I went to mle via sin. Though nonstop from NYC to sin wasn't operated when I went, it is now. Against that, any sin or bkk or HKG routing from NYC to mle is going more than half way around the world. Certainly not an efficient routing. You might search for award tickets to cmb, then pay the last leg. There is regular and inexpensive service between cmb and mle, and I've found awards into cmb to be much easier on the Gcc carriers (versus mle awards). When I next go, i suspect that this will be the way I go. As to intra-Maldives transit, you're (or they're) not going there (or they shouldn't be, at least) to island hop (or atoll hop?). Pick one hotel and go there. Take a half day boat excursion from your hotel to Malé proper, but that's really it. I stayed at the FS-kh there. There was a charge for the city excursion; I don't recall if there was a charge for the airport transfer. Either way, it wouldn't be a sum worth quibbling over. The property, btw, was wonderful. ***** It is very nice of you to do this for your son! This was also my points-funded honeymoon location some years ago, and it still rings warm in my heart. I'm sure your son and daughter-in-law will have an equally wonderful time. Now for the bigger question....what hotel?
They're still researching hotels. Poor kids, they're actually going to pay for a room. They want to stay at each place for about 7 days. I think 14 days at the beach is crazy, but it's not my honeymoon.
Gcc = Gulf Cooperation Council. A slightly more polite way to say "middle east," and importantly, a way to narrow the focus to the the six member states on the Persian gulf, and excluding Jordan/Syria, etc. (Though notably, jordan and morocco are in various stages of joining.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperation_Council_for_the_Arab_States_of_the_Gulf I was really suggesting checking emirates, Etihad and gulf air. I know emirates flies to cmb (and mle), and ive found good reward availability. I think the other two do, too, but am not sure. If they're going for 14 days, then, yes, I could see one hotel transfer being reasonable. The hotels can be quite spread out...and depending on the property, might require a boat ride back to the airport, then a new boat ride to the new property. I recall the boat ride from mle to the FS-kh was over 30 minutes. Might have been an hour. I think some of the newer properties even move you by sea plane now because they are so far from' mle, though I'm not 100% sure on this either. Best way to describe my 10 day stay (at one hotel there) was "Robinson crusoe with room service."
YEP! Sheraton is most reasonable. Also a award to CMB then grabbing the daily Emirates shuttle between CMB to MLE ($350RT in FIRST SUITE) is a good way in
Strictly speaking it's EK first class, but not sure it's usually operated by an aircraft with a suite?
Update: 2 CX business tickets booked through AA. JFK/YVR/HKG/PEN. The return PEN/BKK/ICN/JFK . Flying in business on Thai PEN/BKK and OZ BKK/ICN/JFK. A total of 2 calls. One to AA and one to UA for a total of 30 minutes. I got the dates they wanted without any problems. They're still working out the details of PEN/MLE. They may fly PEN/CMB and CMB/MLE. A relatively short flight becomes 19 hours with connections. There are enough combinations between PEN/CMB/SIN/MLE to make you nuts. USAirways didn't have award tix available between these oddball combinations. Award availability on SIN was not an option.
Updated again AA miles - CX JFK/HKG/BKK/CMB in C. UA miles - TK CMB/BKK in C. OZ BKK/ICN/JFK in C. They'll purchase CMB/MLE/CMB.
This is operated by EK at present on a 330. It will not be suites. But, for only about $100 more than y on this route, you can be in f. While only a 1 hour flight, seems like worth splurging on to me!
Guys, a slightly unrelated question here. Anyone has experience finding availability for the SIN-MLE flight for 2 persons in business? I've been scouring the award availability of the flight using KVS and it seems that SQ is releasing at most 1 seat in C for each flight. Should I go ahead and reserve that seat (through US Air) and pray that they will open up more inventory in the future?
It's a 4 hour flight. I'd do one seat in business, one in economy, and then pay to change/redeposit the economy ticket if business opens up later. There's a good chance more will open later though unlikely right away. They will very occasionally have more than 1 seat at a time available, but it's usually just one at a time. I'm actually in a similar boat myself right now -- I have 1 business award booked, hoping a second one opens, I'm using SQ miles so I've waitlisted the second ticket. Travel is about 8 months off, and the one award booked is the only seat taken in the business cabin currently.
