Maldives Vacation - Need SPG Points Quickly...
 

Hi everyone,

I was able to get good flights to the Maldives from May 31 - June 5, and now I've moved onto figuring out the hotel situation.

I'm looking for tips & tricks on the best way to stay in the Maldives FlyerTalk-style ...awesome hotels for points or for big discounts.

Here's my mileage balances right now:
Marriott - 220K Points / Platinum Status
AA - 200K Miles / Platinum Status
Hilton - 45K Points (no status)
Hyatt - 32K Points (no status)
Priority Club - 5K Points (no status)
SPG - 0 points / no status


Unfortunately, Marriott has nothing to offer in the Maldives, so Platinum status is useless for this trip. It seems Starwood has the best offerings of the major hotel chains plus 1 Hyatt and 2 Hiltons.

We've always been open to staying at multiple hotels to leverage all of our points, but given how expensive the transportation / flights ($400-500 roundtrip per person) are between the hotels & airport, we're thinking that staying in 1 hotel is the best option.

We're leaning towards the SPG route, and asking for a platinum status match. I have 4 hotel nights scheduled this month that I could transfer over to SPG instead of Marriott.

Even if I get my SPG Platinum status, I need to get some points pretty quickly in there. Any ideas (credit card sign up bonuses, bank accounts etc.) to fill-up that account quickly?

The other option was the 2-night Hyatt Credit Card from Chase, although I have already signed up for the Marriott and Continental card last month :)

Would appreciate feedback / suggestions on the best hotel award method to stay in the Maldives without breaking the bank.

Sign up for the SPG AMEX personal and the SPG AMEX business.

I know the best personal offer is 10K points on signup + 15K points with 15K spend in 6 months. I believe the best business offer is the same, but could be wrong.

PM me if you want to sign up and wouldn't mind a referral.

SPG no longer offers status matches but rather only offers a status challenge upon which Platinum status is granted after completion, not before. I do not know if this puts a kink in your plans or not, but figured it was something you'd be interested to know.

There are two Starwood properties in the Maldives.

1. Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...er-thread.html
2. W Maldives Resort - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...er-thread.html

I have not stayed at either; my knowledge is from checking the website just now and from reading this forum.

Sheraton Maldives - 20 minute boatride from Male Airport - 20K SPG points/ night or C+P when available of 8K SPG points + $150. Rates start at $250 including breakfast in early June.

W Maldives Resort - requires a flight from Male that costs a few hundred dollars RT. It's an all suite level 7 property, so costs 2x the points for its level. It would be 60K to 70K SPG points/night. Rates begin at $800 without breakfast and $815 with breakfast in early June.

The Park Hyatt Maldives has just been branded a Hyatt. I believe that the flights to its atoll cost $500 RT and that it is 2 hours from Male. You can redeem awards here for 22K points/night. I believe that it is an all suite property, so this is quite a good redemption rate. It is roughly $800/night for your dates.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt...ming-soon.html

Your timing is perfect for you to attempt to buy Hyatt points with the Discover America sale.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt...ica-promo.html

There are a limited number of packages available on April 15. Caution: they will go fast, and it requires an AMEX to buy.

None of the hotels will give you over the water bungalows for the prices and points given above.

It doesn't require an AMEX to buy, you can use any CC. But you only get the 10% discount on your purchase when you use an AMEX. You almost gave me an heart attack and I had to recheck the T&C's. I'm going to do my best to be first in that line when the clock strikes noon est tomorrow.

schley, thanks for correcting me. I've got an FTer's mentality, and was fixated on what returns the best deal.

Have you considered Hilton? There are two great HH properties in Maldives: the Conrad & the Beach House. Due to the ongoing award booking glitch, the Beach House is showing no award availability, but Conrad has award room available for the 9-day period you mentioned. I'd suggest you to get the HH AMEX surpass which gives 40K HH pts plus 1 year HH gold, then transfer 153k AA miles to 255k HH pts, that will give you total of 340k HH pts, enough for a 9-night award at the Conrad (2 4-night AXON7 awards, 145k pts each, plus 1 night for 50K).

Thank you very much for your responses. I'm definitely open to looking at Hilton, Hyatt, and Starwood properties. Like many people on FT, upgrades on business travel are helpful, but are really important when traveling on leisure with my wife and can be fully enjoyed.

Having said that, I've narrowed my options further:

1. The Hyatt looks amazing, and I found out that Hyatt will provide an interim match of 60 days to Diamond for Marriott Platinums. Hyatt wants another 12 stays within 60 days for you to retain the status, but I think that I can swing that. Also, my wife and I could both sign-up for the Hyatt credit card and essentially get 4 free nights total (2 sign-up nights for each of us) for the total $150 annual fee. Plus, we have enough points for the 5th night.

