The seaplane journey is 35 minutes from MLE to the property. Our outbound flight was 9:45pm. The day prior to my checkout they sent me an email (make sure to check your email because you don’t get it anywhere else!), which told me that my bags would be collected at 3:30pm for a 4:15 seaplane transfer. They were a bit late but they brought our bags to the reception. We did the final invoicing formalities and sat inside the Latitude cafe waiting for a while. We were told that the seaplane was delayed to 4:40. There were others inside waiting as well. When it hit almost 4:40 we were told again that the seaplane was delayed until 5. They then told us that because of strong winds, the seaplane couldn’t land at the resort so we had to take a boat somewhere else to take the seaplane which was “already waiting for us”. So we all left for the dock outside the diving center and waited for maybe 10 minutes before they started loading up the luggages. By the time everyone loaded onto the boat it was probably close to 5:15. So we took off on the boat, a lot of staff waved at us including the GM as we departed.

When we got close to where the seaplane was, a lot of us were laughing as we were shocked that we were going to be taking a seaplane in the middle of the water, with it parked next to this little barge/platform. Ok cool, so the staff on the boat started asking us our room numbers (there were maybe 20 of us) and told most of the guests that they were going to be on this boat. My fiance and I were not going to be on this one they said but the next one. It took about 10 minutes or so to get everyone on the first plane’s luggage off the boat and everyone on the platform. Then another few minutes for them to get onto the plane. At this point it was maybe 5:30, maybe a bit later already. They disconnected from the platform and started repositioning for takeoff in the water. There were 5 of us (guests) left on the boat. A few moments later I turned to the left side of the boat and saw a seaplane take off - I thought this was the one that was just loaded and was waving it away. This was then that one of the other guests said our plane just took off. I thought he was joking at first. We were in the water for a bit longer and saw another seaplane take off (the one that was just loaded) and was confused at the situation. The Front Office Manager (Nafiu) was on the boat with us and after being on the phone for a bit started talking to the other couple on the boat. We started heading back to the resort. After a while he came to us and explained the situation - the pilot had taken off without us as he couldn’t wait for us any longer and the seaplane could not fly after sunset (which I didn’t know about). So he said we had to go back to the hotel and see what our options were, as we could not depart by seaplane tonight. So the 5 of us were obviously shaken, and the boat ride back was very rough.

When we got back the FOM told us that he had tried calling boat companies to see if they could have taken us to the airport but they all refused because Maldives was on “yellow alert.” He also told us the journey would take about 2 and half hours by boat. (Which I would have likely refused to do because the ride back was already extremely choppy), and we likely would have barely made it from 6pm + 2.5 hours for our 9:45pm flight.

Here in my opinion was where it went completely downhill, not because we missed our flight “because of weather”. He sat down with us to talk (Mind you, the GM was nowhere to be found when we got back). He tried to explain to us the situation, how it was no one's fault, and we had to stay the night. Because it was no one's fault, no one would be responsible for any of the costs coming off of what happened. He said that they would do everything they can to help in the situation, including giving us a “discounted rate” for the night of $400 instead of $475, and would give us free breakfast and dinner.
He was extremely fake empathetic, straight out of the “I understand where you are coming from and if I was in your shoes” line, but we did not feel it in his voice nor what he was saying
He kept repeating himself as if to make us feel that we did not understand him
His argument was “we had everything planned and had everything gone right, this wouldn’t have happened”
We went back and forth for about 40 minutes and I had to hold back on ripping him a new one. He ignored us when we asked if there was anyone else we could speak with, and he didn’t budge until the end of at least comping us the room because of what happened. I was not going to pay for the room - there were no alternatives and I felt it was the least they could do. It was like pulling teeth in order to get anything from them. In the end he told us we would get the night for free with free breakfast (no dinner). After a little while in the room however, we did get a call from the front desk and was told we would get dinner for free at Turquoise. We spent all night on hold with the airline and Amex trying to change my flight which cost a lot - and doing things like the COVID test (thank goodness we had spare BINAXnow tests), immigration forms, etc. The following morning we didn’t receive any check out instructions yet, and had to go to the front desk where they told us we would be on the 10:30 am seaplane. Mind you, this was at 9am and we wouldn’t have known otherwise. At breakfast they told us they got a call and the seaplane was delayed so we had to be in the room at 11. At breakfast we bumped into the other couple that got stuck and they told us they were placed on the 2:30pm seaplane. We got a call a bit after 10 in our room and they said there were people outside to get our bags… but we told them we were told 11 and they said OK we will come at 11. I was confused as to why they would come so early.

By the end I felt like they were vindictive - they wanted to kick me out as soon as possible. My flight was 9:45 like the day prior and they stuck me on the earliest one when the others who were stuck too were put on a later plane. Sure we got an “extra day” in the resort, but we didn’t get to do anything outside of being in the room and at Turquoise. We had also requested a letter that stated that we missed the seaplane transfer and subsequently caused us to miss our flight. They told us that they would either print it out for us if they got it in time, or email it to me. I didn’t get anything before I got to the airport. I emailed them. I bumped into the other guest that got stuck with us at the airport and she told us that she was on the 2:30pm seaplane and she got the letter printed at 12:30pm. By the time my flight left MLE, I still had not gotten the email from them so I emailed them again. After my flight back to the states, I finally had the email in my box with like 5 individuals from the hotel CC’d, including the Front Office Manager. It felt like pulling teeth to get anything from them. For the FOM, it seemed like he went with the business rule of giving as little as possible and hoping the guest would settle, and was trying to be reactive instead of proactive in trying to alleviate the issue. I strongly believe that if they had planned better (e.g. had us load into the boat earlier and quicker), we would have made it on time and not missed the seaplane. I also don’t think this was the first nor the last time this would happen.