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Anyone any experience of cash flight price trends for MLE with BA? Looks like WTP about 9 months before departure is relatively decent value for tHis route, but wondering whether that would still hold for school holidays?
Should I expect that by the time you get to T-9m that all the decent fares have gone? I can’t bring myself to pay £3k for a premium economy seat to anywhere.
I’ve already dismissed the idea of CW cash to MLE or grabbing a unicorn redemption on school holiday weekends. I’ve not searched using the new 241 mind so I don’t know whether that makes any difference.
The new 241 may well make a difference so try it if you have one! Lots of people reporting extra availability on unicorn routes, e.g. SIN. Remember though, it will only give you extra availability for 2 people so if you’re travelling with kids this may not help.
MLE is very difficult because it’s a very high demand route and the only direct one from the UK. Apparently BA has no problems filling all the cabins for cash so prices are unlikely to come down any time soon.
Which school holidays are you looking at? I imagine August would be cheaper than Christmas, as is the case in, say, for the Caribbean but this may not be the case for MLE. Personally I would go somewhere else with kids and leave Maldives for another time! You’ll have much more chance getting award seats to the Caribbean or MRU, for example.
I’ve spent a year researching this for a trip we’ve just come back from. Depending on how much time you’ve got to plan this, I’d say google flights was invaluable in emailing me the pricing fluctuations on both WT and WTP using its monitoring function. I’d set that up if I were you.
I can’t speak to how much you’re prepared to spend, but in the end what I did is book 3 WT seats using a 241, bringing the total cash (tax) element to £450 *for all three people* using RFS. On a route where cash fares are obviously on the higher end of the spectrum, this represented incredible value, especially compared to even the non-HBO WT cash fares which – for December/January peak travel – never really went below £900 per person (with luggage). WTP was traditionally twice the WT fare during most days.
Before the Covid restrictions eased, I did see an offer for just over £600 for WT, but that was it. I briefly considered QR with a DOH stopover but the money savings weren’t great.
Having just done this trip, I can honestly say hand in heart that there was nothing wrong with WT. Good food (two hot meals), good drinks, blankets, pillows, eyemasks/earplugs/toothbrush/paste if you ask for them. Seat fairly comfortable with adjustable headrest acting as a pillow, decent IFE. Plenty of room to walk/stretch, with four toilets available.
I think the only benefit of WTP is the greater recline and, possibly, the footrest. Everything else is just negligibly better.
Hope this helps!
In the last 10 years we have flown to MLE on BA (business and WTP), Emirates(business and economy) Luftansa (economy for about €280 each in 2021) and this year its Turkish Airlines in ecomony for £550 each inc paying for extra leg room seats on all four legs.
I could not nab a 241 and the cash prices in WTP or Business were crazy when I looked. The TK flights are well timed and whilst we have never flown with TK before we status matched our BA golds to TK Elite to get lounge access as the cherry on the top.
Staying at the Conrad on points – 960,000 for 10 nights.
It’s be Easter 2024 so book in May this year if I wanted to book as the seats open. I think £1500 is about fair for WTP given it’s a direct flight and looks to be about the bottom according to google price trends. The problem with Easter of course is you don’t have the flexibility you have in the August school holidays. Booking can seats T-355 would be well over that £1500, but 3 months later when prices usually settle, they might be even more expensive as people have snapped up the cheaper fares.
We’d just be looking for 2 seats (OH works in schools) so 241 with the new voucher would work if the seats area available.
As for whether WTP is worth it – well massively so for the OH whose arthritis means an extended time in an economy seat means agony and being unable to walk at the other end. I also personally find I can sleep OK in WTP – way better than economy, but not as well as CW and obviously not as well as F. So we find it a decent compromise when CW is unavailable or north of the ~£2k I think it’s worth.
Bit more context – looking to use current 241s for South America with Iberian in August 2024 and a half-term fly-and-flop some time, hence cash at Easter.
