Airport parking at ONT and used parking meters around the city.
| Price Paid | Realistic Replacement | Realistic Price | |
| Flight: ONT-SFO | 40000 points + taxes | Southwest: LAX-SJC | $318 |
| Car Rental: Hertz | $117 | Fox Car Rental | $110 |
| Hotel | $184 but received 35k cert | Castle Inn SF | $173 |
| Food | $230 | ||
| Parking | $73 | ||
| Misc/Activities | $32 |
Realistically, I estimate points and travel hacking reduced the cost of the trip by $300. The flight was paid with points which I value at 0.5 cents per point, but I earned at a much lower rate through a Frontier promotion. The flight times were perfect as well, giving us the maximum amount of time in the bay area. The alternative was to leave from LAX to SJC, which would add 2 or 3 hours in travel time. Amex offers and a Marriott promo basically ended up netting us a free 35k cert versus the alternative. The car rental through Hertz probably saved us 2 hours versus going to an offsite alternative.
Total cost: $631 and 40k Frontier Points at 0.5 cents/point = $831, but received a 35k Marriott cert
Median Travels 