By: Devan Sullivan
Have you seen those amazing pictures of the icy blue Indian ocean with overwater bungalows that almost look too good to be true? Yeah, me too…or at least that’s what I thought until I got to experience it in September 2021 at Le Meridien Maldives.
This is a step by step guide on how I went to Le Meridien Maldives for six nights in an overwater villa for under $2,500 USD.
Step 1: Accrue Points and Miles
This step is crucial, because without the points/miles, the rest will not work. To accrue points, I open up credit cards with large sign up bonuses. In March 2020, I opened the Marriott Boundless card which offered a 100K signup bonus after spending 3K in the first three months. In addition to that, I accrued 25k points from general spending. This brought my total point balance to 125K Marriott points.
For airline miles, I opened up the Capital One Venture card with a 100K sign up bonus and I had a small arsenal of Chase Ultimate Rewards points that I had accrued during the pandemic.
Step 2: Finding Hotel Award Space Availability
Now that I had the points, I needed to figure out where to go. In late March 2021, Le Meridien Maldives, a new Marriott property, released their opening date for September 2021. Like any points obsessed person, I jumped on this opportunity! Luckily, Marriott classified the hotel as a category 5, meaning that it was possible to find award space for an overwater villa for 30K Marriott points per night.
Marriott gives you the 5th night free on all award bookings. Therefore, I used points to book four nights and the fifth night was free. On top of that, I had a free Marriott 35K award night from opening up my Marriott Boundless card the year prior. This is a yearly benefit of having this $95 card, so I tacked on a sixth night for free.
Award redemption for 6 nights in an Overwater Villa: 120K Marriott Bonvoy points and $912. The $912 includes taxes and fees for the hotel plus two roundtrip sea plane transfers.
Hotel, check! Now it was time to figure out airfare!
Step 3: Finding Award Space on Airlines
We are based in San Diego and I knew award space was going to be nearly impossible to find from SD, so I checked Singapore Airlines from LAX and SFO to Male, Maldives. I really wanted business class seats, but could not find any that coincided with our dates, so I tried my luck with economy, hoping for the best.
We flew LAX-SIN-MLE on Singapore Airlines (They are a 1:1 transfer partner with Chase- we like the Chase Sapphire Preferred) in poor person’s business class (an entire row each to ourselves!) and the first 16-hour flight FLEW by. Singapore Airlines is absolutely wonderful- I cannot wait to try their Business Class and Suite products!
Award Redemption on Singapore: $21.80 and 92K Krisflyer miles for two one-way tickets (points transferred from Sapphire Reserve)
My next feat was to decide where we wanted to go after our time in the Maldives and I picked Europe as I wanted to meet up with some friends. Turkish Airways has a direct flight from Male to Istanbul and, at the time, they had plenty of award space.
Award Redemption on Turkish: 90K Turkish Miles and Smiles and $430 for two one-way business class tickets. Transferred miles to Turkish Airlines via Capital One Venture.
*We traveled around Europe on points and miles as well, but that will be a different post. Getting home from Europe was an additional 27K via Avianca LifeMiles transferred from our AMEX Platinum during a promo period where we received 20% extra Avianca miles for transferring points from AMEX. We could have had business class, but the flights were horrible. We chose to hope for poor man’s economy once again (it came through!) and got the most direct flight home.
Step 4: COVID and Getting to the Maldives!
Now that our tickets and hotel stay were booked, it was travel time! Given this trip happened in September 2021, we had to get negative COVID-19 tests. We went to CVS to get this and it was covered by our insurance company. Once we had our negative COVID PCR tests, we were ready for travel!
Step 5: Seaplane Transfer
Once we cleared customs and immigration in Male, we left the terminal to figure out our sea plane transfer and alas! Someone was there waiting for us with a sign. This man then helped us figure out what plane we are meant to be on and got us accommodated in the lounge, where there was food, drinks and massage chairs, so no complaints here. A 35-minute seaplane ride and we were finally at Le Meridien Maldives after over 30 hours of traveling.
Step 6: Arrival and Check in at Le Meridien
We were greeted at the seaplane arrival area and then they walked us over to the front desk. We were in awe of the beauty of this place. At the front desk they gave us a welcome drink and had us sit down to go over the property’s amenities and important information. Everything was ready for our arrival: from our room upgrade to an Overwater Sunset Villa because we are Gold status at Marriott (thanks to the AMEX Platinum) to the buggy to get us to our room. On our way to our room we were given a tour of the property. Everything was absolute pristine as the resort had just opened up a week prior to our arrival.
Step 7: Six nights at Le Meridien Maldives
I won’t sugar coat anything, everything is expensive once you are on the island. I highly recommend packing light snacks in your suitcase or carry-on as you will pay 22% in taxes and service charge for every single item you buy.
Free amenities included: daily paddle board or glass bottom kayak rental, snorkel gear for the entirety of your stay, water, coffee & tea supplied in room, daily workout classes, combs, toothbrush, vanity kit, bath salts, etc.
Food: Prices ranged from $25-100+ per meal, but food sizes were quite large and filling. You can also opt into the half-board, full board or all-inclusive packages. We chose not to opt into a meal plan as I do not consume enough food to make it worth the price. This is where we really thrived when it came to our budget as I only eat one large meal a day. My partner would sometimes get two meals a day and other times he would snack on the light snacks we brought with us (granola bars, oatmeal, trail mix, etc.). This worked for us, it might not work for you. I still think you can stay within a 3K budget, but probably wouldn’t be able to stick within the 2K budget that we did if you tend to consume more food and beverages.
Drinks: Alcohol is a minimum of $18 per drink plus your 22% tax and service charge. We did drink at least one adult beverage a day, but neither of us are big drinkers, so this is a YMMV situation. If you know you drink a lot while on vacation, then you can plan for that. Note: Bringing alcohol into the Maldives is illegal. Do not try to bring your own alcohol in- it will be confiscated at arrival.
Excursions: Prices range from $20-$600+ depending on what type of excursion you are looking for. I am an avid scuba diver and I knew I was going to scuba dive while in the Maldives despite the high price point. My partner had never scuba dived before and I convinced him to do it, so I bought two dives for myself while he had one “Discover Scuba” dive. Our scuba dive came out to $545 for the two of us.
The Total for TWO People: 302K miles, and $2,493 USD
Flights:
- 92K Kris Flyer and $20.80 in taxes and fees
- 90K Turkish Smiles Miles and $430 in taxes and fees
Hotel:
- 120K Marriott Bonvoy points and $657 in taxes, fees, and food (we each ate 1 large meal and 1 alcoholic beverage/day)
- Seaplane transfers: $840
- 1 free-night redemption
Excursions:
- Scuba: $545
- Snorkeling, paddle boarding and kayaking: FREE
- Daily fitness classes: FREE
TOTAL: 302K miles and $2,493 USD for two people
Had we not used points and miles for this trip, our entire trip to the Maldives would have cost over $12,000 USD.
This is the beauty of points and miles! Here at the PointSisters, we help others curate incredible trips at a fraction of the cost. Reach out to us at [email protected] if you want our help!
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