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The villas in the Maldives feel like a slice of heaven on Earth and the Waldorf Astoria is a DDF fan favorite on the popular Maldives thread. I’ve stayed at the W and S. Regis Maldives on price mistakes back in the SPG days and haven’t made it to the Waldorf, but people who have been rave about the service and luxurious villas.
You can read many Waldorf Maldives trip reports on DDF, such as from israshot, Wizmanison, cks33, and more.
Unfortunately, finding standard award space at the resort is typically very difficult for even a single night, but currently, award availability at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives is wide open for nearly all of 2024! Talk about a unicorn, this certainly won’t last long.
Click on Hilton.com’s “My dates are flexible” or “Shop by price” for the dates and search for points as the special rate to find points availability for the year. Note that many Hilton hotels require minimum stays for points bookings, so you can set the flexible calendar for 1 night or other various lengths of stays to find the most availability. I wrote about those tricks here.
You can generally cancel award stays at this hotel up to 30 days before arrival, but always read the fine print when booking hotels.
The peak dry season runs from November through April, though DDF members have enjoyed summer stays as well, though those tend to get more rain.
1 night will set you back 150K Hilton points (or a Hilton free night) and 5 nights will cost 600K points (120K points/night) for Hilton elites and cardholders.
You can enroll here for Hilton elite status for free.
That’s a value of 1.87-2.34 cents per Hilton point, which is excellent:
You can transfer points from AMEX to Hilton instants at a 1 to 2 ratio, so 1 night will set you back 75K AMEX points and 5 nights will cost 300K AMEX points (60K points/night) for Hilton elites and cardholders.
This will work with AMEX cards that earn Membership Rewards points, including:
- AMEX Blue Business Plus
- AMEX Platinum Business
- AMEX Gold Business Card
- American Express® Gold Card
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- AMEX Green Consumer Card
- AMEX Everyday Preferred Consumer Card
- AMEX Everyday Consumer Card
You can also transfer Chase, Capital One, or Citi points to Virgin Atlantic instantly at a 1:1 ratio from the Virgin Atlantic to Hilton at a 1:1.5 ratio, but that transfer takes 2-4 weeks to complete.
Note that it will cost an eye-watering $780 per adult and $390 for child, plus 27.6% tax, for a mandatory round-trip yacht transfer from the Maldives airport.
These pictures are from the S. Regis, but give you an idea of the feeling in the Maldives:
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Have you made it to the Maldives?
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31 Comments On "WOW! HURRY! Wide Open Standard Award Availability At The Waldorf Astoria Maldives!"
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Sweet! How much is a sea plane transfer?
Not offered at this resort, which is a shame as that’s a very cool part of the Maldives experience.
But then again the seaplane isn’t exactly a comfortable experience, so many will prefer the yacht. Plus the seaplane offers limited luggage space, so advantage yacht there as well. I wrote the cost in the post, which is higher than seaplane transfers.
The seaplane also offers limited hours of operation and a flight delay could cause you to miss the last seaplane transfer to your resort, so advantage yacht there as well.
You don’t need a sea plane. This is 45mn boat ride from the airport. No luggage weight limitation. And 24/7 operations.
The price is nuts but bear in mind that the aspire credits, currently selling on DDF @62% or less will cut the bill in half.
It’s my favorite place on earth
So true. When I went to Tokoriki resort in Fiji this summer they priced the helicopter around the same as a private speed boat. In the end it just wasn’t worth the helicopter for the reduced luggage capacity.
Isn’t the Maldives anti Semitic?
Name one place that isn’t
Yes. I pointed out that as well. We shouldn’t be marketing them.
Everyone can do their own research and make their own decisions on where they should or should not travel.
I’m not your guidance counselor or Rabbi.
Here is some research:
https://beachgrit.com/2023/10/maldives-surfers-call-for-ban-on-israelis-following-hamas-butchery-of-1300-jewish-civilians/
Maldives surfers?
If that’s the standard, we definitely should never visit Boston or NYC.
Shouldn’t we stop marketing an Extremist nation like Maldives ? They wouldn’t allow their citizens to practice Judaism or any other religion except Islam.
A few years ago, I went to the Maldives with my wife and stayed at one of the over water villa resorts for 5 days. We had a fine time, but I have no desire to ever return. Even if using airline and hotel points, mandatory transfer fees to the resorts make it exorbitantly expensive. There’s equally fine scuba and snorkeling opportunities in other places around the globe and there’s not otherwise anything geographically or historically interesting about this destination.
Any suggestions on locations?
booked from Monday until Thursday (3 nights)
thanks!
from the tri state area, what are my best flight options if I don’t want to be away for Shabbos?
there is a boycott of maldives by indians who are the majority of tourists visiting there so thats why we will see more availability
Interesting! If they canceled en masse, that certainly could have caused this anomaly.
Super interesting
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/09/india/maldives-india-modi-tourism-boycott-intl-hnk/index.html#:~:text=Maldives%20is%20facing%20a%20boycott,getaway%20for%20domestic%20beaches%20instead.
“Three Maldives officials responded to his post, describing Modi as a “clown,” “terrorist” and a “puppet of Israel,” according to Reuters.”
From the CNN article linked above.
It did sound like there are plenty of people there that are anti Israel and probably anti Semitic too. But then again, where in the world is this not the case?
I would personally hold off on going to the Maldives at the moment and a few weeks ago canceled my AA award Q Suites flights and my resort reservations (not WA, a different one) I had booked for February.
I wouldn’t hesitate to go there now. The resort islands are a world apart from Male.
That being said, I don’t think I’d fly QSuites now. Not for safety, but personal/political reasons.
Looks like most of the availability dried up
Anyway to get kosher food? And in today’s current events is it scary to even ask?
Yes, you can ask the hotel for kosher food options, which are typically imported from Australia and needs some lead time.
Not scary at all.
Personally we just brought our own. Warm up with a hotlogic.
What’s the ideal itinerary if I want to go for 4 days without staying over shabbos?
Spend Shabbos in Dubai?
This is what’s causing it. More deals to follow
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/why-modi-s-beach-shots-sparked-calls-for-an-indian-boycott-of-maldives-tourism/ar-AA1mFsSh
I’m looking to go the week of February 11th at the moment there’s no availability for the 150k points a night. However leading up to this week there’s plenty of availability. Do you think it will open up for my dates since there’s so much availability before my week and maybe it open week by week as it gets closer to the date?
do they offer kosher food/menu like they do in the ritz and st regis in the Maldives ?
would they give issues if I book my 4 night stay on someone else’s FNC?
Interesting that people in India are boycotting the Maldives because they disparaged their president as being a puppet of Israel (go India!) and that has caused prices to fall and now we (kinda ppl of Israel) would go? Seems strange. I too am not a rabbi or guidance counselor just wondering how people make decisions. No judgment just want to point out things to think about.
Not sure why I can’t get this deal, its showing up as over 1m points! can someone please help?
Is there any way for minyan when staying there?