“You’re going to Hawaii for the weekend?!” That was the general reaction when we told people we were having a long weekend away and going to Kauai. Why would we do that? Well, it all starts in 2021 when we first visited the Grand Hyatt Kauai as part of a longer trip. We loved the resort and the island so much we definitely planned to return. In January 2023, I found out that this resort would be going from a Hyatt Category 6 to Category 7 for all bookings made from March 2023.

I did a quick search through the summer months and found the only four consecutive nights available over a weekend at a standard rate (25,000 points per night) were in late August. I also found that we could fly First Class on Delta using my Regional Upgrade certificates via Seattle one way and Los Angeles on the way back. At the time, no Delta One space was available, but the flight times were pretty good. The flights were about $670 per person round-trip and I was able to cover them with a bunch of eCredits thanks to our multiple $200 airline fee credits from various Amex cards. I asked my wife if we could go for that short trip assuming we could go in First Class and she agreed!

About three weeks before our trip, I searched the Delta website for our dates and found that there was now upgrade space available on Delta One both ways. I quickly called in and confirmed ATL-HNL-LIH on the outbound and LIH-HNL-SLC-ATL on the return. We would arrive in Kauai around 4pm on a Thursday and leave at 5pm on the following Monday. The interisland flights on Hawaiian Airlines were included in the price of the tickets. I had to pay a bit more per ticket, but it was certainly worth it for Delta One on the longer flights.

We had a great time, and I’ll be posting this trip report in several parts over the next few days. I’ll update the link to each part as they go live.

1 – Delta Sky Club Atlanta Terminal E and Delta One ATL-HNL

2 – Delta Sky Club Honolulu and Hawaiian Airlines HNL-LIH-HNL

3 – Grand Hyatt Kauai Updated Review

4 – Captain J’s Super Raft Na’pali Coast Tour Review

5 – Kauai Beaches and Hiking

6 – Kauai Restaurant Roundup

7 – Delta Sky Club Honolulu (reprise) and Delta One HNL-SLC

8 – Delta Sky Club Salt Lake City and Delta First Class SLC-ATL

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