littlejimmy112

Hey all,

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this type of question...

I'm trying to get to the Maldives (three people). The cheapest I can find is about $2700 on SQ. Alternative is 80K miles for Y, 120K for C (on *A).

For the moment I snagged three Y awards tickets on SQ (the executive economy flight) to SIN, which seams like a pretty good value, and figured I could find a flight from SIN-MLE (Male airport) pretty cheap. To my surprise, the cheapest I can find is around $700.

This seems rediculously high to me, and was curious if anyone has some brilliant insight on a cheaper way to get there?

littlejimmy112

Hey all. Sorry, I didn't state my last post correctly. While it would be great if someone knows of a cheap fare that gets me where I'm trying to go, I guess what I'm really after is can anyone point me towards some resources for finding good intra-Asia fares? I don't have much experience with that part of the world and most of the sites/tools I'd usually try seem to focus on flights to/from North America or Europe.

Thanks again!

pvs001d

For intra-Asia you should look at LCC such as AirAsia, Tiger Airways, etc. However, these don't fly to Maldives. And I doubt that you will find anything cheaper from SIN. You might look at fares from Middle East (DXB, Doha) or ShriLanka, but then you need to figure out how to get there instead of SIN.

liquid

Are you a gambling man littlejimmy112? I checked some sample dates for Mihin Lanka (Sir Lankan Government owned airline) from SIN to MLE and came up with sub $500 fares. (http://www.mihinlanka.com).

Alternatively, you could try getting a seperate flight from SIN to CMB and then to MLE. I know Emirates flies the CMB-MLE route. One other option is getting to Trivandrum (TRV) and hopping a flight from there to MLE. I recall that flight only being a couple hundred bucks, return.

Don't forget that you will also be spending a boat load of cash in the Maldives.

Lastly, you didn't mention where you were originating fon the ???-SIN flight. There might be some options from there.

pschafer

It all depends where you originate from xxx-SIN-MLE on SQ should not be that much more than xxx-SIN but since you did not say where xxx is. Doing a separate SIN-MLE will be expensive if you want a non-stop. Flight times on SQ ex-SIN / ex-MLE are not particularly convenient either - adding cost for additional nights / day use rooms in MLE.

As others said - the Maldives are very expensive - everything is in USD but these days that is a bit of a help depending on your home currency.

tinkybelle

malaysian goes to male.

if u need help pm me

SanDiego1K

I'd buy an upgradeable fare to SIN and upgrade it with SWUs, thus earning miles. SAN-SIN is roughly $1300 RT. Then I'd book an award ticket from SIN-MLE on SQ using my UA points.

littlejimmy112

All --

Thanks for all the input so far! Sorry I forgot, starting LAX. Will definitely explore the options.

As for Maldives being pretty spendy, I'm rapidly finding that out! But, I've heard the Conrad Rengali is beautiful, and all of us going have more than enough HH points... same is true for SIN and any other stopovers.

Found a CMB-MLE on Emirates for $214... though it adds a lot of time to the trip out, we figure we can spend a day there and check out another city on the way . The UA site doesn't list Maldives, but the consensus here seems to be that it's considered Central Asia. So, current thought is SQ to CMB for 60K miles than the $214 Emirates ticket the rest of the way.

Am I correct that (assuming I WASN'T going to use SWUs), I'd probably be happier in SQ executive economy than UA E+?

jpatokal

I was going to suggest booking your Maldives hotel via a travel agent in Singapore, who can get you deeply discounted seats... but that's not an option if you're burning hotel points.

One tip: if looking for cheap fares on SQ, always specify 2 (or 3) people when searching. SQ rarely does discounts for single travellers, but two-or-more person discounted "GV2" fares are very common.

SanDiego1K

You can use your award ticket from LAX to CMB for the same mileage as to SIN. As a 1K, you can change your award ticket with no fee.

littlejimmy112

Again thanks for the help and advice!

Has anyone been to the Maldives? Or (what I'm really asking) why is it so expensive?

FlyerBeek

Don't forget to look into business fares on Emirates CMB-MLE. They are usually a bagain, even on such a short flight, at only $50 more.

I actually wouldn't recommend this (unless you have a ton of UA miles you otherwise have no use for), since UA considers the Maldives as "Central Asia" you'll need to redeem 40k/60k (Y/J) miles for this short 4hr flight (with a pretty bad return time). Flying to CMB, or purchasing tickets from (SIN, KUL, or BKK) seem to offer a far better value.

-FlyerBeek

michaelr

If you want to fly the other way around, Condor (a German charter) has sometimes Euro 99 specials Franfurt-Male.

Check this page frequently for specials (none right now for Male though). Link

littlejimmy112

Ok, what I've got at this point is LAX-SIN-CMB on SQ for miles (60k/thinking of getting C) then $271 on Emirates (thanks for the $50 business class tip!). Definitely the long way, but given that an award seat to Maldives is 80/120K, the $274 seems a reasonable alternative.

Figure I'll keep looking between now and June for a better way to get there. Thanks for all the tips, and anyone that might have more advice I greatly appreciate it all!

estnet

it's so expensive..... because they can

Each resort is on its own island and has you held captive for meals, etc. You can't just eat somewhere else so they can charge whatever they want for food (and apparently for rooms). As long as people pay ....well ....

It is really beautiful and I guess a lot of people are willing to pay since they keep building new and more expensive island/resorts.

Don't forget if you are going to the Conrad that 1 - reward rooms are hard to get even if you have the points and
2- you have to pay for the seaplane from MLE to the island about a 20 minute (VERY loud) ride around $300/pp with strict luggage wt restrictions.