I’ve been rolling out my Maldives trip report series and thought I’d share how I actually paid for it using points and miles. As you can tell from the title of this post, it wasn’t all “free.” Even with the hotel and airfare booked using points and miles, there were other costs. The Waldorf Astoria Maldives boat transfer for one, was $862 (Note: The hotel is dropping the fee by $100, starting January 1).
At the resort, the cheapest meal I had was a $57 lunch and the most expensive charge was a $441 jet ski excursion. I knew what I was in for, so I budgeted an average $500 per day for this trip (including the boat transfer cost). With the $250 resort credit from my Hilton Aspire Card, I was able to stick to that budget.
Without points, this trip would have clocked in around $21,200. Below is a break-down of exactly how I booked this trip using points and miles.
Maldives flight using miles
Airfare was the easiest part of booking this trip. I used 140,000 AAdvantage miles and $174.85 round-trip to fly Etihad business class from Sacramento to Male. It was almost 16 hours of flying across four segments in each direction:
- SMF – DFW (American Airlines first class)
- DFW – IAD (American Airlines first class)
- IAD – AUH (Etihad business class)
- AUH – MLE (Etihad business class)
Etihad no longer operates flights between San Francisco and Abu Dhabi and there was no award space out of LAX. So while this route wasn’t particularly speedy, it was first/business class all the way so who am I to complain? Besides, Etihad award space is bookable on AA.com. Not having to talk to a phone agent to book an award flight is always a plus in my book.
Paid in cash, the same fare would have cost $12,853. But there’s no universe in which I’d shell out almost $13k on a round-trip flight, so a more realistic comparison would be the typical $1,600 fare on this route. This itinerary would have been hell in economy class and not just because Etihad’s economy class product is terrible. The multiple segments and long layovers would have left me totally exhausted.
Award taxes and fees
I charged the $174.85 in taxes and fees to my Citi Prestige Card for the 5x bonus.
Booking the Waldorf Astoria Maldives with points
I redeemed the free night from my Hilton Honors Aspire Card and 250,000 Hilton points to book the Waldorf Astoria Maldives. At the time, the resort was going for over $1800 per night. Taxes included, a 3-night stay at this resort would have cost $6,615.36.
I did charge a total of $1,769.52 to my room, including the boat transfer fee. This earned me over 65,702 Hilton points thanks to promotional bonuses and earnings from my Hilton Aspire Card:
- Base points: 15,213 Hilton Honors points.
- Diamond elite bonus: 15,213 Hilton Honors points.
- Power Up promo: 15,213 Hilton Honors points.
- MyWay bonus: 1,000 Hilton Honors points.
- Hilton Aspire Card bonus: 19,063 Hilton Honors points.
If it hadn’t been for points, I would have probably settled for the Westin Maldives, which was going for around $500 per night at the time. The total for three nights came to around $2,200 and I would have gotten the fourth night free for booking with my Citi Prestige Card.
Incidentals
Between the $862.40 boat transfer between the airport and hotel, food and activities, the total cost came up to $1,769.52. The $250 Hilton resort credit from the Hilton Aspire Card helped offset a substantial chunk.
The credit posted just two days after the charge did.
Total trip cost
In total, my trip to the Maldives cost $1,686 out of pocket, plus 140,000 AAdvantage miles, 240,000 Hilton points and a free night award:
- $1,482.56 hotel charges (after the $250 Hilton Aspire resort credit).
- $174.85 taxes and fees for my AAdvantage award flight.
- $28.59 facial at the Etihad business class lounge.
Without points and miles, this trip would have cost upwards of $21,200.92. Clearly I wouldn’t have paid that amount. But even if I had opted for cheaper hotels and economy class airfare, the trip would have easily set me back at least $4,300.
Final thoughts
There are definitely cheaper ways to travel to the Maldives, even if you’re using points and miles. The Waldorf Astoria Maldives is pricey from all aspects. Everything from the points required for the room to the cost off food, activities and boat transfer is high.
I wanted to try this resort out because it was brand new and no other bloggers had reviewed it. So I knew I could generate a lot of traffic writing about it. It helps that I can write off my expenses. If you’re not a blogger, you will find better value at other resorts bookable with points.
There are plenty of cheaper ways to travel to the Maldives on points, stay at an incredible resort and really enjoy yourself at a fraction of what I paid. In an upcoming post, I’ll share some options for how this can be done.
Other stories about my trip to the Maldives
- Etihad business class Lounge Dulles (IAD) review
- Etihad business class Washington to Abu Dhabi
- Etihad business class lounge Abu Dhabi review
- Etihad Business Class review: A320 Abu Dhabi to Male
- Waldorf Astoria Maldives boat transfer
- Waldorf Astoria Maldives review
- Waldorf Astoria Maldives beach villa review
- Waldorf Astoria Maldives overwater villa review
You traveled for two days, to spend three nights there so you could blog about it?
