CRAZY. Only 24 thousand points to sleep at Le Meridien Maldives.
The Maldives is one of the most highly regarded locations for all serial accumulators of points and miles, the [...]
MLE
Marriott
The Maldives is one of the most highly regarded locations from all serial accumulators of points and miles, the reason is simple: it is the place to get the most out of using points to pay for stays. Getting the most means peeling off the best conversion, the one that allows us to stay without spending anything (or almost anything) instead of bleeding ourselves dry with stays of over 500$ per night.
The New Le Meridien Maldives
In this article:
At the moment only renderings can be found on the Web, because the facility will open from next September 1, But it has been bookable for a few days, and most importantly it is possible to grab a seaside villa, using the Bonvoy program points.
The new Le Meridien Maldives is located on Lhaviyani Atoll, about 30 minutes by seaplane from Male. It has about 150 rooms, ranging from beachfront rooms to overwater bungalows. The resort has four restaurants ranging from the casual beach bar to a Japanese-only restaurant for dinner.
As we have explained several times, the Bonvoy program categorizes its hotels by category, from 1 (the cheapest) to 8 (the most luxurious). Loyalty program members therefore know that, depending on the category they want to book using points, the room will have a "certain" cost depending on the period: low, medium or high season.
This new Meridien has been placed in category 5, booking with points will then cost from 30 to 45k Bonvoy points per night. Other Marriott properties in the Maldives are much more expensive. For example, a free night at the Westin costs at least 50,000 points, while a night at the St. Regis starts at 70,000. Of course, these are even more exclusive and expensive facilities, but in this case we are talking about a brand new resort at less than half the cost.
How to pay only 24k points for a 5-night stay
Marriott loyalty program members know that when you book for four nights at a hotel, using points, you will be entitled to a fifth night free.
In this example we see how in October, a period that falls in the mid-season, it costs 35 thousand points per night. Taking advantage of the fifth night free promo, there goes the Average cost per night drops to 28 thousand points. In case of stay in low season this price drops further to 24k points per night.
In addition to the room, of course we will have to pay for all expenses such as the seaplane for transportation to the atoll, food, and activities in the spa. Expenses that will allow us to accumulate more points to use for the next reservation.
At this time, and it is not yet known for how long, the obnoxious resort surcharges are not applied. A surcharge that can affect even more than 10% of the cost of the stay, all the more reason to book and not miss this opportunity.
Because it is good to remember this a vacation in the Maldives can never be "low cost," seaplane transportation costs no less than 400$ per person, to this we have to add the fact that since it is difficult to move between atolls you cannot expect to eat something "outside the hotel" because you are alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean and Deliveroo is not yet available as a service.
In any case use the points Millemiles to fly to the Maldives is possible (although it is not known when Alitalia will return to fly to this paradise). If in addition to the tickets we can also save on the stay, here is that a 5/10 thousand euro vacation can cost much less than half as much. And this is the ultimate goal of the reward travel.
The Bonvoy program is a partner of American Express. Transfer points Membership Rewards in Bonvoy Points it's a matter of minutes, and because of the 5:4 conversion rate, it's super easy to turn points into a free stay in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
