Attending Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been on my bucket checklist since I first visited the nation greater than a decade in the past. So, whereas planning a three-month journey by South America earlier this 12 months, I puzzled if this might lastly be the 12 months I might make it occur.
I anticipated it might be very costly to attend official occasions and guide a lodge keep within the metropolis throughout Carnival. Nevertheless, I used to be optimistic that I might leverage my bank card rewards to assist lower prices. Fortunately, I am comfortable to report I made my dream journey occur for an inexpensive worth — here is how I did it.
Associated: United award sale: Fly to Latin America for as little as 9,000 miles
How I secured a reduced Carnival ticket
Carnival has each official and unofficial occasions. You possibly can attend “blocos” (road events) free of charge. However I needed to go to the Sambadrome, as I would been wowed by the pictures and movies of the processions.
I missed out on the primary spherical of tickets that went on sale in August, however secured one in November at a better worth of $148, together with charges, by a third-party reseller throughout a 30% off Black Friday sale. That appeared like an inexpensive quantity to pay for this expertise.
Then got here the step of determining the place to remain and evaluating my reserving choices.
Award Resort choices in Brazil
As it’s possible you’ll think about, money costs for inns and trip leases had been fairly excessive throughout these dates, particularly within the fashionable neighborhoods of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon.
I needed to leverage my lodge elite standing free of charge breakfast and probably snag a room improve. Nevertheless, I used to be unable to search out any high-value redemptions or inexpensive money choices with Hyatt, IHG or Marriott.
However I did discover lodge award availability with a property that had been a part of the Hilton portfolio for a 12 months. The Tapestry Assortment’s Yoo2 Rio de Janeiro is conveniently positioned in Botafogo (between Copacabana and downtown, the place the Sambadrome is). And it was priced at an inexpensive 40,000 Hilton factors per night time.
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With complimentary Hilton Diamond elite standing that comes with the Hilton Honors American Categorical Aspire Card, I’d get free breakfast for 2 (masking my buddy and me) in addition to the possibility at a room improve (which we did not get as a result of the lodge was full).
Nevertheless, my Hilton Honors stability was zero, on condition that I undertake the method of incomes factors and utilizing them as quickly as potential, since loyalty applications are vulnerable to devaluations. In addition to, life is brief.
Although I had some American Categorical Membership Rewards factors in my account, which switch to Hilton Honors at a 1:2 fee — even once they run a switch bonus — the conversion fee is so low that it virtually by no means is sensible. So, I made a decision to look into shopping for factors as an alternative.
The knowledge for the Hilton Amex Aspire Card has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.
Ought to I pay Money or redeem Hilton factors?
Utilizing money:
A five-night keep at this lodge was retailing for about $1,778 (or 10,325 Brazilian reais).
I’d’ve used my Hilton Aspire card to pay the money fee, incomes me a complete of 60,452 Hilton Honors factors. To interrupt it down, I obtain 10 base factors per greenback spent when reserving a lodge throughout the Hilton portfolio, plus 10 bonus factors for each greenback spent due to my Diamond elite standing, plus an extra 14 factors per greenback spent for buying a room at a Hilton lodge on my Aspire card. Subsequently, I would earn 34 factors per greenback spent on this lodge keep.
In keeping with TPG’s April 2025 valuations, these factors can be price $363, giving me an efficient 20% return on my buy. So the efficient value of a money keep would drop from $1,778 to $1,415, considering the factors earned.
Associated: Which bank card do you have to use for Hilton stays?
Shopping for Hilton factors:
Alternatively, I might purchase factors for this Hilton redemption. I had a hunch this might work out advantageously for me, however I wanted to do the mathematics to verify it made sense.
The lodge was priced at 40,000 Hilton factors per night time, which might make the price of a five-night keep 200,000 factors.
Nevertheless, when you have no less than Silver elite standing with the lodge loyalty program — which Hilton Amex cobranded cardmembers do — you get your fifth night time free on award redemptions. So, meaning I would solely should pay for 4 nights for my five-night keep, paying 160,000 factors as an alternative of 200,000 factors.
Hilton Honors regularly affords purchase factors promotions, throughout which they provide a bonus or low cost when buying factors. Fortunately, Hilton was operating a promotion on the time I had bought my Carnival ticket, providing factors on the perfect value of 0.5 cents per level.
Shopping for 160,000 factors at 0.5 cents every would value me $800, lower than half of the $1,778 money fee.
I made a decision to go this route and used my Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card — my go-to card for on a regular basis spending — to buy the factors. This might earn me 1,600 Capital One miles, price $30, based on our April 2025 valuations. That lowered the efficient value of shopping for the factors required for this redemption to $770.
| Methodology | Use money | Purchase factors | Financial savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value of keep | $1,778 | $800 | $978 (55%) |
| Worth of factors earned | $363 | $30 | – |
| Efficient value | $1,415 | $770 | $645 (46%) |
Associated: When does it make sense to purchase factors and miles?
Backside line
By leveraging the ability of shopping for factors, I used to be in a position to save over $600 on the price of a five-night lodge keep in Rio throughout Carnival.
Whereas my first calculations confirmed 55% in financial savings, it was essential for me to calculate the worth of the factors I would earn if I had booked with money. After I factored the earnings by each strategies, the financial savings went right down to 46%, which continues to be an incredible deal.
And I made a decision to place half of these financial savings ($320) towards one other factor I had on my bucket checklist — going skydiving for the primary time, on my final day in Rio.
These two experiences — Carnival and skydiving — made my week in Rio the most effective journey experiences I’ve ever had — and it was all thanks to purchasing Hilton factors.
