Author Topic: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments  (Read 13539 times)

Offline MEIR613

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A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« on: February 10, 2016, 07:17:40 AM »
Flights–

It all started one night when I had a bunch of DL miles and I wanted to use them to fly to Australia on VA. I kept searching and couldn’t find anything that worked for my dates, so I decided to see other options and low and behold I found Etihad A380 F space from AUH to JFK. I tried matching up Sydney to AUH to JFK, but it just didn’t make sense. However, since I found F space on the apartments I couldn’t just give it up so easy. On DDF everyone is always talking about the Maldives, so figured if I can make the flights work, why not. I quickly check the connection times from MLE and they work perfectly as there is  a 7pm flight that leaves MLE and gets into AUH at about 12am and then the A380 flights leaves AUH at 2:50am and would get into JFK at 8am Friday morning.  I knew that I would only be able to go for less than a week as my parents were going to be watching my daughter (after some flight bribing) and more than a week would be too much. The flights were heId and I called it a night. The next day I booked EK F for Saturday night before the EY flight, which would get me into the Maldives Monday morning and I would have 4 days and 3 nights in the Maldives, which sounded like just enough time for some relaxation and to also do a couple of water activities.  (I know others disagree, but that was the exact amount of time I needed there and if I would do it over again I would do the same exact thing, besides for going to somewhere in Asia for the Shabbos before or after).  There was only space from DXB to MLE in coach, so I booked that and set an alert on EF for J and F. About a month after I booked, business class opened up, and I was able to change it for free, since it was not within 60 days of the flights. I still had an alert set for F from DXB to MLE, but it never opened up even though there was not one seat taken in F that flight.

Hotels-
 
The week I booked my flights, The PH Maldives got lowered to a category 6, so it would only be 25k a night which would come out to be 75k for the 3 nights that we were staying. Since I am Hyatt Diamond and it was the cheapest option I went with it. Other DDFers gotten deals for $500 per a night in a OWB, but it was during low season and for 5+ nights. The cheapest option I saw was about $1000 per a night in OWB, so would be worth it to use points even though there would be a copay for the OWB. A couple months later, Hilton decided to match any top tier hotel status to their Diamond status, so since I am Hyatt Diamond I decided to match and ended up canceling my Hyatt reservation and rebooking at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island for 95k per a night, for a total of 285k points for the 3 nights. When I emailed the hotel my flight info so they can schedule the sea planes I also asked to be upgraded to a superior over water villa, but was told they were sold out for the first 2 nights. I then asked about just upgrading for the last night and was then told that in the end they would be able to confirm me in the superior room for the entire stay as they will probably get a cancelation, worked for me.
Below were the rates that I was quoted for the upgrades.
Upgrade from King Beach Villa to King Water Villa US$ 300 + 10% service charge + 12% T GST per night.
Upgrade from King Beach Villa to King Superior Water  Villa US$ 320 + 10% service charge + 12% T GST per night.
Upgrade from King Beach Villa to Retreat Water Villa US$ 450 + 10% service charge + 12% T GST per night.
Upgrade from King Beach Villa to Deluxe Water Villa US$ 700 + 10% service charge + 12% T GST per night.


Food-

This was our first time traveling somewhere where we wouldn’t have access to kosher food, so it would be a new challenge for us. The 2 options were to either have food shipped from Australia which sounded way too complicated and a little expensive or bring frozen packaged food with us and have it heated up at the hotel. There are a lot of different opinions on POM frozen meals, so I was excited to finally check them out and decide for myself. The ordering process was pretty simple, but I felt they lacked a little in customer service and could have been a little bit more communicative. I sent them an email requesting the most up to date menu and within less than a day they sent it to me. After going over the menu with my wife and picking everything out, I emailed them back the next day with my full order. The next day I didn’t hear from them and sent a follow up email and by the end of the day I gave them a call which took about 6 calls to get through to the right person. He goes over my order and tells me that they are out of a 4 of the dishes I selected and I would need to pick 4 different ones. Ok no biggie. I went over what I ordered and resent it to him. 5 minutes later he emails me back that they don’t have the Kishka capon, but they do have the spinach and the mushroom capon. Again, no biggie, but why couldn’t you tell me that over the phone. The next day they call me to tell me that the 2 Penne Vodka won’t be ready and which point I just told him to forget that and my wife would just make the Penne Vodka herself. I am not the type of guy to complain and I understand they have a million customers and I am just one person, but thought they could do a little better job with the back and forth. Ok Rant over…. I tried ordering the Polar Bear Cooler which we would use to pack the food in, but it was sold out and the estimated delivery date wasn’t until four months after my trip so that wouldn’t be an option. I posted in the kosher traveling thread if anyone had any other good cooler bags and CS91 posted a link for this bag http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BV2FPU6?redirect=true&ref_=s9_simh_gw_g468_i2_r, which worked out perfectly and kept everything frozen solid.  We picked up the meals a couple days before our trip and put them in our freezer. Each meal has your name on it and the contents inside which is double wrapped in foil and then a plastic wrapped on top of that, which makes it very convenient to heat up at a hotel or in a non kosher airplane or lounge oven.  I ended up ordering the NorChill Soft Cooler bag also a couple days before our trip, which arrived Friday afternoon. When we opened the box, the bag looked a little on the smaller side and we weren’t sure if it would fit all the food. So we loaded up the bag before Shabbos to see if all the meals would fit, and lo and behold all the meals squeezed inside with 2 ice packs (which weren’t needed) without an ounce of room left. We zipped it up and put the entire bag in the freezer with all the meals inside so they would be frozen all together and ready for our Saturday night departure. My wife also bought tons of snacks, which we split between our carry on for the plane ride and our suitcase to have at the hotel. Now the trip can start….well not exactly….

