*** Holidays & Travels 2023 Thread ***

ChrisD. said:
Is that just because of the walk or privacy? I love the idea of waking up and looking out at pretty much nothing but the ocean.
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They seemed to be closer to the main complex (to your point about walking the deck a million times a day) yet still super enclosed and private. It also meant you could "do your own thing" on the beach without any issues i.e. picnic/take your own drinks/just sit on a towel.

Obviously you can do this with the water villas but sometimes they were a mission.

Also the sea plane 'gate' is super lux as you'd imagine...drinks, snacks, showers etc...

Male is a dump but I went for a quick tour as I had an hour or two to kill.
 
ChrisD. said:
Trash, industry... very good point I hadn't considered that. We'll be flying our in business or first class so we will be well rested, I'll have to bring her around to going further afield. And thanks for the all inclusive tip, I hadn't realised a meal would be so expensive, will definitely find a decent all inclusive offer as we are both food lovers and love our drink.
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Nice - the first time we were with Emirates in economy via Dubai and it was a bit of a slog, especially on the way back with the 8 hour layover in the middle of the night. This trip we were Business Class with BA direct and it makes all the difference

The resorts rely on you being all-inclusive, so 90% of the food is free for you. It looks a lot cheaper if you don't do that, but you'll easily spend several hundred a day otherwise, and even more with alcohol. It just takes the stress out of worrying what you're paying and if you should have that second dessert with lunch to last you till dinner (you absolutely should...)

Some of them do a premium all-inclusive which adds in some excursions like dolphin cruises, but you can always pay for these separately if they take your fancy.
 
Lots to take in and research to do, thanks both!

Some of the hotels have absolute comedy websites, having to go to Google photos etc to get some idea.

Also have to work out booking the hotel via BA with the flights, versus booking flights & hotel separately.
 
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ChrisD. said:
Lots to take in and research to do, thanks both!

Some of the hotels have absolute comedy websites, having to go to Google photos etc to get some idea.

Also have to work out booking the hotel via BA with the flights, versus booking flights & hotel separately.
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If you book it all as a BA holiday you’ll get cheaper flights
 
ChrisD. said:
Lots to take in and research to do, thanks both!

Some of the hotels have absolute comedy websites, having to go to Google photos etc to get some idea.

Also have to work out booking the hotel via BA with the flights, versus booking flights & hotel separately.
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I would expect BA to have a limited supply of resorts through their website - the travel agents will have a lot more choice but still be able to book the BA flights. They've only started flying there all year round from next month, up till now it was just November to March.

Good luck - any more questions just give me a PM, happy to help!

 
Penfold101 said:
I would expect BA to have a limited supply of resorts through their website - the travel agents will have a lot more choice but still be able to book the BA flights. They've only started flying there all year round from next month, up till now it was just November to March.
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Can you link your Avios thing with travel agents?

I've found comedy cheap 1st class prices outbound via BA.com and they confirmed it on the phone today, so we really want to take it up while it's live and enjoy the experience. In reality it doesn't look like a huge upgrade over business but why the hell not for our honeymoon.

She works for Virgin, it's a shame they don't fly there until October. We've looked at other destinations/flights but just can't make the dates work well.
 
ChrisD. said:
Can you link your Avios thing with travel agents?

I've found comedy cheap 1st class prices outbound via BA.com and they confirmed it on the phone today, so we really want to take it up while it's live and enjoy the experience. In reality it doesn't look like a huge upgrade over business but why the hell not for our honeymoon.

She works for Virgin, it's a shame they don't fly there until October. We've looked at other destinations/flights but just can't make the dates work well.
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Yes, you can have the avios and tier points for the flight retroactively applied to your account after you get back.

If there’s first available just do it - we flew business using avios and companion voucher and it’s incredibly rare for the seats to become available. Started as premium economy then used seatspy to alert me if any business became available. Wouldn’t want to travel long haul any other way now…
 
Penfold101 said:
If there’s first available just do it - we flew business using avios and companion voucher and it’s incredibly rare for the seats to become available. Started as premium economy then used seatspy to alert me if any business became available. Wouldn’t want to travel long haul any other way now…
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Yeah I have enough points to get there and back in business, but I don't want to take the risk with waiting for seat availability. If it was just a normal holiday I'd risk it but not for this.
 
I'm really surprised there is any reward availability at all in first on BA to the Maldives! Even business I'd imagine is a nightmare to get, probably need to call them at midnight on the day the flights are released (which I think is 330 days before departure on BA?).
 
OllyM said:
Don't go if you think you'll want to travel to the USA without a load of hassle in the future - anybody who has been to Cuba since January 2021 can't use the visa waiver program any more and has to apply for a proper visa from a US embassy.
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Wow that is crazy. I mean I'm not planning on going to the USA so should be OK. But good to know!
 
RobHu said:
I'm really surprised there is any reward availability at all in first on BA to the Maldives! Even business I'd imagine is a nightmare to get, probably need to call them at midnight on the day the flights are released (which I think is 330 days before departure on BA?).
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In a nutshell, yes. I booked in premium economy initially and was happy with that, but set up an alert on seatspy that would send me an email within an hour if it found some seats in business/first that had been made available through cancellations or further offerings on a range of dates. Over the space of 3 months the outbound and return flights both had a pair of seats become available and I was able to phone the executive line quick enough to snag them (paying £35 per seat each time plus the extra avios and taxes) but it all worked out which I was never expecting it to. The first time it happened I was on holiday in Iceland, but the phone network was good enough to stay on all the way through!

It's a must if you want to find specific reward seats and have the executive line number saved in your phone...
 
ChrisD. said:
We'll be flying our in business or first class so we will be well rested, I'll have to bring her around to going further afield. And thanks for the all inclusive tip, I hadn't realised a meal would be so expensive, will definitely find a decent all inclusive offer as we are both food lovers and love our drink.
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Be careful but depending on what island you go to, all inclusive means different things. On some islands all inclusive means all your food is included but you have to eat in the main restaurant where as all inclusive a'la carte means you can choose to eat at the speciality restaurants whenever you want and you're not forced into only eating at the main restaurant and for that you have to pay extra
 
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March - family centre parks
March - boys trip lisbon
April - family Lake District
July - family Lake District
August - family south of France
December - family New York/Sky holiday TBC

Probably going to throw Rome in this year too, wife wants to take the children, I want adult weekend away, still to be discussed.
 
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