WillSkiGT

Data point from 12 months ago, but it was ~$256/pp for AI last Christmas. Non-Globalist on points stay.

dval44

Anyone have experience arriving early morning on a red eye? My flight from AUH lands around 6am.

Reading that the first plane out to Kooddoo is 11am.

Not really wanting to spend 5 hours in the MLE contract lounge. thanks!

platbrownguy

Seems like a bad time to land. I heard another guest was on a 6:05 a.m. flight (and, come to think of it, I was offered the choice between 6:05 a.m. and 11 a.m., and went with 11). But you're not going to be in MLE early enough for the early flight. Obviously schedules change (though I think these planes, which are real planes, have much stabler schedules than they let on)... hope for a schedule change!

Gioventu

imm2b

ronbo83

shuuy

For a 2pm departure to SIN the hotel was suggesting to leave the hotel at 5am (speed boat / check-in / turboprop / luggage / check-in / your flight). So I cut the stay short by one night, and taking the last departure out to spend one night in Hulhumale

platbrownguy

That sounds like especially unfortunate timing, particularly given that the hotel keeps itself an hour ahead of Male time... they wanted you out 10 hours before your flight to SIN! Seems like 4.5-6 hours is more normal.

dval44

Thanks. What time does the early morning flight leave? In fact, what time are any of the flights? How is one supposed to know when is a "bad time to land" if there are no posted schedules? Thanks.

platbrownguy

The Male/Kooddoo transfer was the least desirable part of our PH Maldives trip. Wife & I overnighted in Male (stayed at the Somerset Hotel, not the inn, it was a very acceptable 3-star property). We actually enjoyed our afternoon in Male, took about a 3-hour walk around town and the weather was perfect. But the airport schlep & prop & boat & waiting were no fun. They even made us check out of the hotel at 8:15 a.m. to get across to the airport by 9 for our 11 a.m. prop flight -- I probably could have pushed back but didn't want to mess with it. It was better on the way back, left the PH at 5:30 p.m. or so (4:30 Male time) for a 9-something p.m. UL flight to CMB, and in fact almost ended up missing the UL flight because of air traffic congestion in MLE of all things! (the EY A380 was landing and I guess they cleared the skies for a while)

All that to say, if you do end up having a wait, you should be able to schedule a walking tour of Male really really easily so you aren't stuck waiting at the contract lounge for more than an hour. It's a pretty miserable lounge, although the massages were reasonably priced and quite decent for a chair (back or foot) massage. Wifi speed seemingly dropped by half every time a new guest came in the door.

You can try looking up schedules here: https://maldivian.aero/

These were accurate for September-ish and appear still to be accurate now. But I think all the warning messages are because Maldivian probably cancels/condenses flights the day before if there isn't enough load to run all the scheduled flights, and perhaps they nudge flight times up or down by an hour if and when they do that.

Gioventu

imm2b

platbrownguy

Assuming there is a 1:55pm flight, you would almost certainly be on it. Folks who came in on the redeye from DOH at 9:00am were always on the 11:00am flight to GKK.

Jcnyc

Just spent a wonderful time at the resort! Booked with points and upgraded to the water villa for the last night. Made friends with my personal host and magicallyi got upgraded to the sunset water in the end. Am only a discoverist member so definiteyl. not because of my status. Nevertheless, that room was one fo the most amazing places I've ever stayed in and probably should have just upgraded the other two nights as well. Went to a few other places in the Maldives, as well as a dive liveaboard and must say that the beach and water on Hadahaa were the most intense colors I saw on my trip. From a nature perspective, gotta say the Park Hyatt is one fo the most naturally stunning places I've seen.

We did not prepay for any of the meal plans but went completely a la carte. We paid to eat the big breakfast and skipped lunch. We skipped breakfast the last day as we wanted to enjoy as much of the water villa as we could. Had a few cocktails before dinner and had a regular dinner at both restaraunts. Paid $700 for two people for three days after tax and tip. If you plan on eating all three meals and drinking 5+ drinks a day, then the premium all inclusive package probably makes sense. Wrote a long review with lots of pics, and drone footage here:

canyonleo

@Jcnyc
I agree, I had nine nights in that room (#51) and it is to date (I'm in my 50s, been traveling all my life) my favorite hotel room experience ever. And, as an obsessed scuba/free-diver (over 1000 dives I might guess) the experience of walking down the villa stairs and swimming that reef (saw six different small sharks in 12 minutes my last day) was amazing.