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There are two methods to learn the title of this text. Each allude to a actuality that we’ve all anticipated for a very long time: the time of “revenge journey” is lastly right here.
I actually might be embarking on a season of vengeful journeys over the approaching spring and summer time months, trying to expend a number of the factors that I’ve accrued through the pandemic.
Whereas not all of my plans are finalized, I believed I’d share a high-level sketch of what I’ve obtained in retailer over the subsequent few months, because the opinions might be coming your means thick and quick.
The Motels
Reasonably than an outlined single journey like those I often take, the season of revenge journey inevitably blurs the strains between when one journey begins and the subsequent one begins.
Thus, as an alternative of writing about unbiased journeys with ill-defined boundaries, I’ll merely share with you a number of the flights, lodges, and total itineraries that I’ve booked through the month of Might, together with some potential bookings that I’m additionally contemplating.
Given how they’ve largely dictated my plans for Might, I believe it is sensible to begin with the lodges this time.
Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi
Ever since a memorable maiden journey to Maldives in March 2020 simply earlier than the pandemic, I’ve been eyeing a return to the Indian Ocean archipelago to check out a number of the higher-end resorts in comparison with the JW Marriott Maldives I had visited final time.
And I can’t consider a greater time to make that journey than Might 2022 to rejoice my twenty eighth birthday, in addition to bringing my story of pandemic-era journey full circle with a return to the dreamy vacation spot the place I had spent my remaining pre-pandemic days.
I’ll be kicking off our total six-night keep within the Maldives with three nights on the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi. I’ve booked these three nights utilizing Hilton Free Evening Rewards, which I earned from the Amex US Hilton bank cards – but it surely was no straightforward job.
For those who’ve ever looked for award availability at this resort, you’ll know that it’s a very tall order to search out any bookable area at the usual 150,000-point degree (which was 120,000 factors again once I had first booked).
Certainly, I had fortunately stumbled onto a pocket of 5 nights of ordinary availability in Might 2022 all the best way again in Might 2021. I booked utilizing 480,000 Hilton Honors factors on the time, leveraging the Fifth Evening Free profit, and sat on this five-night reservation till comparatively just lately.
When it grew to become clear our flight plans might solely accommodate a three-night keep on the Waldorf, I simply wanted to finish the straightforward job of swapping out my 480,000 factors for a trio of Hilton Free Evening Rewards.
There was only one downside: Hilton Honors is unable to do that with out cancelling the preliminary reservation and making a completely new one.
And naturally, all customary award area had been snapped up by then, so I risked shedding the villa altogether if I made a decision to cancel and rebook.
Fortunately, a laborious three-way name with the Hilton Diamond desk and the resort’s reservations desk helped to resolve issues easily, and I’m now unlocking spectacular worth out of my Hilton certificates, because the keep would’ve in any other case price me 150,000 factors per evening.
The Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi guarantees beautiful villas, on-property eating experiences, and a scenic switch from Malé onboard the resort’s luxurious yacht. I’m past excited for this keep at what’s definitely the only most aspirational Hilton Honors property there may be, and to share the assessment with you quickly after.
St. Regis Maldives
After waking up on the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi on my birthday this 12 months, I’ll be watching sundown from the St. Regis Maldvies Vommuli 100km to the southwest.
In comparison with the Waldorf, the St. Regis is likely to be extra acquainted to most Canadians with larger entry to Marriott Bonvoy factors.
It’s very a lot one of many crown jewels of Marriott’s portfolio, and many people have labored in direction of racking up resort factors with a view of finally staying in one in every of its glamorous overwater villas.
As you may think about, when Marriott Bonvoy introduced that they’d be transferring to dynamic pricing in October 2021, demand for factors reserving on the St. Regis Maldives went into overdrive.
That’s why I’m grateful that I locked in a reserving far upfront for this one, securing three nights in a Sundown Overwater Villa utilizing 255,000 Bonvoy factors shortly after I had confirmed my Waldorf Astoria keep again in mid-2021.
Following this system’s change to dynamic pricing, the St. Regis is now pricing at 100,000+ Bonvoy factors per evening on many dates, leaving it farther out of attain in comparison with earlier than.
Thus, I’m fairly proud of my timing in attending to expertise this resort, and I’m curious to see how the keep compares to the Waldorf Astoria simply earlier than and JW Marriott from a couple of years in the past.
