Hi,

Planning a trip to Maldives next April but was hoping to combine my trip with another location in Asia.

I think it is ideal to fly to Maldives from Hong Kong because of the rates, but we been there a few time and was hoping to avoid stopping over in HK. Is that possible is cost efficient

Flying out of: LAX
Family member: 2 adult, 2 kids (6 and 4)

Points: 200K AA
Chase: 160K (obviously transferable to Avios or United)

Is there any layover or stoppover location in Asia that makes it easy to get to or from Maldives?

I don't mind paying the flight to Asia (its relatively cheap in April - $600 +/-)

HELP!!!!

I'm not sure I completely understand your question - are you looking for advice on how to get award tickets to Asia or within Asia, and in which class of service?

But anyway, a couple of places in Asia that are interesting and relatively close to the Maldives are Sri Lanka and Dubai.

I believe Sri Lanka is the closer of the two, and you can get very cheap flights from there to the Maldives. It's very culturally interesting and has all sorts of cultural destinations and natural beauty to take in, including some nice beaches just several hours drive from its capital of Colombo (which actually is nothing special), from which you'd fly to the Maldives.

Traveling with two young kids, though, you might prefer Dubai. It's bizarre in some ways, sterile in others, but in terms of some of its glitz, shopping malls and tourist orientation it's also kind of like Disneyland comes to the Middle East. It's very safe, very modern, very efficient, great infrastructure, far more compact than Sri Lanka, and the food is very hygienic. It has beaches as well, though not as nice as those in Sri Lanka. It might well have more stuff to easily do with the kids.

So, for a more culturally interesting and scenic experience, Sri Lanka. For an easier and perhaps more kid-friendly experience, Dubai.

By the way, you can probably also get relatively cheap flights to the Maldives from other Middle Easter locales such as Doha and Abu Dhabi, but they don't have nearly as much stuff going on as Dubai does.

One more ME destination I've read good things about is Oman, but I don't know much about it and am not sure about flights from there to the Maldives.

Finally, if you're looking for a fun place to visit that is actually easier than Sri Lanka in terms of tourist infrastructure and great hotels at any pricepoint, but more interesting than Dubai in terms of culture, beaches and scenery, I'd highly recommend Thailand. But it's not close to the Maldives.

Happy trails!

Sorry if i wasn't clear. What i was trying to do was to go to add an additional Country to my trip to Maldives.

Initially i had Hong Kong in mind because going to HKG from LAX was about $550 each.

Then I book HKG to Maldvies Round trip using Avios. However, we been to HKG a few time so i was hoping to find another country to extend my trip.

I am willing to use points or cash depending on the best value.

There are flights from BKK, SIN, and maybe KUL so those are the obvious choices. You could also do a trip to CMB. There are other great fares to Asia - not just HKG so wouldn't let that dictate it. Also, as Maldives is expensive why fret over the small extra for the flight. Better to focus on getting a grate rate for the resort. Lastly, you might be better off visiting another place -e.g. Palawan in the Philippines. Cheaper and easier.

Ok, helps to know that. How many more days would you have for the non-Maldives part of the trip? If just a few, then Bangkok or Singapore would be my recommendations -with Bangkok being more interesting but Singapore being easier. If more, then I'd definitely opt for Thailand, adding a beach destination to Bangkok.

SIN with SQ (possibly via star alliance)

also via mideast, like EY