Deep Dive: Maldives Round Trip Business Class

Author: Matthew February 21, 2024

Going to the Maldives in the best business class seats in the world seems like a far-off dream, considering how expensive the flights would be, not to mention the high resort fees and costs once you're there. Well, it doesn't have to be a dream. Using credit card points, I made our delayed COVID honeymoon into reality and want to show how you can accomplish this too.

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Key Takeaways

My hope is that this post inspires you to use your points for some aspirational trips in the future. To summarize some key takeaways/learnings

High value in international business class redemptions. Redeeming points to fly some of the best airline products in the world is probably the best way to use your points since the value of the points go from 1-3x on domestic flights to over 10x on international business and first class flights. See below for our breakdown.
- Emirates First Class (Sarah) - 102,000 points + $104.20 | $11,941 price tag
- Emirate First Class (Matthew) - 126,000 points + $104.20 | $11,941 price tag
- Gulf Air Business Class (Both) - 108,620 points | $3,200 price tag
- Qatar Airways Business Class (Both) - 170,000 points + $669.30 | $11,091 price tag
- Total: 506,620 points + $877.70 | $38,193 price tag
Book early, but remain flexible. Since Qatar Airways usually only releases 2 award seats per flight, I had to book them 11 months out before the prices doubled. However, my flight to the Maldives took extra legs as I searched high and low for business class flights that would work in conjunction with my first class flight to Athens.
The Maldives are expensive. Even by using points, getting to our resort island and all the food there was extra cost we couldn't avoid. We'll discuss the actual hotel and redemption in next week's blog, so sign up for the newsletter to get the alert!

Qatar Qsuites - MLE to DOH to IAD

Booking

I actually booked the return flight first and built my trip around it, so I'll share my booking experience in this order as well. I've always wanted to try the legendary Qsuite by Qatar Airways because of the double bed in the sky along with all the luxurious soft product features that include pajamas, catered food, and more. However, because the seats are so popular and the fact that Qatar usually only limits two award seats per flight, I had to make sure I booked these seats as early as possible. So in February 2023, I started tracking the MLE -> DOH -> IAD to see how many points I would need and when flights in 2024 would be released. On March 1st, I found the date I wanted and transferred 170,000 Membership Reward points from my Amex card to Qatar Avios. The process of booking by itself was pretty straightforward and used the points and paid $669.30 in cash for our seats. I used seatguru.com to make sure I was getting an ideal seat location for our Qsuite set.

I got 170,000 Amex points by opening the American Express Gold Card, which had a 75,000 welcome bonus. The remainder of the points came from spend (4x on dining and groceries) and Rakuten shopping portal, which converts cash back into Amex points.

Ground Experience - Doha

We had a 9-hour layover in Doha after leaving Male and before returning home to Dulles. Normally, that sounds like a rough time to be waiting in an airport, but we maximized our time in the lounges and the airport attractions. After passing through the transfer security, we made a beeline towards the Al Mourjan Lounge in the main terminal, which we had free access to with our ticket. There we were able to shower in their facilities and freshen up after our overnight flight. Next, we visited the dining room to eat, and ordered so many pieces of sushi from their sushi bar, again all for free. With many hours to still kill we walked and explored the massive lounge, before heading out to the terminal to see the famous lamp bear, the massive, live garden, and other shops. Near the garden, we visited the other Al Mourjan Lounge, which contained the Louis Vutton cafe lounge and was much quieter. It had a great view overlooking the garden and we sipped on some coffee there while we chilled. In the game room there were PlayStations, foosball table, and pool table that helped pass the time.

We returned to the main lounge that stored our luggage and were able to take a nap in their relined seats. We didn't sleep that long since we wanted to maximize enjoying the lounge experience. We woke up and ate breakfast in the dining room before gathering all our stuff and headed to the gate.

