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+?