(Beware: This next part is not relevant to the actual MLE trip, but it has to do with booking flights and flying. Please skip if it’s too long or boring. TIA)

Getting my daughter to my parents–

We live in 5 towns and my parents live in Baltimore, so I needed to get my daughter there somehow before Shabbos. I was already taking off a week of work, so I wanted to limit the out of office hours as much as possible before the trip. I was thinking of going to drive with her Thursday afternoon and then sleep over and drive back Friday morning. The problem with that was I would be missing Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.  I wouldn’t be able to work in the car at all and also be extremely tired, making not being able to work at all Friday. I decided to look at my flight options. Even though I used to think people were crazy for flying from NYC to Baltimore, once I started valuing my time (and also being able to use miles) my mind set changed. I found a 4pm flight from JFK to Baltimore on AA Thursday afternoon for 4.5k BA (pre devalue) for myself and daughter, which got me into BWI at 5:30pm, which would work out since I live 10 minutes from JFK, but wasn’t sure what to do on the return. There were no flights later that day that left back to JFK or LGA, so it seemed I would need to take a 7am Delta flight Friday morning from BWI to JFK (it was 32.5k for that flight direct, but found an hidden city for about $218 or 12.5k DL), which would get me back at 9am, not too bad, but can we do better? Yes, there was a 7:50pm on UA from BWI to Newark for 10k UA Thursday night, which would have me back at my house before 10pm, Scored!!! I would fly to BWI, have my parents pick up my daughter from the airport, go upstairs, turn around and fly back to NYC. All in all, the trip was less than 8 hours door to door. Even though it was the first time flying with my daughter without my wife, it was a great experience and would do it again. It literary saved me a bunch of hours and not nearly as tiring then driving for 8 hours+.

Ok, NOW the trip can start, to be continued… 
« Last Edit: February 10, 2016, 07:57:23 AM by MEIR613 »

Offline Hershelsdeals

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2016, 07:27:52 AM »
Teaser

Offline benjie1305

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2016, 07:46:59 AM »
Great! Love the detail you put into the planning part. So you did stick with Pom for the meals they did have from what I am understanding? Or did your wife end up making all the food?
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Offline MEIR613

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2016, 07:58:00 AM »
Great! Love the detail you put into the planning part. So you did stick with Pom for the meals they did have from what I am understanding? Or did your wife end up making all the food?
We did stick with the Pom meals, but she made her own Penne Vodka.

 

Offline benjie1305

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2016, 08:02:20 AM »
We did stick with the Pom meals, but she made her own Penne Vodka.

Excellent. Was there something specific that made you choose the Conrad over PH?
Work hard, Play harder!

Offline MEIR613

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2016, 08:10:39 AM »
Excellent. Was there something specific that made you choose the Conrad over PH?
The reviews on the Conrad + 20 minute seaplane compared to an hour seaplane plus 30 minute boat ride, which can take up to 5 hours of traveling time.

Offline Luvtotravel

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2016, 10:00:17 AM »
great! looking forward to rest and some pics...
Don't wait for the perfect moment; take the moment and make it perfect.

Offline shauly

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2016, 11:00:08 AM »
Can't wait for the rest! Great so far.  ;)

Offline CS91

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2016, 11:22:21 AM »
Great start! Happy the cooler bag was good  :)

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #9 on: February 10, 2016, 11:57:27 AM »
Nice start to the TR. Can't wait for the actual Conrad review, since it seems a lot more convenient than the PH. Thanks for sharing.

