Originally Posted by
mcello77
We are booked for a stay at the W on March 20th and I have no idea what to do at this point. It is hard for me to trust they will actually be open and ready for us and we do not want to stay at the JW at all. We chose the W over the St. Regis and Ritz at the time because the point redemption was cheaper (not by much) and we liked the vibe. As of today, the point redemptions for the other two properties have gone way up. For a 5 night stay including a free night, the St. Regis is 572k and the Ritz is 648k. Back when we booked they were each over 100k less. I never thought the W would be delayed in reopening for this long. I can't help but feel slighted if I bite the bullet and use more points to switch, given we could have just booked at the cheaper rate months ago. If we take the risk and stay, it could get pushed back again and then possibly have to pay even more points for St. R or Ritz, or they might even be sold out. This has left us with such a bad taste in our mouths over what was supposed to be a dream trip.
W Maldives management told me they could change my reservation to the JW, which I accepted. It has been over a week since I told them I was okay with the change, but I still have not received a response, so I just canceled my late February W reservation and made a reservation at the JW. Any reason why people are so opposed to the JW? We would have preferred to make a reservation at the St. Regis, but like you said, the rates are much higher now. Even for the JW, we had to pay 50k more points than our original W rate. The St. Regis looks nicer than the W, but it seems you will be paying more out of pocket than at the JW. For example, the scuba diving rates at the St. Regis are twice as much as the JW for ultimately the same experience.