Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi Redemption Price Increase

If you’ve been collecting Hilton points over the last years you’ve probably heard of the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi in the Maldives. It’s generally regarded as the pinnacle of points redemptions in the Hilton program with even the most ‘basic’ of rooms being a reef villa with its own pool! A stay would set you back 120,000 points a night and combined with transfers/food it will never be a free or even cheap holiday but considering room rates are often over $2,000 a night it was a steal in terms of pence per point value. Hilton obviously thought the same too as they’ve just increased the redemption cost!

What does the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi cost in points now?

Previously the maximum points for the hotel (and for any hotel in the Hilton program) was 120,000 points a night. Recently Hilton has increased this by 25% making redemptions now up to 150,000 points a night. You can see this either on the Hilton Points Explorer – https://pointsexplorer.hiltonhonors.com/list – or by searching for availability at the hotel.

As you can imagine it’s a difficult property to get reward availability at but May still shows some availability for standard room rewards. You may notice that some nights still show at 120,000 a night, this is due to dynamic pricing for Standard Room Rewards so depending on the date/rate you might get lucky with the old price.

Booking the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi Is it still worth it?

In terms of the pence per point value absolutely! A random week in March 22 prices up at around £1700 a night which means at 150,000 points you are getting 1.13p worth of value, well over our 0.5p valuation. Whether you’d ever pay that much for a hotel in the first place is another story. It would certainly make a memorable trip or honeymoon! Don’t forget elites still get a fifth night free when booking standard reward stays of five or more consecutive nights which increases the pence per point value even further. If you are intregued as to what your points will get you, take a look at the hotel’s website gallery – https://waldorfastoriamaldives.com/gallery/

Is the whole program being devalued?

It doesn’t appear so, not at the moment. The Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi is the only hotel that we’ve noticed with an increase in the redemption cost.

What’s the quickest way to earn Hilton points?

Other than staying in Hilton hotels you are generally limited to collecting Hilton points by converting Amex Membership Reward Points to Hilton in the UK. Unfortunately, the Hilton Barclaycard has been closed to applicants for a while, and as of yet, there is no sign of a replacement! The Platinum Card from American Express comes with Hilton Gold status (free breakfast + some upgrades etc) and has a welcome bonus of 30,000 Membership Reward Points (60,000 Hilton Points) when spending £4,000 in 3 months. If you are interested in receiving a referral for bonus points see our referral page here – https://pointsuncovered.com/amex-referral-link-uk/

Alternatively, you can buy Hilton points, normally this isn’t a good deal unless you are topping up your account for a redemption but The Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi is an exception to the rule, particularly when there is a purchasing bonus offer! Until the 11th May you can receive a 100% bonus up to 160,000 points when purchasing Hilton points – https://www.hilton.com/en/hilton-honors/guest/purchase-points/ – If you and a partner bought 150,000 each you’d both get a bonus of 150,000. If you pool this together you’ll have 600,000 points costing $3,000 ($1500 each) which is roughly £2200. If you’re an elite member (e.g. Hilton Silver and above) you’ll also get 5 nights for the price of 4. That means £2200 would get you 5 nights at Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi for £440 a night, a lot cheaper than the cash rate!

But… and it’s a pretty big but… you’d need to find reward availability which at the moment is quite scarce and you can’t return the points if you can’t find any!

Conclusion

As an aspirational points booking The Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi has just got that little bit harder to obtain, but don’t let that put you off! If you make sure you utilise all the point-earning opportunities that come your way you can still make your way there… even if it takes a little longer! More information/booking – https://waldorfastoriamaldives.com/