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Le Méridien Maldives lhaviyani Atoll Trip Report
Just got back from the Le Méridien Maldives Resort & Spa (lhaviyani Atoll Hotel) last week.
We were already going to be in the region and decided to spend 4 nights in the Maldives.
All flights and hotels were booked with miles & points.
We flew Qatar Qsuites on the way out – 70K AA miles and taxes.
Was super nice. Best Business Class experience in my opinion.
Booked Le Méridien with free night certificates and paid about $60/night to upgrade to over water villa.
I requested Sunrise OWV and that was fulfilled.
Staff were friendly. The food was expensive as expected and the portions were really big.
We didn’t do any paid water activities and just did snorkeling ourselves.
Had the option to fly Qsuites back, but opted to try out Etihad’s newish A350-1000 product back to ORD.
Again booked this with 70K AA miles + taxes.
This product was fine (seats with doors), but Etihad’s ground operation at AUH wasn’t great. They just moved into their brand new terminal, so that’s the reason?!
We only had a couple of hours at AUH, so didn’t fully experience the lounge.
Compared to Qatar’s new Al Mourjan Business Lounge at the Garden, Etihad’s new J lounge felt like a really long hallway on 2 or 3 different levels.
A la carte option is only available at the F lounge, but a good variety of buffet options at the J lounge.
Etihad’s secondary security screening was all manual, no scanning machines – yeah, 2 guys with a paper list checking names & agents with gloves going through people’s luggage.
Not enough seating in the secure boarding area and only a single pair of bathrooms.
It was a full flight and I saw people standing around for 90+ minutes and there was a line for bathrooms.
Maybe things will change soon.
I won’t get into CPP discussions. I used to track them when I started out back in 2010-11, but no longer care too much about it especially when it comes to international redemptions.
We saved some money, got really good value and checked another place off the list!!
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