Cruising for "Free" from Australia to Seattle

In this month-long trip, I flew from the US to Australia, visiting Sydney and Brisbane before sailing back across the Pacific with stops in New Caledonia, Fiji, French Polynesia and Hawaii. Overall, I got to experience $18,660 in retail travel using the points from roughly 2.5 credit card signup bonuses and $1,006.10 in cash out of pocket. With nearly all the food and entertainment included, I might have spent more had I stayed home.

Booking the Essentials

Landing a Free Cruise

Cruise ships have casinos and they are always looking for players. If you have casino status, you can often parlay that into a “free” cruise. Free, in this case means the cabin is covered, and you only pay gratuities and port fees.

To get my offer, I matched:

1. Wyndham Diamond (from a credit card) to Caesar’s Diamond.
2. Caesar’s Diamond to a Carnival Fun Match.

A few weeks later, I had an offer for a balcony cabin, good on any cruise with availability. I chose a balcony cabin on 22-day transpacific sailing from Brisbane to Seattle with stops in New Caledonia, Fiji, Tahiti, Moorea and Hawaii. The regular price for this cruise was around $1,500 for the cabin plus $700 in gratuities and fees and I paid just the $700.

To learn how to get your own cruise, check out our guide to free cruise offers.

Applying for an Australia Visa

Australia has a pretty simple Electronic Travel Authority visa program. If granted, the visa allows travel to Australia during a one-year period, no more than 3 months at a time.

US passport holders can apply via an app (Apple Store, Google Play). You scan the chip in your passport, take a picture, pay a small fee and submit. Most people get their visa approved within five minutes. I did it around midnight and booked my flight and cruise a few minutes later.

Finding a Flight

The best option I found was an American Airlines 777 from Los Angeles to Sydney, which, as an American award booking, would include connections from Columbus.

• 78k miles or $7,000 for lie flat business class
• 90k miles or $14,500 for Flagship First

Flagship First is the last true first class service offered by a domestic airline, and it is going away in 2024. It includes access to American’s Flagship First lounges, which are a cut above Admiral’s club, as well as access to the Flagship Dining restaurant within those lounges.

I’d never flown international first. With the prices so close and it being a little bit of history, I decided to spring for it.

Check out our guide to finding award flights for tips on how to find great flights.

Australia

Sydney

Sydney is a beautiful city, with the hustle and bustle of a big city like New York and the natural beauty of Hawaii. Everywhere you go, there are beautiful parks, bridges and waterfront. The downtown area is very walkable with excellent public transportation. Popular bus stops actually had a worker on hand to help tourists find the right bus and some buses were free. It was clean, safe and everyone was super friendly.

The first evening, I walked up to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, which overlooks Sydney Harbor and the Opera House. She was the governor’s wife (and cousin) and enjoyed watching ships come into the harbor. Mr. Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, who took over for William Bligh, had the then penal colony’s prisoners carve a bench and stairs for her out of the sandstone. The picture you see above, looking back toward the city is from the waterfront below her chair. I assume the steps you see there were carved by the same prisoners. You also have the best views of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge from this point. That evening they were playing Madame Butterfly in the Opera house, and they piped the music out into the park.

The second day, I walked all the way from downtown to the coastal beaches. It’s a beautiful walk passing through fun neighborhoods like Darlinghurst and many beautiful parks like Moore Park, Centennial Park and Queens Park. It was Easter sunday and the parks were full of families out for a picnic, folks on horseback rides, flocks of rambunctious cockatoos and other exotic birds.

A mile or two beyond the main parks you reach the coastline. From there I walked through Clovelly Beach up north over the bluffs at Shark Point, past the Clovelly Lawn Bowling Club, and on through Waverley Cemetery. On an eastern facing bluff overlooking the pacific ocean, Waverley is perfectly positioned for sunrise and sunset. This is probably the most beautiful cemetery I’ve ever seen, but if you are looking for a final resting place, be prepared to pay around $25,000 AUD for a 25-year renewable burial term (reduced rates for ash internment).

Past the cemetery, you arrive at Bronte Beach which is known for its surfing. From the southern bluffs, you have the perfect view to watch wave after wave rolling in while a hundred surfers try to catch them. I was there near sunset with a shower far off to the east creating a nice vertical rainbow backdrop to the surfers. Past Bronte are Tamara and Bondi Beaches. Bondi is probably the most famous beach in Sydney and even has its own lifeguard show, Bondi Rescue, now in its 17th season. I had to call it quits shortly after I arrived at Bondi since I ran out of light and my feet stopped working once I’d hit 10 miles. Thank goodness for Uber!

Sydney Hyatt Regency

This was my first big trip since getting top tier Hyatt Globalist status and I really wanted to try it out somewhere nicer than my usual Hyatt Place without paying an exorbitant rate.

There were two Hyatts in Sydney and for two nights the options were:

• Park Hyatt ~$1300 or 80k points (category 8).
• Hyatt Regency ~$540 or 33k points (category 4).

You can usually redeem Hyatt points for around 2 cents per point so, between 1.6 and 1.7cpp, both of these were a little pricey but not unreasonable point redemptions.