Offline Redbull3

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #10 on: February 10, 2016, 12:25:39 PM »
I normally get bored in TRs but for some reason I like your writing style.. looking forward.

What airline is EF and how did you set alerts for it? How did you earn 285k HH?

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #11 on: February 10, 2016, 12:33:21 PM »
I normally get bored in TRs but for some reason I like your writing style.. looking forward.

What airline is EF and how did you set alerts for it? How did you earn 285k HH?
EF=ExpertFlyer. You buy a subscription to get alerts.

Offline Redbull3

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #12 on: February 10, 2016, 01:02:31 PM »
EF=ExpertFlyer. You buy a subscription to get alerts.
Ah thank you.

Offline eliteflyer

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2016, 01:23:15 PM »
Props to your parents! How old is your daughter? Would love to hear her trip report too.

Offline zow

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #14 on: February 10, 2016, 02:46:45 PM »
Great start!
I really appreciate all the logistical details, e.g., what the POM meals are like, how they packed, how you dealt with getting daughter to parents, etc.  As much as I love seeing pix and descriptions of life in J and F, I equally appreciate the planning and management details.

Offline MEIR613

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #15 on: February 10, 2016, 04:11:07 PM »
How did you earn 285k HH?
A mixture of stays, CC spend and 57k TYP which came out to 114k HH, since there was a 1:2 promo (FYI, the transfer hit the next day)
Props to your parents! How old is your daughter? Would love to hear her trip report too.
My daughter is 2.5

great! looking forward to rest and some pics...
Can't wait for the rest! Great so far.  ;)
Great start! Happy the cooler bag was good  :)
Nice start to the TR. Can't wait for the actual Conrad review, since it seems a lot more convenient than the PH. Thanks for sharing.
Great start!
I really appreciate all the logistical details, e.g., what the POM meals are like, how they packed, how you dealt with getting daughter to parents, etc.  As much as I love seeing pix and descriptions of life in J and F, I equally appreciate the planning and management details.

Thank you all! Will hopefully have the next segment up with in the next couple of days.

Offline CS91

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #16 on: February 11, 2016, 11:11:23 AM »
Out of curiosity, did you just check the cooler bag or you put it inside another suitcase?

Offline MEIR613

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #17 on: February 11, 2016, 01:00:15 PM »
Out of curiosity, did you just check the cooler bag or you put it inside another suitcase?
Checked it.

Offline CS91

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Offline MEIR613

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Re: A380 Rivarly: MEIR613 trip to MLE & 22 hours in the Apartments
« Reply #19 on: February 21, 2016, 10:16:44 PM »
Right after Shabbos, we finished packing and went around the house to make sure we didn’t forget anything. My wife made sure to pack sunscreen and aloe as those items are quite expensive in MLE. I picked up 2 sandwiches from Mike’s Burgers, which is a fast food restaurant in 5 towns, to have on the plane. We were supposed to get a ride to the airport, but that person canceled on us at the last minute, so we ordered an Uber. When the driver arrived to our house there was a kid in the car and the driver rolled down her window to tell us that her phone died and that we should cancel the ride and then drove off. It was the weirdest thing in the world. I canceled her and ordered a new one, which was a local driver from the 5 towns who I’ve used before. I told him the story that just happened to me and he told me it’s a trick for the driver to get 10 bucks as it costs $10 to cancel your ride, so I quickly emailed Uber the story and the next day they told me they’ll refund the $10, lesson learned.

There are plenty of TR's from EK F so I will try to keep to the main points and if there was anything I thought was worth mentioning. Check in went smoothly, there was one of those machines which plastic wraps your bags a couple of feet away from the Emirates first class check in, so my wife thought it would be a good idea to get our food bag wrapped for $15 to make sure the bag wouldn’t open at all. After that we went through security, where we needed to take off our shoes and laptop out of our bag, since EK doesn’t partake in TSA Pre. The Emirates lounge in JFK is nothing special, just a lot of seats and was pretty full since EK206 departs 40 minutes before EK202, which also means we wouldn’t be able to board directly from the lounge, since that gate bridge was being used by EK 206. When we were leaving the lounge we passed by 2 guys with baseball caps sitting in the lounge… but more on that later.