I'd hate to book an economy ticket when business is only 5k miles more but I guess that might be the only way forward given by inflexible dates. Intend to leave on the 22nd of July and it's showing 1 C and 1 Y seat left. Seems like only 7/30 seats are taken upfront so hopefully (cross fingers), more availability would show up soon. I'd be sure to check every 8 hours! Now to book the Hilton Iru Fushi .. Thanks for your tips!
i gues the alternative would be just to book the 1 business seat... and be willing to buy an economy seat later if business doesn't open up.
Or even buy one business class seat, either now if there's a good fare or later if necessary, although you'd have to watch loads and fares carefully. It's not that long of a flight and it's a (admittedly luxurious) leisure route, although SQ can be surprisingly expensive and seems to take pride in setting its fares above the competition.
At the $3k (!!) roundtrip they're quoting on my dates, I'd even be tempted to do an SQ double miles award, I'd still be getting 3 cents a mile which ain't great, but . . .
Question, Eric and soon to be wife will arrive BKK on the redeye. They have an entire day to spend in BKK before departing ICN/JFK. Will they be able to use the lounge after they land (since they're technically transiting BKK)? They'll spend the day in the city. Will they have to pay the departure tax at BKK since they'll have passed through immigration?
They should be able to use the lounge based on their BKK-ICN flight. In most countries, exiting the airport requires payment of any departure fees and taxes paid in cash at the airport, but if this is normally already included as a fee with the ticket, one doesn't pay more unless (unlikely) the airport at some stage looks closely at all of the codes in the ticket when one re-enters the airport. Since their connection time seems to be less than 24 hours, I would assume that any BKK departure fees and taxes have not been rolled into the ticket price.
I Went to maldives via Singapure and went back with emirates via Dubai, then US all with star alliance
Both times I have booked a trip to MLE on points I booked about 6-8 months in advance, and made it technically a "round the world" trip, but only had to redeem point levels for a regular return trip by using stopover allowances and availability based stopovers, once adding a European stop in, the second time stopping in SIN then again in ZA. If I am ever able to get Business on SQ I am shocked... but it does happen occasionally. The upcoming trip is IAH-LAX UA First, TG Business LAX-BKK, SQ Business BKK-SIN, 2 nights stopover in SIN, Sin Business SIN-MLE for 9 nights at the Conrad, SQ Coach MLE-SIN, SQ Coach SIN-JNB for 3 nights (I paid for SAA Air to CPT, points at the Hilton Cape Town), then SAA Business JNB-JFK, spend the day in Manhattan, then UA First EWR-IAH. In my experience, SQ will only open one reward seat at a time, when I called the Plat Desk the CO Agent has booked one seat then another would open up, on the upcoming trip I was able to score a few SQ business legs for two pax, the 2011 trip I had 3 seats but all in coach on the SQ legs. Last March I used CO miles to fly IAH-FRA in LH first (Amaaazing on the 747, just before they converted to the new bed and seat first class. We stopped over at FRA and drove down to Rome and back (Stayed at the Cavalieri for 4 nights, so so hotel with an awesome view), then took LH first from FRA to SIN, again solidifying my opinion that LH first is the best First product Ive ever flown on. We then flew SQ coach to MLE, and connected via sea plane to the Conrad Maldives for 7 nights on HHonors points (no comp diamond upgrade, offered a pay $400 a night upgrade to next level beach villa or over water villa, we chose not to, and it was still awesome) after the sea plane ride back to MLE we flew SQ Coach back to SIN, spent the day in SIN checking out the botanical gardens, then flew OZ Business to ICN, spent the day wandering around ICN and took transit into the city, then flew OZ Buziness ICN-LAX which was good, but the equipment didn't have the quadra samarium, still great service and good food (I chose the korean options). We then flew CO LAX-IAH and home in first, feeling more than ever the inferiority of US Airlines (even tho I still love CO).
