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I want to book a return flight for two to Maldives on Business with BA using my Companion Voucher in Jan 26 for 7 days.
Been checking for a while but no availability is being shown.
Should I wait or book one way (return is available in Dec) and book a flight out to Mumbai, also available. Then get a separate flight from Mumbai to Maldives?It’s a unicorn route and maybe the pixies will grant you your wish, but personally I just gave up.
Last year we went via Mumbai and this year we’re going outbound via Mumbai and inbound via Bangalore. The connections in Mumbai work well outbound but coming back you will need to stay at least one night in India. You will need a 30-day eVisa which grants you two entries as you need to collect bags from the first international flight and check in for the short haul flight to MLE. Personally I think a short stay in India is a bonus on the trip.
Here’s my experience:
We’re staying at Dhigali this time which we booked with D2 again. BA and booking.com were more expensive and the difference wasn’t worth the Avios we would have received. The resort’s direct price was ludicrous. Once again we checked the booking with the resort before paying the D2 final amount.
In June last year BA released loads of reward seats to Male for Nov/Dec/Jan so it’s possible they may come up, there are no guarantees though. I would book the reward flights that you can, including the Mumbai one, and then hold off booking a cash flight between Mumbai and Male until nearer the time, in case things change, although given you can get flights for about £100 you may be happy to book and lose that if necessary. Having the companion voucher will definitely help so keep checking regularly, as Seatspy won’t show any companion voucher availability.
PS, I too stayed at Dhigali – booked through Travel Republic as they had the best deal.
For the standard award availability to MLE you need to book as soon as the seats are released for each date at T-355, so obviously these are long gone for Jan 26. Read the threads and articles on here about maximising your chances of being successful, especially the long “How to book the return leg with the 241” thread.
The companion voucher can open up extra availability in business class, but there’s no easy way of looking for this, you just have to keep searching with your voucher on specific dates.
If you don’t have time for a few days in India, you could also consider using your voucher to get to DOH or DXB and connect from there. (QR often has avios seats to MLE from DOH.)
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