Trip Report Index:
- Introducing and Strategy
- New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class
- Park Hyatt Dubai
- Touring the Burj al Arab
- Tea at the Burj al Arab
- Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class
- Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt
- Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives
- Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class
- Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
- Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe
- London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class
One of the things I really like about American AAdvantage is that they’re generally the best program for securing international first class awards. They have a litany of partners both inside oneworld and outside of oneworld that make this possible – British Airways (albeit with fuel surcharges), Qantas (not nearly so easy), Cathay Pacific (best first class award option for US-Asia), Malaysia Airlines (usually 1 seat from London but up to 4 from Paris on the A380 in First) for instance.
Last year I had a really great trip to the Maldives. I rarely visit the same place outside the U.S. twice and certainly not the same hotel property, at least for resort destinations (cities are a different story entirely). But I really really enjoyed my stay at the Park Hyatt Maldives. When I was leaving the property last time I said I wanted to return, and I meant it.
So I booked myself a trip. Only this time I resolved to make the flights work a bit easier than last time. In 2012 I flew via Singapore which meant very much going ‘the long way’ – a stopover in Singapore and then Singapore Airlines to Male. It was great on the way there since I much enjoy eating in Singapore. But for the return I didn’t do anything more than an overnight – Kaadedhdhoo – Male – Singapore – Hong Kong (overnight) – Chicago – DC (ouch, even flying Cathay Pacific First Class for the long haul).
This time I used American miles to fly Etihad. I live in DC but they’re only just now starting up their Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi flight, which offers amazing award availability. For this trip I had to depart out of New York JFK since I wanted first class (they offer two-cabin service from Chicago and Toronto).
It’s interesting that Qatar has severed ties with United and has announced its intention of joining oneworld. They’re the last Middle Eastern carrier I expected to make the oneworld decision.
First I thought it was be Emirates. Emirates lost their Continental and United partnerships, and a couple of years ago I chatted with the Manager of the Skywards program at the Freddies as he was actively out seeking partnerships, and he had a meeting set up with American’s then-head of the AAdvantage program Maya Leibman for the next day.
But American rolled out a partnership with Etihad. And Etihad purchased a stake in oneworld airline Air Berlin. It seemed like Etihad was on the way to becoming a part of oneworld.
And then… the Qatar announcement, along with news that Etihad was getting closer to Air France/KLM.
Still, it’s one of those great partnerships. There’s only one piece of it that doesn’t work well for American frequent flyer redemption purposes. American has some fairly screwy routing rules. They were the first major US carrier to introduce one-way awards, but those awards don’t allow for stopovers except in North America at the final city prior to leaving the continent.
In this case I could book a one-way award and stopover in New York if I wished. But I wanted to fly from New York to Abu Dhabi to Male in the Maldives. That meant I couldn’t do a stopover (defined as a stop that’s 24 hours or more) unless I wanted to spend more miles on a second award (one award US to Abu Dhabi, and a second Abu Dhabi to Male).
The especially screwy rule, not enforced by United (or for that matter any Star Alliance airline) is that the overwater carrier must publish a fare between the origin and destination in order to book the tickets as a single award. And Etihad doesn’t publish fares between most cities in North America and the Maldives. Although I’ve gotten them to price it as a single award a couple of times, by rule at least when I booked (the introduction of the Dulles flight may have changed this) Washington DC – Abu Dhabi had to be a separate award from Abu Dhabi – Male anyway because Etihad doesn’t publish a revenue fare for the route.
I could have booked just New York – Abu Dhabi – Male (there’s an Etihad published fare New York – Male) plus an add-on DC – New York in coach for 12,500 miles extra, but I decided to book DC – New York – Abu Dhabi (stop) – Male for 25,000 miles extra instead. In other words I opted for the stopover for an extra 12,500 miles.
American’s award chart to the “Middle East and Indian Subcontinent” is expensive, especially in first class, as 90,000 miles each way. Adding on Abu Dhabi – Male would be an additional 25,000 miles, making the award 115,000 miles each way. But… I do have a healthy seven figure American account balance. It’s now even expected that US Airways miles will get combined into AAdvantage accounts. So I have no shortage there.
And transiting the Middle East is the smoothest way in many cases of getting to the Maldives. Plus I wanted to try out Etihad first class. And since I was going to be asked to spend additional miles for the Abu Dhabi – Male segments, I could do stopvoers in both directions (I was already paying for the extra awards, so why not?).
Thus I had the idea for a very expensive trip (mileage-wise).
I’d stay again at the Park Hyatt Maldives on points, and like last time confirm a buy up at booking to an overwater villa. Not cheap, but I found it well worth it. If I’m going to make that trip, I wanted to have the room I wanted rather than leaving things to chance.
