rucksack

Malay

(But sorry, that experience sounds terrifying.)

estedman

Singapore and Thailand.

stant

I'm not sure what the confusion is - for clarity - it doesnt matter how far we have to travel to get there. the goal is to go somewhere amazing and STAY there for a while *maybe* go to one additional destination. What we DONT want is to be hopping all over the world, having to get on an airplane every three days, that sort of thing.

I know - she had reverted back to a scared little girl telling the story, that was her line and I couldn't help but repeat it.

But where, specifically? I'm hoping to get recommendations on amazing bonvoy properties that have great redemption values.

steveholt

Well, I'd be very impressed if she spoke Kuala Lumpaneese.

We just did the St. Regis Bali and found it to be wonderful. We used points + then paid a reasonable cash co-pay to upgrade to the Strand Villa, which was spectacular.

kkl

Have an upcoming EU trip booked just before devaluation

cotton house 5
Ercilla 2
maria Cristina 5
St regis florence 5
Santa marina 5
St regis Rome 3

Almost 1.3mil blown

yurtripper

Maybe she spoke Oompa Loompa instead?

But (back on topic), I'll be following Craig's advice and burning my remaining 300K points - most likely in Dubai this winter.

Imagine if all of us burn our entire points reserve, then Marriott - just to preserve it's policy of destroying customer goodwill - suddenly does a volte face and reintroduces categories with generous points bands

littlevoices

On the Maldives side, I'd say ten days max, and forget island hopping, just do one resort and then move on: I just did 8 days at the JW Marriott costing me 565k points and 12,500 USD co-pay with a beach villa. The killer of doing that for 4 times as long is that the cost per person of food/drink/entertainment can be around another USD500/night so it really adds up. I also feel you'd get bored and think that the suggestions of other dream properties, or just doing a South East Asia tour is a good one. The value of your points in SEA could be good, but as cash rates are pretty low at the moment due to the COVID recovery, you may not be getting quite good bang for your buck, but would get some great properties.

One other random suggestion to consider, is to do a roadtrip around South Africa, the Protea hotels there are points bargains, and then you could spend all that co-pay money on Safaris, there are also a lot of these hotels. This would require a healthy risk tolerance level for crime, but could be a way to make the points last a couple of months (if you can get that long away of course).

stant

If the maldives ended up being the spot it was looking like the JW would be the best bet, even though another poster suggested the ritz. In my opinion the ritz might cost more per night, but thats largely based on their name, not increased service - at least in other properties.

Would you say your opinion of the jw was overall favorable?

one question though - $500/day per person ?!?! if one wasnt doing much other than lounging by the water does that still apply, or is food and drink that expensive that you are estimating $1000/day for two? are you poppin bottles like a rap star, or is f&b just that expensive there?

TIA

rucksack

Menus are available online (e.g., Ritz, JW) so you can take a look at that to get a sense for how much you'd spend. $500/person/day isn't particularly extravagant given Maldives prices, but how much alcohol you consume is going to be a big driver of cost.

Regarding which property to pick, choosing between luxury Maldives resorts is a good problem to have. This really comes down to what you care about. You're definitely "paying for the name" to some extent with the St. Regis or Ritz, but if you're optimizing for having a once-in-a-lifetime experience you couldn't afford otherwise, it could be worth it. After all, what's an extra 20k points/night when you're traveling halfway around the world to be in the Maldives? For folks who like snorkeling or scuba, older resorts like the JW or St. Regis have more developed reefs than new resorts like the Ritz. Conversely, if you want to try a hot new resort, the Ritz is the way to go.

stant

Looking at the rooms available, i would pick the JW based only on that. I guess what my question is, what does the ritz have that the JW doesnt? is the service *any* better? Are there more amenities? That sort of thing....

littlevoices

I chose the JW over the Ritz as I could control my food spend better, we went for an all inclusive package that was about $500pp but incudes all restaurants and food options. You can definitely spend less than this, for example there was a cheaper all inclusive version for a single restaurant or just ordering cheaper dishes and sticking to water... But after a few days that would have been boring.

Activities aren't cheap either, scuba diving was about $150/dive too, and most other activities were in that price range for an hour or so, 5 tanks/dives was $750. I don't consider this to be a rip off, but best to be aware. Hence my total cost for those 8 nights worked out about $US3.5k/night, even using all those points.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like me to share more, but the JW thread has the links to the restaurant pricing so you can see the al la carte prices. To be honest part of the reason I did the all inclusive was to avoid my family, who travelled with me, deciding it was too expensive and not eating for a week. When a single meal can be over $500pp with cheap wine and expensive steak many people will change their orders which I didn't want. From what I could see of the Ritz, no packages, and meals could be getting closer to $750pp at the top restaurant with no cap. The Ritz restaurants definitely seemed nicer, but since I live in Hong Kong I don't need top priced Asian food either . The StR seems to be rated very well, but it was closed when I was travelling for a refit.

yscleo

Redeeming for 4 nights get you the 5th night free. So that's a good value to make use of.

How about a cruise in Hawaii, plus longer stays in some islands. NCL has a weekly cruise that goes from Oahu to Big Island, Maui, and Kaui.
You can stay in Waikiki for 5+ night and be able to do so much in Oahu (Pearl Harbor, Hanauma Bay, Polynesian Cultural Center, north shore, etc.).
Kona for 5+ night, including night dive/snorkel with Manta Rays, Kona coffee farm, Place of Refuge, Volcano National Park.
Kauai with helicopter ride over Napali Coast, ..