Maldives with Avios
Avios,  British Airways

Booking Flights to the Maldives With Avios

Booking business class flights to the Maldives with Avios is seen by many as the creme de la creme of Avios redemptions. After all, the route can often see Business Class return tickets in the region of £3,000 + per person. Compare this to an Avios return of 125,000 points off-peak + approx £600. This is even better value when combined with a British Airways 2-4-1 voucher! But as you might have discovered Avios tickets to the Maldives aren’t so easy to book! Read on for some tips to secure your flights to the Maldives with Avios…

How do I book flights to the Maldives With Avios?

Being a premium route tickets go extremely quickly so you need to be flexible with your dates in case you aren’t lucky enough to get your first choice.

You need to book your outbound flight 355 days before you want to travel. At midnight (or 1 am during British Summer Time) as BA release 2 Business Class and 4 Economy seats for flights 355 days in advance. They may release more seats, including in Premium Economy and First Class later on but this isn’t guaranteed.

Booking online

It’s a bit like fastest finger first! If you are booking online you can speed up the process by creating a travel companion on the BA website for your +1. Make sure all your details are correct and also make sure you add British Airways to your credit card Express List and save the card to your account to save a few more seconds (they all count!)

I recommend doing a few trial runs if you are new to the process and want to book online (you don’t have to go through with the booking just exit when you are asked for your credit card details.) If you are unsure on how to book flights with Avios check out our guide on How To Book Flights With Avios.

What I do is an Avios search at a couple of minutes to midnight for the route and day before travel that I want. The day you want will show up grey and say – No availability – but with a little trick, we can change that! Right-click on the date you want to book (the next day) and click inspect.

Look for the code that looks similar to this and highlights the day you want to book. Where it says class=’disabled’ change this to enabled and hit enter. The button will then turn blue. Click on it at midnight and not before to save a few seconds in the race for tickets!

Remember… Even if you select the tickets and enter your payment details it doesn’t mean you’ve secured the seats. You need to wait for BA to create the booking in their system which will fail if someone has beaten you to it. Which brings us on to booking via phone…

Booking via phone

For many people this is the preferred way of getting tickets as the agent can put a hold on the ticket whilst you complete payment. If booking via telephone you will need to call an international BA call centre as the UK one is closed at midnight. I generally use the US office which is open at the right times. You can view the different numbers on BA’s website here – https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/help-and-contacts/contact-us

You will need to make sure you get through early enough to pass security so the agent is ready to book your tickets dead on midnight. If you get through too early however the agent won’t wait, so you may need to cut off and redial in.

Securing the return flight

If you manage to secure the flights you want… Congratulations! But it isn’t over yet! You now need to either follow the same process 355 days before your desired return date to try and book the return flight. Just because you have secured the outbound does not mean you will get the inbound.

If you are booking the return online you will need the Avios for 2 x one ways even when using a BA 2-4-1 voucher (as technically it’s already been used on the outbound.) You can then ring up at your own convenience to have the BA 2-4-1 voucher applied and half the Avios refunded.

If you book the return via telephone you only need the Avios for 1 x one way when using the BA 2-4-1 voucher (just ask to amend your booking to add the return) the agent will automatically apply the voucher to the return leg.

Still can’t get flights to the Maldives with Avios?

You aren’t alone… I know that isn’t much comfort but it can be a tricky redemption to make! There are a few other Avios choices you have to get to the Maldives however they are more expensive and you can’t use a BA 2-4-1 Voucher! They are Qatar Airways (201,500 Avios PP return) & SriLankan Airlines (175,500 Avios PP Return) which stopover in Doha or Colombo respectively.

If you can’t get Avios availability here either you can book two singles in each direction e.g. London – Doha and then Doha – Maldives (just be aware that you need time to clear immigration & collect your luggage etc before then check-in for your next flight, your luggage won’t be automatically carried through AND if you are delayed it won’t be so easy to just be put on the next flight as you have two separate tickets. You may consider an overnight stopover if you are really worried!

Conclusion

Have you managed to book the Maldives With Avios points? Let us know how you get on in the comments below!

If you are looking to kick-start your Avios with a huge 200,000 haul don’t forget to take a look at our guide to fast track yourself to a rather cool 200,000 Avios points – https://pointsuncovered.com/american-express/fast-track-yourself-to-2000000-avios-points/ – Enough to get a business class return to the Maldives!

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For full details of how your data is used and stored, please see GDPR policy page here.