I have talked to a couple friends about this as well but I figured some of you star alliance experts could come up with some cool/unique routes to get from Chicago - Maldives - Chicago. I ask because in the next year or two I would like to use some U.S. Air Dividend miles to fly my wife and I out there for an anniversary trip. Online I see flying Turkish Air with a stop in Istanbul as the most popular (direct) route. Also, I would imagine getting from Chicago to London/Frankfort and then flying Singapore Air (to get some a380 action) to Singapore onward to Male. Anyone have some other possible routings that would be out of the ordinary and still doable? With so many airlines, I feel like there could be some fun ways to route this.
Yes, but what about getting to Singapore and/or Istanbul from Chicago??? I feel like the possibilities are endless!
I wasn't addressing the entire question. Of the two, though, I'd rather go to Istanbul, but why not do both?
I think you mean Male not Mahe also isnt QR a US Airways partner if so ... you can also connect through DOH
Darn it! I was talking Seychelles yesterday and I have to admit I do get Male and Mahe confused unless I think about it. No, QR isn't a US Airways partner for redemption. They were a partner of United for that up until a month(ish) ago.
http://www.usairways.com/pv_obj_cac...BA280398F0000/filename/partnerawardtravel.pdf Says they are ... but they're temp unavailable. I guess pdf wasnt updated yet
Ahh, okay, I thought it was pulled when QR joined OneWorld. I missed it on the PDF. Edit: more info here -- don't think you ever could redeem?
I flew SQ to MLE when I went. From NY (or ORD), if you go via SIN, you're going more than half way around the world - so not the most efficient routing...but it is what it is, I guess. MLE is a tough, but not impossible, to get to on points. As one other idea for your arsenal, you should also consider points bookings to CMB (Columbo) and BLR (Bangalore) as alternatives, then buying a flight for the last mile to MLE. CMB/BLR - MLE flights are usually quite inexpensive. Let us know how you go.
Ah good call. I'm assuming reward flights to Columbo come by a little easier than Male'??? This is still a little while away. But part of my OCD personality, I want to have multiple plans in my pocket for when the time does arrive.
Yes,, much easier to get to CMB, eg pretty much daily reward space on TG. CMB is a cheap place to buy tickets from and it's less than 500 miles CMB-MLE. Getting award space for 2 passengers in SQ business class SIN-MLE is tough. Plus flying to SIN first from the US is really going far out of the way, it is a LOT of flying unless you're going to do a stopover. The Austrian flight is not one I ever see availability on. With oneworld you can do BA LGW-MLE (not daily)... QR gives more options. EY does as well with AA miles but they don't publish routes from many US cities to MLE and you wind up spending extra miles for the award, but availability is good. You can do CX to CMB as well. And MH is joining oneworld they fly KUL-MLE.
I have yet in more than five years of checking ever seen revenue space in business class on this flight- I think it is all booked up by (luxury) tour operators in blocks. Or perhaps it is employee class? Who knows but never found it (the flight is only 2X weekly I think?). Easiest thing is to get to CMB and then fly from there (revenue ticket from CMB).
This is the way I've always played around with routings to the Maldives (as well as other SE Asia destinations, just get me to a gateway city & then I can find generally cheaper transporation for the last small leg)
How is award space Frankfort-Singapore in SQ business class? I would assume I could fly to Frankfort (from ORD) on United or something without too much difficulty in finding rewards right? It would be a lot of flying but since I do not fly that often, I would be ok with putting in some extra hours if that meant trying a good airline for the first time. I would just need to convince my wife of that!
Just looked the fares up for my dates. Roundtrip economy class fares CMB-MLE on EK run $243-780 USD. Roundtrip business class fares on EK run $385-1054. Given the complexity of my trip, we'll just buy business class fares for that.
desamo, where did you search? I just did a quick look on expedia and nothing would show up for me in buisness or first for June of 2013 (June 10th). Only Economy
Expert Flyer, but I was looking at fares only, not availability. Sent from somewhere near an infinite loop
I'm going summer of 14. So as of right now everything is still in the brainstorming stage. I'm ideally looking using BA miles on JAL from ORD to Tokyo. If I can get enough MR points by then ill try to go on SQ first suites (lax to tky) but I'm going to need a lot to get both my wife and I in the flight. And award availability. After Tokyo. We will either do SQ from Tokyo to Male (connecting flight in Singapore) using UA miles. Or we will use the BA miles to go one world with a connection in Kuala Lumpur (doing the Malaysia Air Male flight). For the way home I would love to use American Miles to fly Qatar. Two flights: Male-Doha-Chicago. Or Ethiad would be similar but stopping in Abu Dhabi. As of now I am planning on redeeming all flights for business class. The exceptions are if I do the JAL flight from Chicago since they have only angled flat business, or if I have an opportunity to suites class. Ultimately though, I would still do economy the whole way because the Maldives seem so beautiful, but it would be nice to go in some classy style The other option I have been looking at is if I do the JAL flight to Tokyo, I could try to get on the a380 SQ flight from Tokyo to Singapore. This would be a shorter flight to enjoy suites class, but also less points. The problem with this (and is the same problem if I connect through Kuala on Malaysia Airlines) is that I would not get into Male until late, meaning I would need to overnight in Male. Not the end of the world but I would prefer to get straight to the nice hotels. The other idea I have on getting my butt in suites class is to try to get on the San Fran-Hong Kong or San Fran-Seoul (which I have read has better availability) and getting a flight from there to Tokyo. The things I'd do to get that experience. Am I crazy? As I said, this is still in the planning stage. This will be my first reward redemption(s) so I still have a lot of work. I am just trying to think of different options and make sure I'm acquiring the points accordingly. Obviously, award space is also a huge factor. I have never searched for award space and am worried about lining everything up. The final piece of this is that I was going to do 8 days in the Maldives. 4 nights at the Hyatt Maldives using the two free nights from the chase hyatt card for my wife and I. Then we were going to do an AXON award at the Conrad Maldives. With the recent changes in Hilton. That throws a curveball in as well. Sorry for the long winded response MrRedskin
Korean Air is now an option: http://www.routesonline.com/news/29...anka-maldives-service-launch-from-march-2013/