And I’d stay at the Park Hyatts in Dubai and Abu Dhabi on the outbound and return, respectively. Dubai for a stopover was facilitated by the fact that Etihad offers complimentary car service to first and business class passengers, and on arrival in Abu Dhabi they’ll take you anywhere you want to go in the UAE as I understand it.
The hour-plus drive to Dubai is not an issue (they even provide complimentary bus service to Dubai for coach passengers). I booked my car in advance, which isn’t strictly necessary for arrivals in the UAE (but would be required to have them pick you up and bring you to the airport in the cities where the service is offered).
After booking my trip Washington National – New York JFK – Abu Dhabi – Male with an identical return, I learned that a friend would be getting married at the very end of the trip. I had hoped to keep my Abu Dhabi – New York return and just add on a flight to San Francisco (the wedding would be in Sacramento), but the connection to American’s last San Francisco flight of the day was illegal by a matter of minutes.
Instead the best I could do was Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf (Etihad first class) – London (British Airways business) – San Francisco (British Airways first). That’s one more flight than I wanted to take, of course. And Etihad did at times show two available first class seats for Abu Dhabi – London. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen award space show on the Etihad website that American could not book.
There has always been a perfect match, in my experience, between the space Etihad offers to its own members and that which is bookable by American. I easily tried a dozen agents, and all were sure, all confirmed they were searching the correct booking class (“O”). I just could never grab the seats. So I settled for Dusseldorf and a double connection.
All in all it was a phenomenal trip, though I blew 230,000 American miles per passenger. Each hotel property was outstanding, and the Etihad hard product is amazing, food and amentiies quite good, and service friendly if less than efficient.
And with that I’ll get started on the rest of the report! Feel free to ask as many questions as you like along the way.
How did you accure you AA mileage balance and do you get miles by opening citi checking account
I’ve racked up American miles in several ways — flying (I’m a 100,000 mile flyer with them), credit card signup bonuses over many years and back when the cards were more churnable, BankDirect…
How do you confirm the overwater bungalow, by phone or email, & will they accept points or only cash? If cash, is the price negotiable?
Can you mix and match Etihad with oneworld on the same award? I didn’t realise…
Awesome! Especially the drink in front of the beach in front of the Over Water Bungalows in front of the open ocean. This has aspirational award written all over it!
So a round trip JFK – AUH – MLE route isn’t 180k AA miles for F? (Assuming no stopover in AUH). I could have sworn I’ve seen others post that they’ve done this. Looking forward to the trip report.
So you need to search for availabilty on their website or is it ever visible on AA award search ? Also interested to know about Emirates ex . IAD too, do you know about their award availabilty ?
AA miles are easy to earn if you have 200K laying around.. But for us normal folk it’s a bit harder. Buy vanilla reloads with SPG card
Very cool Gary. I find myself attempting to mirror your aspirational trips. I did the Conrad Samui trip last year and just now returned from Rangali Island. Amazing. Thank you for two great trip ideas. My question is are there any other award type aspirational trips that compare?
Isn’t this what the “game” is all about?? Making the kind of trips you normally wouldn’t. 230,000/pp is cheap when you create memories that will last. Personally I would have gone in coach or perhaps business class to squeeze another trip out of the same amount of miles. But then I use most of my miles to bring family members together from around the globe.
@RomsDeals I don’t have $200k laying around. I have used BankDirect as my primary checking for 10 years. Admittedly I have big business reimbursables that float in the checking until card bills are due
I have cycled funds to het the Fidelity bonus. AA has tons of partners and I have used MANY over the years…
@abc agreed and I am fortunate with my volume of work spend to habe generateed enough miles to feel fine about F
. 🙂
@NR you have to search the etihad site. Emirates space isn’t great but it exists often JAL has the best award chart.
@Larry – I have edited a sentence and added a couple more to clarify — there is a published fare JFK-AUH-MLE so you can do that for 180k in F. Most cities there isn’t a published fare. DC there wasn’t one.
@Vincent you can generally mix and match whatever partners you wish on a one-way all partner award
@Al – by email, cash, and I doubt it’s negotiable under most circumstances. I described this in some detail (all of the back and forth correspondence) in my trip report on the property last year.
I’m looking to book a one-way F award to Singapore. I’ve heard AA won’t allow routings through Europe, but is it possible to go via the Middle East with Etihad?
Also, why not book the outbound with points and return on a paid ticket from CMB?
So what’s the deal with the Maldives? Why do I want to engage in the heroic effort to get there? It seems like the ultimate travel blogger destination? Why? What makes the Maldives better than a traditional remote destination like, say, Tahiti?
Hi Gary;
Were you tempted to try the Conrad Rangali Island?
This is a useful post for me as I’m halfway into booking my Feb 14 trip. Have outbound on Cathay F from LAX to SIN, and SQ C from SIN to MLE. I originally was hoping to go around the world by starting LAX-IST on Turkish business class, but no non-stops available.