2. I had been looking at Hilton credit card sign-up bonus options, and had not encountered the HH Surpass - just the Citibank 30K and standard Amex 20K bonuses. That's definitely an intriguing option if it provides 40K miles and HH Gold immediately. Plus the ability to convert AA miles to HH miles. Not sure if Hilton will match my Marriott Platinum status or not. A few years ago I did a challenge to earn gold, but since then stayed away from Hiltons. Also, as another option I noticed on the useaamiles.com website, you can redeem for the Conrad in the Maldives.

Will keep everyone posted on what we decide. Thanks for the input. Would appreciate any additional input you have.

Just curious on the flight situation you were able to work out. I have the same home airports (SNA/LAX) and have been looking at a good route to get to Maldives.

This was easily the more complicated itineraries that we came up with and had less than 60 days notice to make it happen, right in the peak spring / summer travel season. We have friends & family to visit in India, and added the Maldives as a side vacation.

Our itinerary was booked on CO miles, and as they see it our trip is LAX to DEL and return MLE to LAX. However, we included 1 domestic stopover + 1 international open-jaw and bought some extra tickets within India. So, our eventual itinerary became:

LAX > EWR (CO Business Award Saver - stay in NYC for a day)
EWR > DEL (CO Business Award Saver)
DEL > BOM paid stopover (TBD - on of the many Indian Airlines)
BOM > TRV paid connecting flight (TBD - on of the many Indian Airlines)
TRV > MLE paid flight on Maldivian (www.maldivian.aero)
MLE > SIN (SIN Economy Saver - connection)
SIN > NRT (SIN Economy Saver - connection)
NRT > LAX (ANA Economy Saver)

The most annoying part of this trip was our inability to leverage the AA miles we banked via the Citibank AA cards. My wife and I have 200K each on AA, and could use the miles to get to India via JFK & Europe (very limited flights though). Coming back from the Maldives was a nightmare itinerary on OneWorld:
MLE > LGW (on BA - pay their annoying fuel surcharge, spend the night in London, then transfer all the way to LHR)
LHR > JFK (spend 2 nights in NY, fortunately we have friends and family there)
JFK > LAX

In the end, I had to use the Chase Continental Credit Card Sign-Up bonus to get some miles very quickly so we could leverage the better flight selection on Star Alliance. Also, my wife is a platinum on AA, and we got her status matched on Continental thus making a nice transition over to Star Alliance, even if it's temporary.

There is much better availability on Star Alliance to MLE, so bank up some UA/CO miles (which can easily be combined), and get CO or UA to match your AA status. Good luck with your flights!

You can actually get 60,000 for the regular hhonors amex. See this thread. The thread and the application says 62,500 never figured out the last 2,500 I think its for getting a second card tied to the account. Plus this card has no annual fee and gets you silver status just by getting the card.

You can sign up for the hhonors MVP program and get gold status with 4 stays. Although the free gold with the surpass is a great deal and if you spend $40,000 a year you can get diamond with no hotel stays.

The ability to convert AA miles to HHonors points is provided by AA not any card. Its basically 6 miles to 10 points. Up to 150k miles (250k points) a year. But you say your wife has 200k miles as well so you can each convert up to 150k and put them into the same account.

May 31 to June 5th by my calculations thats 5 nights so 195,000 hhonors points (4 night axon award + 1 single night award).

Personally I would say stay at one of the hilton properties. Get one of the hhonors amex cards, then transfer what points you still need from AA. Should be nice and simple.

Thanks Kenban. I applied for the Hilton Amex card you mentioned. I received 20K right away, and the other 30K will arrive when my statement cycles ($500 spend required).

Also, you get the extra 2,500 points if you get a 2nd card for a family member. Wish I had known that, but it was not disclosed until I called to activate the card.

Now, I need to look into moving some Amex miles over to Hilton. Does anyone know how long that process takes?

There is also a Hilton (Iru Fushi) in addition to the Conrad and the Waldorf.
You say you have 4 stays coming up, you could sign up for the Hilton MVP program and move those to Hilton - that would get you HH gold. No free breakfast at Maldives, but better than nothing. see benefits here.....
http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/about/gold.do

You can also purchase Hilton Honor points today from Daily Getaways. 1 night at the Hilton Maldives will end up costing approx $250/night with this discounted points purchase. Just need to ensure availability for award bookings.

More about this deal: http://dealswelike.com/2011/05/02/pu...r-half-a-cent/

h

Hmm not sure if Discounted VIP awards are available as Satori suggests in his blog - If so, Hilton may be the most affordable option. But this is the SPG forum, so... :)