lancasteruk

I've been lurking on this forum for a couple of days now and have finally gone for it and booked the trip! FRA-DOH-CMB-MLE-CMB-DOH-FRA
I've never flow long-haul business before, so to say that I'm looking forward to it would be an understatement!
Anyone else flying this route on July the 18th by any chance?

omk298

It turns out I spoke too soon. After many calls to Sri Lankan (and several to Lloyds) I am stuck with am unticketed reservation. They have the money, but won't ticket it until they have a confirmation from the bank. The bank say they don't send emails to companies, they've got the money so they should sort it out.

Anyone got any ideas?

To make matters worse the same transaction appears twice on my credit card statement, but Sri Lankan say they only have one lot of money.

xhemp

Welcome lancasteruk! You will love the trip, I really enjoyed it.


That's weird, I never heard of it. What kind of "confirmation" UL need? If the transaction is showing up on your credit card, I have no idea what else they are waiting for to ticket this.
And if you've been charged twice, just chargeback one of them.
Very weird the entire situation

omk298

I'm not too bothered by the double charge - I'll get one back without too much trouble (although it's used up most of my credit limit). I want to get the flights ticketed, but I've no idea how to! I've never heard of anything like this, and neither has the bank. The airline say it's fraud prevention, but it doesn't seem to work. They say they've sent a message (or possibly an email) to Lloyds and need one back confirming the transaction is genuine.

cgtechuk

The proof I send in when I was asked was simply a credit card statuement with the transaction on it that was tedious but never the less adequate

mhaines94108

I'd do this trip in a heartbeat, but what's the point of getting to Male on the cheap if you then have to pay several hundred dollars per night for accomodation? I've always wanted to go to Male, but have always been scared off by costs once there.

xhemp

I didn't stay on any resort, stayed in Maafushi in a hotel called Crystal Sands. Very simple but with loads of activities (snorkelling, fishing, night fishing, etc) and with a fun bikini beach to go to.
It was cheap and VERY pleasant. So much I want to do it again very soon.

Exactly what cgtechuk said, this is what I did with QR (not UL) on the sushi fare, had to send them a credit card statement and they accepted it as proof. Ask UL if the same will do.

omk298

Thanks for the suggestion. Will try that on my next phone call to them.

cgtechuk

You can also expand on this a little if you dont want to spend all the time in Malé you can add a stop over in Sri Lanka then travel onto Malé for part of your trip I believe the stopover adds £100 to the fare and nets you two countries to explore on the same trip but hotels are cheap there its the resorts that arent

omk298

Didn't have a chance to phone them last night, this morning I've been emailed the tickets. Very odd, but sorted now.

Next job: get the duplicate payment back...

mhaines94108

It's the speedboat ride from Male to Maafushi that kills it. $30-50 per person, five people minimum. Not even any Avios or Tier Points or EQD I'm figuring $250 x 2 ways = $500. On one level, I can afford it. On another level, the reason I can afford it is because it drives me insane to be gouged like that, and so I don't do it.

xhemp

It really depends, when I arrived, I was waiting for the public ferry then a guy was offering a private ride, paid 20 USD.
On the way back, paid 10 also with a private ride (with a big boat) so if you are lucky, you don't have to pay all that.
These guys here: https://icomtours.com/

mhaines94108

I pulled the trigger. I got
Dec 16: FRA-DOH-CMB-MLE
Dec 20: MLE-CMB
Dec 23: CMB-DOH-FRA

Interestingly ExpertFlyer shows two fares for this trip in Biz on Sri Lankan (UL): IQ6MDE and IQ6MDE6. The difference is that the first has one free stopover in CMB and a second one at +100 euros. The second charges 250 euros for the stopovers in CMB.

Orbitz and the Sri Lankan web sites priced it at +250 euros, but Expedia gave me the free stopover. So I paid $1620/1447 euros total.

My BA Tier Point collection year begins on Aug 9th, and with this ticket I'll have 2840 Tier Points booked and paid for through Jan 14th, 2018. I just need to find another 2160 Tier Points to get to GGL. I have three trips planned from Romania to the US before Aug 2018, so I have a good shot at it.

SwissBritMiss

You do know that locals live in the Maldives and need to get around too, right?

For a short distance such as Maafushi, the ferry which costs less than $4 each way will get you there in under 2 hours. Route 306 for example, though Maafushi is well-served.

http://www.mtcc.com.mv/content/compr...nsport-network

For longer distances, public speedboats will also exist and may be in the $25 range for mid of Ari atoll.

cgtechuk

This. Maldives can be a terrible tourist trap and the locals know it

Accommodation is cheaper if you avoid resorts also and use the public beaches