Maldives reward flights for Easter

[Kevmof]

Hi to all and thanks in advance to those who respond to my first post on these forums.

I have amassed a decent size pot of Avios 700k+ and a few companion vouchers.

I am thinking about holiday options to celebrate my wife’s landmark birthday in 2026 and am considering a return to the Maldives where we had our honeymoon.

With school age kids in tow we would need to go in the Easter holidays.

Looking at the BA website for 2025 seems to show nothing whatsoever for Easter 25, which suggests BA don’t make rewards flights available over the Easter break.

Do you think there is any scope to be able to do this in business class using avios/vouchers for the 4 of us? Or do I need to have a rethink!?

Many thanks

[Garethgerry]

All easter 25 will have gone. Wait until 355 days before when they open up for 2026, try getting Avios tickets, book outward as they appear then inbound later as they appear and then merge . There will always be the promised minimum on release.

If you are not lucky, still have nearly a year to buy cash tickets.

[JD_traveller]

Hi Kevmof, congratulations on the Avios pot! BA make 4 business class seats available on every flight – as you’ve seen Maldives is very popular and seats go very quickly. In fact looking at the availability on SeatSpy for next year its very patchy all the way through the year. You might get lucky if booked passengers cancel their seats and these go back into the pot, but normally these seats go at 355 days when they go on sale.

[rosswill]

You’ll want to do it at 1am on the day of release. Best option can be by phone as the agent can take the reward seats off sale whilst payment details and names are sorted whereas online you will only get any availability left at the final stage of booking which will be after anyone else who is on the phone has had a chance. Only complication is you’ll need to phone an open office such as the US or Japan one as the UK number will be closed. Either way if you manage to book the outbound you need to phone for the inbound when that becomes available. If you wait for both inbound and outbound to be available you’ll most probably find the outbound gone.

[ed_fly]

always amazes me how someone accrues 700k Avios and a few companion vocuhers, which will have cost hundreds of pounds in cc fees, and clearly hasn’t even scratched the surface of Avios basics. You’d be well advised to read the various guides, as if you want to use 2 x companion vouchers for a family of four, then you either need to get the timing right or have vouchers generated by two of the travelling party, which brings it’s own nuances.

[NorthernLass]

As above, and if the destination is non-negotiable, have a Plan B.

You could use your voucher & avios to get to DXB, or DOH, for example, then get a connection to MLE. You could use avios on QR DOH-MLE which is about 5 hours and probably doable in economy.

You quite often see F availability to both of these (less likely at Easter though), which would be a nice treat for your wife. Kids would probably have to travel in CW though, so it depends how old they are (unless you book just 1 F seat for the wife, of course …!)

[NorthernLass]

Also – isn’t the summer MLE schedule only 3 departures per week or something? So from the end of March fewer seats to go after.

[ekposh]

Flying to India also an option. Great Avios availability and a fairly short hop to MLE. Cost and quality of the connection though, I’m not sure

[meta]

SeatSpy is useless as it doesn’t show extra availability when using the voucher. These often get released 9-11 months in advance including for very popular destinations.

[masaccio]

ekposh wrote:

Flying to India also an option. Great Avios availability and a fairly short hop to MLE. Cost and quality of the connection though, I’m not sure

I certainly don’t bother with trying to find direct flights. Here’s my experience of flying via India:

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/trip-report-maldives-via-mumbai-redemption-and-destination2/

We are doing it again next Easter school holidays, but this time with 4 days in Bangalore. Fingers crossed for an IPL game while we are there.

[BBbetter]

Nice one masaccio. Are you going to the same resort?

Was the connecting time at BOM convenient last time? Looked at BLR option, but that’s 6 hours between flights?

[BBbetter]

masaccio wrote:

ekposh wrote:

Flying to India also an option. Great Avios availability and a fairly short hop to MLE. Cost and quality of the connection though, I’m not sure

I certainly don’t bother with trying to find direct flights. Here’s my experience of flying via India:

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/trip-report-maldives-via-mumbai-redemption-and-destination2/

We are doing it again next Easter school holidays, but this time with 4 days in Bangalore. Fingers crossed for an IPL game while we are there.

Nice one! Is the connection at BLR ok in terms of timing? I thought I saw 6 hours between BA and indigo flights.

Did you stay at hotel when you connected at BOM last time?

And curious which Maldives resort are you going this time?

[masaccio]

Connection time outbound in BOM last year was 3.5h, next year BLR it is 3h. On the way home you definitely need to stay in India as the connections don’t work. And because you collect bags post immigration outbound, you use up your two entries on the eVisa. That might be unusual as the immigration officer looked very confused that we’d entered India about 45 minutes before.

But we are Indophiles so a short stay in India is a bonus.

We’ve not picked a Maldives hotel yet as rates are still very toppy. I am hoping for a good deal on Emerald or Dhigali on Raa Atoll but I will definitely look at D2 again. There are heaps of resorts that meet our criteria (shady water villa with a pool, good house reef, excellent food) so I am not in a rush. Rates look to be lowest 1-3 months out.

[masaccio]

For next year we have:

BA135 dep LHR T5 1740 arr BOM 0730+1
Indigo 6E1131 dep BOM T2 1040 arr MLE 1300

And 1pm in MLE is plenty early enough for a seaplane, which resorts arrange for you if you’ve never done the Maldives without a travel agent.

[BBbetter]

Thanks, isn’t that a bit tight as you need to be checking in 3 hours before indigo flight. Any delay by BA or immigration or baggage will be risky?

Sorry, another qn – of the resorts you have been to, any you’d recommend for a small child? Kids club with slides or swings etc..

[masaccio]

BBbetter wrote:

Thanks, isn’t that a bit tight as you need to be checking in 3 hours before indigo flight. Any delay by BA or immigration or baggage will be risky?

Sorry, another qn – of the resorts you have been to, any you’d recommend for a small child? Kids club with slides or swings etc..

Check in online and then you are just doing a bag drop. I think 3 hours is plenty. If you really worried, go hand baggage only. Doesn’t work if you are a serious scuba diver of course.

Dusit Thani where we were last time seemed to have a great kids club. Lots of families there with small kids. The pool villas allow small children but the pool is a metre deep so dangerous for non-swimming children if left unattended. My wife rescued a child in the neighbouring villa that would have drowned. Proper parenting rules apply as always!

[Mikeact]

ed_fly wrote:

always amazes me how someone accrues 700k Avios and a few companion vocuhers, which will have cost hundreds of pounds in cc fees, and clearly hasn’t even scratched the surface of Avios basics. You’d be well advised to read the various guides, as if you want to use 2 x companion vouchers for a family of four, then you either need to get the timing right or have vouchers generated by two of the travelling party, which brings it’s own nuances.

I don’t think 700k is a particularly high number by many on here at all. Rob talks about his millions and I still have way over seven figures. I agree, you need to be totally savvy in this ‘game,’ to get the most value out of travelling. But probably tens of thousands have no idea, if one of my neighbours is anything to go by.

[Kevmof]

Many thanks for all for your helpful responses.

Sounds like we have a plan and a plan B.

I’m generally pretty savvy with this stuff having secured first class reward flights a year in advance before, but that was pre kids, on a route with lots of availability.

What was throwing me this time was whether reward flights were even available, so I’ve learnt something new scratching the surface.

Many thanks again