Emirates is exactly how everyone talks about it, just tons and tons of bling. We scheduled our shower for 2-3 hours before landing which would refresh us for our 8 hour stop over in Dubai. Once we were in the air it was around 11:30pm and we were bombed and went to sleep for a good 6 hours. When we woke up, we went to the back to the lounge/bar and found one of those guys we passed in the lounge more than a little tipsy. We started talking and he tells me he’s traveling with his friend who knows a lot about miles and points and I asked his name, and tada, another DDFer!!! I was not expecting that. We had a nice time by the bar, drinking and taking pics with the FA's. It can get really fun by back there, depending on who is around. I’m not sure if this is well known, but the cabin crew has a Polaroid camera and can take pictures and give them to you on the spot, in a nice Emirates frame card.  After about an hour we went back to our seat and had our kosher meals which weren’t great, but did the job and decided to save our Mike's sandwiches for our stop over in Dubai. Being that the rest of our food was under the plane, this seemed to be the best idea. The shower is not overrated, end of story. For me it wasn’t so much the fact of taking a shower 35,000 feet in the air, rather landing after a 15 hour flight and feeling as fresh as can be.

Since our flights were booked with Alaska miles, technically we were not entitled to a chauffeur service, but we went to the desk which is after customs and just showed them our F ticket. We told them where we wanted to go and they set us up with one of their chauffeur cars. Unfortunately we were not able to arrange for a car to take us back to the airport, since it needs to be booked 24 hours prior.  We asked to go to the Dubai Mall to see some sights. We walked around the mall for about an hour and a half, saw some cool stuff and decided at about 10pm to head back to the lounge to chill for a little, and eat our sandwiches. Just something to note, taxis are not allowed to pick you up in front of the Mall. We ordered an Uber and needed to meet him in the parking garage in order for him to take us back to the airport. The Uber guy gave us a brief tour of the city as we were driving, which was interesting, to my wife, at least. When we got back to the airport I tried to get upgraded to first class, since I flew JFK-DXB on F and I technically paid for F (Hey, it worked for LX, maybe it will work again), but they weren’t budging especially since I was originally booked in Y and had AS upgrade me to J, they thought I upgraded my ticket so I was for sure not eligible for F. When we got to the lounge we ate our delicious (not so soggy) sandwiches. I was able to catch up on some work and rested till our 4:50am departure. Boarding was called for 4:20am but when we got to the gate at 4:05am they had already completed boarding and were just waiting for 2 other passengers besides us.

Since we would be taking a bus to the plane, they opened the gate for boarding but made no such announcement in the lounge, even though they had called all the other flights before us. As I mentioned in the beginning, first class was completely empty. Emirates 777 features a 2-3-2 layout in business class, which we took the 2 seats on the left side in the second row. Since sleeping on a chair in the lounge wasn’t the most comfortable or restful, my wife and I went to sleep shortly after take-off. When we woke up, we were served our kosher breakfast that was sourced from Thailand. It was a basic breakfast spread, with nothing fancy or any extras. Once we arrived in Male, we were finally able to get a taste of the warm however humid weather. Since the airport is kind of small, we deplaned from a remote stand and walked into the airport with our carry-on luggage. The business and first class passengers arriving to and leaving Male are entitled to Fast Passes, or security line cutting rights, as it were. We were the first on line and through immigration in under 3 minutes.

Next we had to pick up our bags. One came out with red stickers on it, and we had to pull off the line into the “goods to declare” section, where there were 4 or 5 officers waiting for us. They put our bags through the x-ray and told us that we would have to leave the wine and champagne my wife had packed in the airport. Luckily, they were just holding it, and allowed us to pick it up when departing Male, because that would have been a waste of perfectly good drinks. Once that was taken care of, we went out and were met by staff from the Conrad, who took all of our bags and arranged our check in to Trans Maldivian Airways for our seaplane transfer to the resort. Meanwhile, we walked around and checked out the shops. Once we were all checked in, we were driven to the Conrad arrivals lounge, in a well air-conditioned van. Once we were settled, the Conrad staff checked us in, while we each got a 10 minute chair massage. The lounge was overlooking the seaplane port, so we got to see many planes coming and going before we were finally told that ours would be next.

We walked onto a tiny plane and sat crammed with 12 other people with no air conditioning. However, it was pretty cool to watch the pilot and co-pilot operating the seaplane, and seeing all the islands and reefs below. We were supposed to be the second stop, so we landed at a floating raft in the middle of the ocean to drop off several of the passengers first. Since it is in the middle of nowhere, we had to wait for all the Dhoni’s to come and pick up people going to different resorts, so we got out and enjoyed the breeze while talking with some of the other passengers. Finally, we were ready to get on our way again, finally headed to the Conrad this time. The Conrad actually has a landing dock in the resort, so we were escorted off the seaplane right into another arrival lounge while our luggage was unloaded. Then from there we were taken to the reception by boat.

To be continued…