Of course, by going this way, I get free one way tickets from JFK to LAX using LAX as my stopover. If they had a published fare LAX-MLE, I might do it like you are, but I also want to see a little of Sri Lanka and the 135K award on CX in F from CMB to LAX is such a screaming bargain (plus onward free F ticket from LAX to somewhere in the US).
I’ll be doing both PH and Conrad. It looks like it will be 4 days and 7 days – but I’m a little worried about going stir crazy that long (on the other hand I might take up diving again).
How long do you think you could stay on the island without getting restless?
Do you think you will be able to be awake for the wedding?
I have a similar issue, a second cousin is getting married the day I get back from Bali – but in NYC. I’d have to take a red eye from SFO to JFK to get there in the morning, doubt whether I’d be much of a guest.
No issues with visas or otherwise either direction?
@JohnnieD – no visa required in advance for US citizens for either UAE or Maldives
@beachfan I’m back from the trip. I was awake for the wedding. I arrived at SFO the night before, headed straight to the Hyatt Regency SFO… slept… rented a car and drove to Sacramento. By 10pm I was fading pretty good though!!
@beachfan – I never stay ANYWHERE longer than 5 days for fear of being stir crazy. This time I spent 6 nights at the Park Hyatt Maldives.. the first time I’ve stayed anywhere 6 nights since July 2007. And I loved it. I would have been fine a 7th day (though perhaps bored of dinner options by then).
I loved Park Hyatt last year enough that I really didn’t feel like giving the Conrad a go. Plus they seem to really dislike Diamonds at the Conrad, breakfast rules and all. So I stuck with the Park Hyatt and was happy.
@iahphx – Tahiti isn’t exactly an easy place to get to… from the East Coast I first fly to LAX and then there are only 2 airlines flying from mainland US to Tahiti…. and Air France is only 3x weekly. Not an easy award to get. Tahiti itself is a pit, so you want to get to Moorea or likely Bora Bora and that’s an expensive transfer.
In general I find the water of Bora Bora prettier. The snorkling is great on Moorea. But the diving is best in Maldives. The service is MUCH better at the Park Hyatt than I found at Bora Bora Nui or elsewhere in French Polynesia. I also happen to like the food better as well (though Villa Mahana on Bora Bora was excellent).
Do both and compare 🙂
@Arcanum – AA will not allow you to fly Etihad via AUH from the US to Singapore (well they will – but they will charge two awards, US-AUH, AUH-SIN)
The CMB fare is great! But I didn’t want to add the stop in CMB. I suppose I could have considered that rather than returning with a stop in AUH. And if I wanted to spend ~ $2100…
Gary, you mentioned diving in the Maldives – does the PH have it’s own dive tour operator? Have you looked at any of the liveaboards? I understand the liveaboards are cramped but offer a lot more diving opportunities.
@Scott they have an on-site dive tour operator
Gary,
While I’m sitting on 420k AA miles (and another 65k US soon to be AA miles) I’m finding the 90k F partner F award tough to swallow.
OTOH, I’m finding the 150k explorer J award to be some fantastic value.
Gary- FWIW, I found that the Conrad offered great benefits to gold members. The comment about them disliking diamonds must be from dated info.
I can’t believe you went back to the Maldives, given how many other places there are to go in this world!
Also-FWIW, just returned from Conrad as a diamond and found the breakfast and cocktail hour to be great benefits. Also got wine and a box of chocolates.
@ParMike – interesting, it wasn’t that long ago that the Conrad had a special exemption from providing Diamonds with breakfast. Good to know.
Thanks for the info Gary. Will be travelling to UAH and Maldives, staying at Hyatts. FWIW there is a DO in August 2013 run by driven2travel (see community and hyatt pages on Flyertalk)where special lower rates and extra benefits have been negotiated at these hotels. Driven2Travel–Andrew and Jenny Price ran a fabulous Do at the London Churchill Hyatt in Oct 2012, repeating it 2013 and had a fabulous time so we signed up for the Abu Dhabi/Maldives DO.
whats the daily cost of food like in maldives?
I’ll get to food cost when I do the report on the Park Hyatt but I’d say about $175pp per day without alcohol. And that’s after breakfast is free! Some will spend a lot less… eat breakfast later (I tended to eat around 7am), eat larger portions, skip appetizers at dinner, etc.
Gary, I’d rather do the United flight to Doha, and then buy an Emirates ticket to Male. Do you know what the availability is usually on the IAD-DOH route?
@Askia the Middle East flights do have some availability but UA can be tight at times unfortunately. From DOH you’d buy a Qatar flight to MLE.
@Gary, how and where do you find out if the overwater carrier publishes fares between two cities? especially to Male. Thanks.
@bspn – sites like expertflyer and i use the kvs tool to find published fares