So as to add to the enjoyable, Prince of Journey workforce members Rohin and Rachel occur to be visiting the St. Regis similtaneously me. Mixed with Amy’s go to earlier this 12 months as a part of her Dubai and Maldives journey, we’re excited to convey you a joint assessment from all views of probably the most aspirational properties within the recreation.
The Bodrum EDITION
Talking of Marriott Bonvoy’s transfer to dynamic pricing, The Bodrum EDITION is likely one of the properties that was most affected by this transformation. Identical to lots of you, I had locked in a few speculative bookings at this resort within the wee hours of March 29, 2022.
A kind of speculative dates fell in late Might, aligned with a simultaneous go to by fellow Prince of Journey workforce member Josh.
When an irresistible enterprise class fare deal for late Might popped up (which we’ll focus on beneath), I figured that I’d lock in my plans for these couple of dates and make a work-cation out of it.
The Bodrum EDITION is by all accounts a gleaming property, and moreover is likely one of the few EDITION properties all over the world to supply breakfast to Marriott Bonvoy elite members, though they aren’t obligated to. I’m excited to see what the hype’s all about.
The Flights
I’ll be utilizing my resort rewards factors in direction of some very memorable stays this month, however the flights I’ve booked to get us from place to position are not any much less thrilling.
I’ll stroll you thru at least 4 of my confirmed flight bookings, after which my thought course of for the remainder of the itinerary that hasn’t totally materialized but.
Qatar Airways Qsuites
En path to the Maldives, we’ll be flying Qatar Airways Qsuites from Montreal to Doha to kick off the journey.
This might be my first time flying Qsuites because the pre-pandemic days, so I’m eager to relive the expertise and see whether or not issues have modified over the previous two years.
Furthermore, it’ll be my associate Jessy’s first time on Qsuites. On one hand, I’m eager for her to expertise what’s broadly thought-about the world’s finest enterprise class product; however, I’m cautious that she’ll insist we fly Qsuites each time going ahead! 😉
I booked this flight from Montreal to Doha with 70,000 British Airways Avios plus $150 in taxes per individual, shortly after Qatar Airways linked up with British Airways Avios and the 2 applications equalized their pricing.
I had beforehand secured the flights with 70,000 American AAdvantage miles, however provided that Avios are so much simpler to earn than American miles, I made a decision to cancel my American reservation and e book utilizing Avios as soon as it grew to become potential to e book Qsuites by way of each applications for a similar nominal quantity.
Qatar Airways 777 “Cathay Pacific” First Class
From Doha, we’ve nonetheless obtained to get ourselves right down to the Maldives. Fortunately, there’s a delightfully distinctive product awaiting us on this journey that I’m so eager to attempt.
Qatar Airways has leased a handful of Boeing 777s from Cathay Pacific to help operations whereas their A350 fleet stays grounded. In the meantime, Cathay Pacific continues to function a scaled-down route community resulting from Hong Kong’s journey restrictions.
Given the short-term nature of this deal, Qatar Airways hasn’t gone to the difficulty of refurbishing the planes’ interiors, however will as an alternative merely function the Cathay Pacific 777s as-is utilizing their very own cabin crew and tender product.
That implies that, for a restricted time, Qatar Airways 777 First Class passengers get to expertise a hybrid of Cathay Pacific’s distinctive six-seater First Class cabin and Qatar Airways’s elevated meals and repair – a novel alternative that I merely couldn’t resist as an aviation geek and avid frequent flyer!
Qatar’s 4 leased 777s are at the moment working on the airline’s routes from Doha to Hong Kong and Malé, making them ideally suited to anybody “revenge travelling” to the Maldives this season.
I booked this flight for 52,500 Avios plus $150 in taxes per individual, getting us into Malé early within the morning of our keep on the Waldorf Astoria.
(Be aware that by reserving the 2 Qatar Airways flights individually, I’ve really “missed out” on fairly a little bit of worth: since Qatar Airways linked up with Avios, it’s now potential to e book your entire journey of Montreal–Doha–Maldives for 85,000 Avios one-way. Nonetheless, I used to be locked out of this chance having already snagged the final award seats on these flights, and I didn’t wish to threat cancelling the reservation and hoping for availability to return into the pool, lest it didn’t.)