I was traveling to the Maldives anyway and it was between this and the Conrad. Three nights doesn’t sound like much, but it was more like 4 days and I felt like it was the perfect amount of time. The trip ended up paying for itself through the writing work I got out of it.
I think you got an incredible deal on this trip, Ariana! Well-deserved reward from all the MS runs. Wanted to get your thoughts about CitiPrestige. Is it worth to renew despite steep annual fee and reduced benefits? Thank you in advance.
Thanks Kris! That’s a good question and I’m pondering that myself. The reduced benefits are a huge down side but there are a few scenarios where this could be overlooked. I started writing it out but it’s getting too long, so I’ll compile it into a post for tomorrow instead.
I had the prestige card for many years, but dumped it last year after the gutting of benefits. I tried to justify keeping it based on the fourth night free hotel benefit, but I rarely stay four nights anywhere. I either stay a long weekend, or a week or more unless I’m on business. Also, with the removal of trip interruption and delay, I certainly would not charge airfares to the card moving forward. I replaced the card with a City National Bank crystal infinite card, and we see how well that card worked out. My plan is to keep it for another year until I burn through all of the points I earned.
I don’t see how a resort can charge so much for things. Over $800 for a short boat ride? A jet ski excursion for $441? I would expect some of these things to be included for a price tag of over $1800 per night. It sounds like their attitude is that if you can spend that much per night then you’ll be willing to pay anything for all other activities.
Oh absolutely. And I bet there are people who go there and don’t bat an eyelash at those prices.
You’re absolutely right. The more lavish the hotel, the more they seemingly gouge for everything. I stayed at the Conrad Midtown in Manhattan last month and they charged over $90 for in-room continental breakfast which was 4 different pieces of bread, and coffee.
That’s insane. How was the hotel though? And I think it has 1 and 2-bedroom suites bookable on points, which might be a good deal.
How far in advance did you book the hotel with points? I keep running into 200k+ per night in Tahiti!
Btw, is Rick going be posting in the future?
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you too! I booked a week in advance and had no issues with availability. I’ve heard that this resort has been restricting saver award availability as of late. I recommend you run an award search for 1-night increments and use the calendar function to piece together an itinerary at the lowest rate.
Yes, I’m hoping to bring Rick back in the coming months.
Happy new Year!
How did you amass 140,000 AA miles? MS or, multiple SUB? Also, what was the cost of acquiring those miles?
Thanks!
Mostly credit card sign-up bonuses. If I were to MS 140,000 AAdvantage miles, it would cost around $344.
The math you did works for me too. I would have and will probably look at doing this trip at some point soon. I friend who retired from a VP position with Hilton was in the Maldives last year, their pictures made me interested and after seeing your numbers I think it’s doable! Brava!
It’s pretty spectacular. I probably can’t justify doing this again, but I’m glad I did.
I took Ariana’s lead, and booked the same trip for next summer using American advantage miles for business class on Etihad and Honors points for the room.
Enjoy! And maybe do some cash back MS in advance to cover the cost of food and activities. 🙂
Excellent idea!
But the $250 resort credit did not come free. You just pre-paid for it when you paid the Aspire annual fee. How much of the $450 annual fee do you attribute to the resort credit? you should add that to your total cost. Similarly the 140k aa miles – you didn’t pick those up on the street. Probably signed up to a card or two affiliated with AA and paid the annual fees associated with those cards (95-99). Therefore you should add those to your calculation. I reckon that the trip was more like $2000 or even north of that, which is still good, but you have to be honest with your self regarding the real math.
Fair enough. I do think I got more than the $450 annual fee worth out of the Aspire card last year. For starters, there were tons of cash back offers that saved me money on cell phone bills, insurance payments, travel and retail purchases. I’m talking $300+ worth of cash back.
I also used up the $200 airline fee credit and saved about $30 on coffee and food on this trip alone via the Priority Pass membership. I also got an annual free night that I put to use at this resort. I can’t say it “saved” me $2k on this particular hotel stay since I would have never paid that much. But I definitely would have used it to offset another hotel night of $200 or more.
On the AA miles front, I came out ahead $30 because, despite the $95 annual fee, I’m earning a $125 travel voucher every year.
did you have to pay for taxes and service charge of 23.2% for the room booked with points or does the award stay cover that?
I had to pay $184.06 in taxes dubbed “T-GST” and a total of $136 in service charges That’s include in my initial total of $1,769.52.