For me, I do a lot of road trips and, pre-points and miles, was used to staying in chains under Wyndham and Best Western. Nowadays, when I see a number like 80k Hyatt points, I can’t help but think how I might combine that with one of Hyatt’s routine promotions and off-peak pricing to get 16-20 nights in relative luxury at Hyatt Places across the country. I’m honestly not even sure what I’d do with myself in a Park Hyatt, so naturally I chose the Regency.

The Regency ended up being a good choice. I arrived a little after 8am on the day of checkin, about eight hours too early for standard checkin and on Easter weekend to boot. I was not expecting much more than being able to drop off my bags, but they called housekeeping and immediately got me into a standard king on the top floor. The room itself was nothing special, but it had an amazing view of Darling Harbour. Later I was delightfully surprised to discover they hold fireworks shows every Saturday night in April and I had the perfect view from my room.

The other great surprise in this hotel was the newly renovated and reopened club lounge on the 11th floor, a globalist perk. For food, they had a small self serve buffet with smoked salmon, delicious cheeses, native fruits, and a variety of meats in addition to the usual staples like yogurt or cereal. For breakfast, they had an omelette chef who would take orders and bring your food out and he made everything perfectly. Of course, there were libations aplenty.

Despite the excellent fare, the best part of the lounge was the view. They have counter seating all along a window looking out over Darling Harbour. When the weather is nice, they open the windows, and you could just sit there enjoying the breeze and watching the ships sail by.

Virgin Australia to Brisbane

There were really three options to get from Sydney to Brisbane for the cruise.

The train was very tempting, even though I would need to pay cash. However, it turned out that they were doing maintenance on the line and diverting passengers to buses half-way through the trip. The route was both very expensive and very slow, an overnight affair.

For flights, the other two options were Qantas with One World and Virgin Australia with Star Alliance. Since I had zero flexibility in dates, I just asked point.me to find the cheapest business class flight. This ended up being a Virgin Australia flight booked via United for approximately 30,000 united miles and $30. This flight went from Sydney south to Melbourne and then north past Sydney to Brisbane which is a bit crazy, but I booked it anyway just to have something locked down.

I knew that United award bookings can be cancelled for free and that availability often opens up closer to the actual date of travel. So once I was in Sydney, I checked point.me again and found an even cheaper direct flight for 28,500 united miles and $17.30 in fees. So I crossed my fingers and cancelled my flight. Cash and miles were both refunded immediately, and I was able to book the new flight without trouble.

The flight was on a Boeing 737-800 with two cabins, economy and business. I would put the business class seat a tiny bit ahead of American’s domestic first class, perhaps just because it felt newer. Service was probably a half step up as well with drinks and meal service offered very promptly despite a short flight.

The domestic side of the Sydney airport, however, was a bit of a zoo. The terminals are all far too narrow with not enough space for passengers at any of the gates. Since I had a business class ticket, I was able to access the Virgin Australia lounge, but this too was packed and a definite step below in quality centurion lounges. Of course, some of the crowding issues may have had to do with it being Easter weekend.

After landing in Brisbane, I took a train from the quite distant airport to downtown. This was really easy, and very reasonably priced. That said, had I kept my original flight, I would have arrived an hour too late for the train and needed to catch an exorbitantly priced uber. Changing my flight to the direct option probably saved another $50.

Brisbane

Like Sydney, Brisbane is a truly beautiful city, a little smaller and maybe not quite as polished in some areas, but it had some of the best gardens and public spaces of anywhere I’ve been. I spent the first day walking along the riverfront, through the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens, across the river through the university district and then a stop for dinner before heading back to the hotel.

The Botanical Gardens were actually created in 1828 as a public garden planted by convicts for food. Later it grew into a conservancy, even housing a zoo for a while. Over the years, the Brisbane river, which is full of sharks, has flooded catastrophically several times, sometimes wiping out much of the garden amongst other riverfront properties. I think this might actually be part of the reason so much of the riverfront is full of parks and gardens and public walkways.

Fun fact, Darwin brought back a Tortoise named Harriet on the Beagle in 1835 and donated it to the garden in 1860. Harriett lived in the garden until 1952 before being moved to the Australian zoo where she lived until her death in 2006.

The second half of the day took me over to the other side of the river with the University of Queensland. Here the riverfront is littered with flowered walkways, gardens, museums, public beaches, a temple, the famous Brisbane sign and even a ferris wheel.

After sunset, I walked back towards the hotel through the Queens Street Mall. This is an open street lined with shops in the heart of the city. There are trees in the walkway filled with fruit bats and cockatoos. Every few seconds, one of the great bats would drop from a tree and swoop overhead.

I grabbed dinner at a restaurant in the mall called LÜCHA and had the best dim sum of my life.

The next day, I checked out some of the campus area art museums and took a river boat ride to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

Mirimar Cruise / Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Quite possibly the only place in the world where you can legally hold a Koala, the cruise and sanctuary are routinely ranked #1 on Trip Advisor. So if you only have one day in Brisbane, and are looking for an activity outside the city, this may be it. As it turned out, the entire Mirimar Cruise was fully booked by people that would be sailing out on the Carnival Luminosa the following day.

