Atacama40

All on points yes. Dropped insanely lucky I think and unlikely be repeated any time soon. Mind I waited a long long time and cashed a lot of hard earned stops and work trips for this one off. 1.9 million!

And yes that's the impression I got as well. We have a some days in Fujairah and Dubai moving on EK before moving Maldives and like you very much get the impression that from a safety point of view. Their procedures seem as good if not better than anyone's and the hotels and authorities in Dubai also treating it very professionally.

Yes have to confess I've never done island travel or stops ... a lot of years of everywhere/everything but bar Mauritius and Phu Quoc (not really islands) I've never done anything like Maldives. It's a whole new learning curve for me ... weight allowances, movement limitations, dress code. And exactly as you say a controlled environment. You paint a very attractive picture. Looking forward to this one.

Atacama40

Is good advice and I have very limited to no knowledge on this location. So the upgraded 1 B/R units don't have sunset view but the smaller ones do ... is that right? And that the O/W villa has sunset and non sunset options?

Any other highs/lows/must knows you can think of for this location? Trying learn as much as I can to make the very best of the stay. Thanks

eltoddo22

There are 1 bedroom lagoon villas with sunset view but I don't know if you can get it from award booking because that would be upgrading category by 3 levels. Perhaps you could try negotiating if that's your preference.

Dolphin tour is good and worth the 75++ price tag. There is great snorkeling on north side of island between fitness center and spa. Tip the bartenders good

The one cost that will add up over 20 days is dinner. The evening digestifs are not really enough to cover dinner. If you are budget conscious then you might pack snacks like cup noodles otherwise dinner for 2 will set you back upwards of $150 or more per night. I think it's definitely worth doing Lighthouse / Fish market each at least once when there. Some times we'd just eat by bar (Cafe Umi) and order pizza (only available Italian night) or the butter chicken. I met a lot of people there who were on "Half board" (breakfast, dinner included) and "Full board" packages (breakfast, lunch, dinner). I didn't ask how much these packages cost but imagine it must be quite expensive. Definitely alot of rich people coming here who give no f***'s as to price.

Atacama40

Sound advice, thanks for that.

Agree your take. Worse again we have time in M.E before Maldives so you right, the food thing can get a little heavy and will ... calorie wise and in monetary terms. We do tend rotate club lounge and going out. It works for us pretty well.

The half board and full board packages were way above my pay grade but pressure is taken off a bit given we have paid zilch for accommodation and major flights. That said I think we will still take the same approach as you.

And when you say the food offering in lounge is a bit thin, what is the typical evening offering? Sometimes that's enough when you drowning breakfast and afternoon tea :-)

I got the impression the afternoon tea looked quite full but do they rotate content.

Thanks for the experience and advice

eltoddo22

Evening digestif usually consists of cheese and a light hors d'oeuvres. Like probably 200-300 calories. I think club access at other Intercontinental's usually comes with much larger portion for evening digestif. But here you are stuck at the resort and they really want you going to restaurants for dinner.

Afternoon tea is usually enough whereas I wouldn't need lunch. The breakfast is amazing and I usually found myself overeating in the morning. You can also ask for nuts/chips at the bar and that's a nice snack.

Atacama40

And in fairness it sounds a nice model if a little more costly for us. Dine first then two hours at lounge for drinks 8-10. Quite like the sound of that and as you say ... works as we are captive. I can live with that.

Many thanks again for filling in the detail. Is a real help. Cheers

lchan1982

Sorry but I’m getting a bit confused. So booking with points still includes breakfast right?

Atacama40

I believe so yes. The resort is all club which includes breakfast. Mind having just looked at the res, I can see no explicit mention. I will ask about that and come back to you.

lchan1982

Thanks!!

Atacama40

Hi again. I checked wit hotel and Ambassador and definitely yes it's included as are all the other Club Resort benefits .... afternoon tea, snacks, drinks during day and normal club lounge package in the evening.

Atacama40

and part 3 of the video...

Concerto

Come on guys, you're on Flyertalk! There's a bunch of frequent flyer lurkers gagging for news about the flight to the hotel! How was the flight?

Is it an "airline" that is contracted for servicing the resorts, or does each property organise its own flights with a private operator? And if so, are there any safety concerns? Is there any service on board? And do the flights have numbers and their own operator code?

Great thread, by the way.

Atacama40

These guys seem to have the major bases covered including the IC ....

https://www.transmaldivian.com/

soy

Not sure if this is a wind up as you have many posts and I expect many on FT are familiar with the set-up at the Maldives, but will answer anyways

Its basically a monopoly for flights. Most all the resorts have contracts with https://www.transmaldivian.com/ and everything is booked through the resort unless you want to fly private. Planes are all DHC Twin Otter sea planes. There is no service on board and little remarkable other than the thrill of flying on a sea plane with a captain that is barefoot. There are no safety concerns, they charge enough that they do not have to take short cuts (monopoly), and in any case if it ever came to light that they were risking safety, their business would be toast, as Maldives nation could not tolerate such risk to the tourism industry

Concerto

That is so interesting, thank you so much for the information and link. I have never before researched in such detail about a trip to the Maldives, I had considered it far too expensive for what is offered and somehow I didn't want to support what is a fairly hard-line government there. But the place is unique in the world and we, as travellers, should all try to get there at some point.

I would be happy to dump some of my huge number of points at the IC there. Even at an inflated 100,000 points it is a good use of those points. One question that hasn't been posed here is, how does the Holiday Inn compare? At 45,000 points it's a lot less. I am guessing that no food and drink is included, unlike the "club" like nature of the redemption at the IC.

Actually, the seaplane transfer would be an interesting part of the trip for me and would definitely be something to be enjoyed - especially given the cost. I had no idea about Trans Maldivian. I think it's important to remember that, at its base and origin, this was and is a frequent flyer forum. So a side comment about the plane transfer is not out of place because it connects directly to the hotel/resort in question.