Initial Notes
Summary: You can book a ~$15k trip for 2 to the Maldives in an overwater bungalow for 9 nights for ~$6,767 + points.
This guide assumes that the rooms are available for points for the full duration of desired dates. These rooms are booked out relatively quickly so you'll want points in hand when you got to select them. You'll also likely need time to meet the minimum spend for the credit card bonuses so that should be factored in. Planning should be done ~1-2 years in advance of the trip.
You can cancel rooms booked with points without penalty if cancelled before 21 days of arrival.
Therefore you should book the rooms before the flights since rooms will be harder to get than flights.
You can cancel rooms booked with points without penalty if cancelled before 21 days of arrival.
Therefore you should book the rooms before the flights since rooms will be harder to get than flights.
Getting Points
- Pickup the Hilton Aspire Card.
- Spend $6,000 within 3 months.
- (Optional) Refer your significant other for Hilton Aspire.
- (Optional) Spend $6,000 within 3 months.
- Pickup the Hilton Surpass Card.
- Spend $3,000 within 3 months.
- (Optional) Refer your significant other for Hilton Surpass.
- (Optional) Spend $3,000 within 3 months.
If you are gathering the points alone you should have 2 free weekend nights and at least 332,000 points from:
- 2 card bonuses.
- $9,000 spend times 3x points (the bare minimum, you'll likely have more).
- 2 free weekend nights from Surpass and Aspire.
If you are gathering points with significant other (or any other trusted party) you would have 4 free weekend nights and at least 724,000 points from:
- 4 card bonuses.
- $18,000 spend times 3x points (the bare minimum, you'll likely have more).
- 60,000 points for referrals.
- 4 free weekend nights from Surpass and Aspires.
Booking the Hotel
- Go to Hilton.com.
- Input Conrad Maldives Rangali Island as destination and desired dates. It should be 5 consecutive nights book-ended by a weekend.
- Choose Special Rates and click "Use Points". Click search.
- If available, select the Beach Villa and "More Prices Available".
- If Beach Villa is unavailable, choose another set of dates.
- Select Standard Room Award. It should be 120,000 points per night.
- Complete the booking.
- Check the dates for the weekend(s) that you'll use your certificate for and make sure it is also available for 120,000 points.
- Call the Hilton Diamond Desk (855) 292-5757 to make that booking. It unfortunately cannot be booked online.
- According to Flyertalk 2022 numbers, it should be about ~$315 a night to upgrade to Sunset Water Villa
Booking the Flight
- I like Google Flights or Skyscanner to get an aggregate view of what my options are.
Sample Scenario
- Assume 2 people got the 4 cards listed above and wanted a 9 night stay at Conrad Maldives.
- LAX (Los Angeles) to MLE (Male) for 2 people: ~$2,600
- MLE to Conrad Maldives: ~$1,120
- The hotel will pre-arrange this for you via email correspondence prior to your trip.
- Book 5 nights with the 480,000 points, and then 4 extra nights with the free night certificates
- So the trip would end up costing about:
- $2,600 (flights) + $1,120 (sea plane to/from hotel) + $72 (green tax from hotel) + $1,575 (Upgrade fees to overwater villa) + $1,400 (annual fees from cards) = $6,767
- Retail price of the hotel stay with breakfast = $11,423.16
- So a trip that would've costed $15,143.16 comes out around $6,767. This also doesn't account for:
- Surplus of points that would remain for the next trip.
- Free drinks/canapes at happy hour every day due to Diamond status.
- The extra weekend nights that are earnable with Surpass.
- Flight and hotel credits that help offset the credit card annual fees.