How We Got to the Maldives
Everyone should have a Bucket List of places they’d like to visit. We do and it’s constantly growing. My husband and I LOVE to travel, explore new places together and take in other cultures. The Maldives was a bucket list destination for both of us and our goal was to get there before we started a family – MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! We saved up miles for the flights and were able to use points for half of our stay at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, a Hilton property.
Getting There
We were initially saving our American Airlines miles to get to Italy but we cancelled two trips due to the pandemic and decided not to try a third time and just wait until things settled down. That led us to land on the Maldives and we had enough points to fly in style – there and back – in business class on Qatar Airlines. We used 112,500 miles per person round trip in their QSuites. At the time of booking those same seats were a cash value of about $20K. I’m working on a separate post all about our experience in the QSuites that I’ll link here once it’s finished!
Once we arrived to the main airport in Male, a staff member from the Conrad met us after we cleared customs and got our bags and drove us to the Conrad lounge to wait for the seaplane. They had complimentary refreshments which was nice since we arrived early in the morning. There is a pretty hefty cost for the seaplane but that is the only way to get to the resort islands (some have boat options if they’re closer) so make sure you take that into consideration when budgeting! They also have pretty strict luggage weight limits for the seaplanes and you do have to pay for additional weight if you go over.
Our Stay
We initially booked the first half of our trip (nights 1-4) using points for a Standard Water Villa at 95K points per night for 4 nights plus we got the 5th night free – if you book using rewards it’s always “Book 4 Nights, Get the 5th Free.” In total, that was 380K points for 5 nights in a standard water villa.
We then booked another night (night 6) in a Standard Beach Villa but it was a free night from my Hilton American Express Card and it was going at over $700 if you booked with cash (as of 7/9/21). For nights 7-11 we were able to use the Hilton Friends and Family portal (shoutout to Candace!) to book the same Beach Villa from night 6 for $267.50 per night for a total of $1,707.80 after taxes and service charges.
Fast forward to a couple weeks before we leave: we emailed them our arriving flight information to make sure they knew when we were coming and we found out they were on their final phase of updating their 50 Water Villas (what we originally booked) and those wouldn’t be done until November 2021…so they upgraded us, complimentary, to a Grand Water Villa with a pool – ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! (These were going for over $1400/night as of 7/9/21). I loved them already and at that point we were still over 2 weeks out from the trip! Because we are Hilton Honors members, they offered us discounted rates for the second half of our trip in the Beach Villa so we were able to move to a Deluxe Beach Villa with a pool for an additional $210 per night (plus taxes and service charges) that was going for over $1000/night (as of 7/9/21). One of the main reasons we considered this was because they were doing renovations to their “Quiet Pool” aka Adults Only so this would give us another pool option! All in all we were out of pocket about $3,244 for 11 nights in two different villas.
How We Earned Hilton Points
We have the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card, which we typically only use towards Hilton stays. Hilton had an offer at one point where you bought points and got the same amount for free so we purchased 91,000 points and got 91,000 points for free for a total of 182K points for $910.
Right now, they are offering 150,000 points if you sign up and spend $4,000 in the first 3 months of opening the card. You can click here for the referral link – if you sign up using this link, I receive some points as well! These offers do change often and this is one of the better ones I’ve seen so I highly recommend taking advantage!
If you have any questions, please drop them in the comments below and I will do my best to answer them! Please note there are other ways to use points, this is just how we were able to make our trip work!
