LHR to CMB/MLE to LHR - Flight planning help required

Afternoon Everyone,

Having been a long time stalker and recently receiving some great help on a upcoming trip to the USA from the forum; I find myself stuck again trying to work out plans for my honeymoon next May/June.

My partner and I are looking at LHR to CMB (10 days), CMB to MLE (10 days) then MLE to LHR. We have circa 150,000 Avios (and growing) and an Amex 2-4-1 voucher. If possible we'd like to fly F both legs, but from my initial research BA doesn't fly direct to CMB therefore we'd need to fly into either BOM or SIN, then onto CMB with a separate carrier. Before flying back out from MLE to LHR.

So couple of questions if I may:

Are my initial thoughts correct and if so are BOM or SIN the best route to go?

Flexible on dates but so far have looked at the following.

Outbound: 28/5/18
Inbound: 18/6/18

Cheers
Bonzo

Btw there are some daytime flights to BOM if you don't want to sleep through a premium cabin experience.

MLE flights are to/ from Gatwick and you may/ may not get a refurbished B772.

Thanks, if possible we'll get day flights out, not too fussed for return leg.

Another option is Shanghai. The one way flight to MLE on Sri Lankan, with stopover in CMB is about the same as from SIN at around 500 GBP per person for business class (cheaper of course from BOM). No visa needed if your routing is LHR-PVG-CMB-MLE-LGW and your stay in Shanghai is less than 144 hours.

HKG also works (and would allow first on the 380 - but availability may be harden to pin down), with the HKG-CMB-MLE fare on Sri Lankan a bit higher at 540 GBP per person.

Thanks Gin, looking at all viable options. But trying to keep the itinerary simple as possible, and get the most value from the 2-4-1.

How about using the voucher for LHR-AUH in F? It's the 789 new F which I've flown a few times and like.

LHR-AUH-CMB-MLE-AUH-LHR

No problem - Don't forget though that you have to balance Avios cost with the 2-4-1 value ... BOM is zone 6, PVG and HKG are zone 7, and SIN is zone 8 (so for SIN you get the most value - but also requires the most Avios outlay ...).

Have you seen the ex-FRA cheapo fare that combines Qatar Airways and Sri Lankan? Not sure if it can be extended to MLE but could be an extremely pleasant TP run as well as a honeymoon. You won't get any value out of the 241 whatsoever, but it could still be the cheapest overall option.

Yes, MLE is possible with stops in DOH and CMB. Yields 640TPs for ~£1200.

You could also fly to MLE and take a flight to CMB - it is just an hour or so from MLE if I recall and there are some inexpensive fares. If simplicity is the order of the day, it might be worth it.

We redeemed a 2-4-1 GLA-LHR-DXB return summer 2015. Plenty of availability to DXB in summer.
Then after a couple of days in Dubai used Sri Lankan DXB-CMB-MLE return. I was very impresssed with them.

Direct flight to MLE and then hoping over to CMB and back seems to be the simplest option so far. Also looking at the cheap Qatar flights.

Thanks all for the advise so far.

Yesh doing this with Mrs Nivsy next year...it's a cracker! 😁