When you are tied to school holidays, you plan in advance…
I agree on economy, these days I’d (happily) rather go somewhere under 5 hours if that was the only option. My limit is returning from DOH in December on QR where it’s a direct 7-hour daytime flight to MAN and I’ve been able to select exit row as BA Silver.
The extra availability doesn’t appear at T-355 so if you wait your taking a risk on not getting seats at all, as I don’t know how many I class fares ever appear on a particular route.
I don’t get the general preoccupation with the Maldives unless you’ve got silly amounts of money – even if you get award flights and hotel you’re looking at outrageous prices for F and B and transfers. For a key peak date like Easter you’re far more likely to get award seats to the Caribbean or Bahamas/Turks and Caicos, even if you have to go via the US and get connecting flights. Still not cheap destinations but you’ve much more choice once you get there.
Best of luck! If you didn’t have your south-american plans, I’d have said to prioritise a MLE reward booking in WTP with the 241 voucher 355 days out, and if that fails, settle for a cash fare of anywhere in the region of £1500. Prices do fluctuate indeed after the seats go on sale, but it’s a massive gamble, as you said.
Let us know how you get on!
Depending on how long your trip is why not fly in and out of Chennai then do the short hop across to the Maldives on Sri Lankan Airways (part of OW) – there may be a direct flight as well.
Depending on how long your trip is why not fly in and out of Chennai then do the short hop across to the Maldives on Sri Lankan Airways (part of OW) – there may be a direct flight as well.
That’s similar to what we are doing, the only direct flight I think is Indigo which was quite expensive and limited on baggage. We ended up with Chennai-Colombo, spent 10 nights in SL, Colombo-Male is tomorrow, then we fly Male-Colombo-Chennai after our trip to the Maldives. Total cost of the SriLankan flights in economy was about £270 each using a multi destination ticket. Baggage allowance was 30Kg each.
Depending on how long your trip is why not fly in and out of Chennai then do the short hop across to the Maldives on Sri Lankan Airways (part of OW) – there may be a direct flight as well.
I don’t see direct flights at the moment from Chennai so we’d need Indian visas to take a domestic flight. Another trip to India is on the cards at some point, but not just yet. We’d need a visa to collect bags too I’d expect, but maybe you were hand luggage?
I remember looking at BOM, DEL, or BLR connections in the past, but at least with BA the flights didn’t align well. And I just thought of the checked baggage problem. We almost came a cropper with that last year flying Zanzibar-Nairobi-LHR, but Kenyan kindly interlined the bags to BA.
@masaccio We planned for a week at the IC Chennai and also grabbed five nights at the SS Laamu for 100k points a night, now 238k points a night with dynamic pricing. Because of all this then the ridiculous cost of full Indian visas palatable. E-Visas are back for India so if you do decided to take that option make sure you get a multiple entry
visa. We flew in the night before so as to derisk the collection and checking of bags. Hotels are very cheap in and around the city. Beware also that SriLankan are well known for schedule changes.@masaccio We planned for a week at the IC Chennai and also grabbed five nights at the SS Laamu for 100k points a night, now 238k points a night with dynamic pricing. Because of all this then the ridiculous cost of full Indian visas palatable. E-Visas are back for India so if you do decided to take that option make sure you get a multiple entry
visa. We flew in the night before so as to derisk the collection and checking of bags. Hotels are very cheap in and around the city. Beware also that SriLankan are well known for schedule changes.Ah hadn’t spotted eVisas were back. A couple of nights in India would be a nice way to break up the trip. If Indigo do return to Chennai, the city is on my list to visit. And I don’t think I will get tired of visiting Mumbai or Delhi.
@masaccio The IC will be interesting, struggling to find much in the way of reviews and it only has 104 rooms. Couple of good options near Chennai, Pondicherry looks interesting, going to research renting a driver for a day. Also, Sea Shore restaurant in Mahabalipuram which was visited by Rick Stein quite a few a years ago. It will either be great or awful.
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