Flight Experience

Our 15-hour flight went by so quickly. Boarding was super fast since we had a dedicated priority line and separate gangway from economy. Once we got in the air, we changed into the pajamas they provided and set up our lie-flat seats. To adjust to the jetlag, we slept for ~7 hours overnight in EST time. Once we woke up, we had 8 hours left to enjoy our time in the sky. We were able to eat and drink whenever we wanted, so it was basically non-stop food service as we tried the breakfast, lunch, and snack menu. We watched movies and on the large screen in front of us while lounging in our reclined seat. By the time we landed in the early evening, we still felt well rested and glad to be home.

Emirates First Class - EWR to ATH

Booking

I know the pathing of going to the Maldives is a little complicated and extended our travel time. I originally wanted to book Etihad business from IAD to AUH to MLE. However, while I was tracking the flight on Air Canada, the partnership got messed up and I didn't have 2 million points to book the flight directly on Etihad's website. So that led me to looking at Emirates, the 3rd airline of the big three Middle Eastern carriers. Emirates has two fifth-freedom routes (JFK/MXP and EWR/ATH) that don't go to their main hub in Dubai. I wanted to avoid Dubai since even with points, I'd still have to pay over $1,000 in taxes in fees to fly through there and I wasn't sure if I could find cheaper point redemptions on Air Canada.

So I chose to fly out of EWR and head to Athens in First class for Sarah (102,000 points and $104.20) and business class for me (87,000 points and $104.20). Emirates generally only releases one award seat in each class for this route, so I hoped for an entire year that I could upgrade to First. EWR is pretty accessible to us by train and closer than JFK. We also were in Milan last year, so we wanted to explore a newer city. I didn't get upgraded to First until I checked into the flight. There were 5 available seats left, so I was able to transfer over 39,000 points and book the seat across from Sarah's. Even though I spent more points, I still saved having to pay almost $12,000 for a single 9-hour flight.

In total I used 228,0000 points, all of which were transferred and earned through Chase. You can see in a recent post how just by opening one business credit card each (and spending $12,000), Sarah and I were able to get enough points for this flight.

The Experience

Unfortunately, because of the fifth-freedom route we took, Emirates didn't have a huge presence at Newark. We had to wait an hour by the check-in desks for them to even open. However, once they did, we were first in line because of Sarah's first class ticket. We then headed to the lounge run by SAS, which was comfy enough to get some food and relax for before our flight. The boarding process was hectic with random lines appearing, but again with our priority line, we were able to get into the plane quickly and start enjoying the amenities without even hearing the rest of the boarding process at all. We were carefully attended to by the stewardesses and feasted upon their first class meal and plethora of snacks. The enclosed suite doors helped with having a feeling of privacy as we slept for the majority of the flight. It was a great flight being able to sleep soundly on the lie-flat bed and then wake up to fast orders of berry smoothies and breakfast. Finally, we were the first people off the plane as well and got through the customs line with ease.

Gulf Air Business Class - ATH to BAH to MLE

Booking

With Qatar and Emirates checked-off, the question of the day was how to get from Athens to the Maldives in luxury without breaking the bank. I used several point search engines before stumbling on Gulf Air. While this carrier isn't as famous as the big three, looking through Youtube, it seemed the lie-flat seats and service would be good enough for us. So by transferring 108,000 points from our Chase accounts to Air Canada, we were able to fully book the $3,200 flight for free.

The Experience

As expected, the seats and experience wasn't as much of a wow factor as the other airlines, but it got the job done. We were able to sleep on our way to the Maldives in fully lie-flat seats and fueled ourselves up with delicious Arabic dates, mezze, dishes, and drinks. The Bahrain airport was so clean and and spacious. I used my Priority Pass to get Sarah a free massage at the airport spa. For the rest of our time, we enjoyed eating and playing games at the Falcon Gold lounge, which came in clutch when our flight was slightly delayed. We were able to sit above the terminal/gate in a comfy couch eyeing the gate to see when it was time to board.

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