Delta One
Moreover my Qatar Airways flights, the opposite two units of flights that I’ve booked for Might are considerably out of left discipline.
This was a US$900 “flash sale” that popped up a couple of weeks in the past for journey on the SkyTeam transatlantic trio of Delta, Air France, or KLM, plus their three way partnership associate Virgin Atlantic.
Now, I’ve already flown Air France and KLM’s flagship enterprise class merchandise not too way back, so I wasn’t overly excited to fly them once more.
However provided that I most likely gained’t be redeeming factors for Delta or Virgin Atlantic anytime quickly (each of that are fairly tough to entry from Canadian factors applications, in any case), I figured {that a} US$900 enterprise class deal would dovetail completely with the Bodrum EDITION reserving I had already lined up for late Might.
Delta One on the Boeing 767 is the outbound, taking me from New York to Boston to London, earlier than an Aeroplan redemption with Lufthansa takes me to Bodrum for a few days.
Virgin Atlantic Higher Class
Reality be informed, Delta One by itself most likely isn’t essentially the most thrilling aspirational product. Certainly, in my thoughts, all the US “Massive 3” airways usually mix collectively right into a fuzz of mediocrity.
However Virgin Atlantic Higher Class is the actual prize that I used to be after: as a gorgeous enterprise class product that’s considerably difficult to e book on factors at an ideal worth, I used to be eager to verify it off my listing with this fare deal.
On the brand new Airbus A350-1000, Higher Class affords snug reverse-herringbone seats, a particular moody cabin design, and most impressively, a “Loft” bar and lounge space for enterprise class passengers to mingle and socialize.
Plus, a key a part of the Virgin Atlantic Higher Class expertise is the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at London Heathrow, the place I’ll be sure that to arrange a camp for a couple of hours to totally indulge within the restaurant, bar, spa, and extra.
Extra potential flights
There’s nonetheless some components of the Might journey schedule that haven’t been firmed up simply but.
Whereas I’d like to bum across the Center East and Turkey for a couple of weeks between my Maldives and Bodrum stays, I’ve nonetheless obtained to get myself again to North America from the Maldives for some work and household commitments in the midst of the month.
After just lately checking off Air France and Singapore Airways’s flagship First Class merchandise from my bucket listing, I’m now taking purpose for the next-highest merchandise: ANA 777 New First Class, which appears like a fully beautiful strategy to cross the Pacific.
I’ve obtained a ticket booked with 60,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership miles as a part of that well-publicized candy spot, however the difficult half is getting from the Maldives to Tokyo.
I’ve been battling with British Airways Avios over the previous few days to look in a multi-carrier award – one that will additionally enable me to check out the just lately reincarnated Qatar Airways A380 First Class from Doha to Bangkok, because of the multi-carrier award’s beneficial pricing guidelines.
Nonetheless, the brokers haven’t been essentially the most cooperative in placing collectively my proposed itinerary, so you may count on to listen to an replace on this within the close to future.
If the transpacific routing doesn’t work out, I’ll merely change my ANA 777 New First Class by way of Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership to a future date for no change charge (who is aware of, Japan would possibly even be open by then!) – and determine an alternate routing again to North America.
Between Finnair’s new enterprise class, Air Serbia by way of Belgrade with Aeroplan factors, Etihad Airways’s new A350-1000s with sliding doorways, and Qatar Airways’s new “mini-Qsuites” on the 787-9, I’ve obtained loads of choices to select from if my Plan A doesn’t work out.
Conclusion
Keep in mind the times of “now shouldn’t be the time to journey”? I don’t both. Revenge journey season is properly and actually right here, and it’s an event to rejoice.
I’m excited to attract a line below the previous two years of uncertainty with free-flowing champagne onboard the Waldorf Astoria Maldives’s personal yacht, eating with my companion onboard a hybrid product of two of the world’s finest airways, spellbinding sunsets in southwestern Turkey, and extra.
I have to admit that though I’ll be getting nice worth for my factors, these experiences will nonetheless price me an arm and a leg – each Maldives resorts’ switch prices are within the area of US$750 per individual alone. However in a birthday month after two years of muted celebrations, I don’t thoughts a splurge within the slightest.
One factor’s for positive: I’ll be residing by means of my Might 2022 journey restart in fashion this month. And as we get on the market and rediscover the world, might 2022 journey restart for all of you as properly.
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