Holiday Inn Express

My time in Brisbane was split in two hotels. The first was a Holiday Inn Express for 15,000 points. It was a basic modern hotel room with a very good breakfast when compared to its American counterparts. While it was very affordable, it was about a half mile away uphill from the action.

W by Marriott

This very cool hotel felt a bit like being in an alien spaceship. As a person who owns entirely too many Phillips Hue lights, it appealed very much to my lack of design aesthetics. A night in the hotel cost around $260 of which $200 was covered by the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts credit. FHR bookings come with free breakfast, a room upgrade, and $130 AUD on property credit. The main restaurant wasn’t included by the credit but they had two bars with food and drinks and the breakfast was the best I’d ever experienced in a hotel. You need to have your Amex Platinum card with you at checkin to get the FHR perks.

The Cruise

Getting to the Brisbane Port

The Brisbane cruise port is far away from downtown. You may be better off carpooling with other cruisers or booking an excursion for transportation to the terminal. For me, an Uber was $70 AUD including tip.

The Ship

Carnival Luminosa is a smaller, less feature rich ship acquired when Carnival bought Costa. It lacks many standard features found in other Carnival vessels. Don’t expect water slides or roller coasters or even a Guy’s burgers.

That said, the entertainment was actually much better than I’d seen on other carnival cruises and I loved the feel of the vessel compared to more American centric cruises.

Noumea, New Caledonia

This was my first stop on my first cruise and I had resolved not to spend too much on excursions. So rather than booking something, I walked around town with another cruiser, hugging the coast and visiting a few beaches. We had been warned against going in the water due to a couple of recent shark attacks, but we still got to see some interesting sites.

Suva, Fiji

In Suva, I walked along the coast, through gardens, to the Museum of Fiji, by the rugby stadium and the presidential palace, then back through town to the ship.

Papeete, Tahiti

After seeing some great snorkeling photos from other cruisers, I decided to book a snorkeling excursion. Sadly my underwater camera wasn’t onhand, but we got to snorkel a few reefs along with the wreck of a plane and small boat.

After the snorkeling adventure, I spent a few hours walking around town before catching dinner at Le Moana. The town was full of interesting people, architecture and murals, and the food at La Moana was pretty good though probably a bit more expensive than places a block or two away.

Moorea (Mo-oh-ray-ah)

This was the most beautiful island I’ve ever visited, right up there with Kaui but less developed.

Unlike most ports, there really isn’t anything to do in Moorea unless you have an excursion. There isn’t a physical port and you get on and off the cruise ship using the life boats. The area around the dock has a small market and visitors center, but otherwise the area is fairly residential. I ended up booking a catamaran snorkeling tour and spent an hour or two walking around before the sail.

The catamaran tour was very nice and spacious. We had about 20 people aboard and the ship could easily have held many more. The captain and crew served drinks and fresh fruit and told us about the history and biology of the area. Sailing around the island, I had never seen so many sailboats. It is apparently very cheap to anchor there, essentially free, and large parts of the island are protected by reefs. The currents were too strong for most of the (older) cruisers but I had a great time and even saw a shark.

Honolulu, Oahu

We arrived in Honolulu a day early, possibly so they could repair the closing roof above the main pool. This had been stuck open for the entire voyage creating some problems around rain. As a result, we all had a bonus night in Honolulu.

I spent the night walking down through town to near Waikiki, stopping for Bubble Tea, and then back to the ship. The next day, I went to see the Pearl Harbor museum, catching the aviation portion which I’d missed on my last trip.

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is a rather expensive city. Rather than sticking around, I snagged a flight home on American in first for 26,000 miles. With a cruise, you never know for sure if you will arrive on time and so booking a flight with American on miles makes it easy to change last minute.

Closing Thoughts and Cost Summary

This was a fantastic trip and a wonderful opportunity. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Although these points came from many places, it’s roughly the amount you can get from 2.5 credit card signup bonuses.

Item	Points	Cash	Retail	Earnings
Carnival Luminosa Balcony, Brisbane to Seattle (22 days)		$700 (1)	$2,200
American Flagship Firs,t Columbus (CMH) to Sydney (SYD)	90,000 American miles	$17.60	$14,500
Virgin Australia First, Sydney (SYD) to Brisbane (BNE)	28,500 United miles	$17.30	$450
American First, Seattle (SEA) to Columbus (CMH)	26,000 American miles	$11.20	$450
Hyatt Regency Sydney (2 nights)	33,000 Hyatt Points		$540
Holiday Inn Express Brisbane (2 nights)	31,500 IHG points		$260	1,000 IHG points (2)
W by Marriott Brisbane (1 night)		$260 (3)	$260	3,910 Marriott points
Totals		$1,006.10	$18,660

1. $700 covered port fees and gratuities which are not typically covered in a “free” cruise offer.
2. IHG was running a promo for 500 points, and the other 500 was for being platinum.
3. The W was an American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts booking which is to say I paid $260 but was rebated $200 and then got a $130AUD property credit that covered meals.