On the weekend in July 2012 when Singapore was changing over their computer systems which allowed SQ premium cabin space to be booked by Star Alliance partners. I don’t often jump on these crazy deals, but I couldn’t let this pass me by. I have always been intrigued by the Singapore Airlines mystique, even if part of that is the exclusivity of it due to the difficulty to redeem for their premium cabin products. At the time of booking, I didn’t have any trips in mind, but I snapped up 2 F seats for my wife and around Memorial day weekend 2013. The trip would overlap with the holiday weekend, plus my wife’s birthday and our wedding anniversary.
Initial plans
Initially I only booked flights to Singapore, but once I formulated more of a plan for the trip, I added flights to the Maldives. I had a pile of Hyatt points, and I booked a Passport Escapes award for the Park Hyatt Maldives. Hyatt Gold Passport no longer offers these type of awards, but I found it a good deal, including 5 dinners over the 7 nights of our stay.
The flights were on the Singapore 777-300ER, with First Class, rather than the Suites of the A380. Still a nice product, but not so cutting edge or quite as luxurious. The portion booked with United miles cost 160,000 miles plus $76.25 for each ticket. I had a stopover in Singapore, and Male was the destination. Once booked, I chose our seats on the Singapore Airlines website. I didn’t have ideal connecting flights on United, and unfortunately nothing else opened up between SFO and ORD, and I was too scared I would lose my Singapore segments if I messed with the ticket too much. This led to an overnight layover on the outbound, and a long wait before flying SFO-ORD at the end of the trip.
Before we went to the Maldives, we spent a few days each in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. There is much more to Malaysia than Kuala Lumpur, but in the short time we had, I figured some city exploration would be fine, especially with so much beach time we had coming up in the Maldives.
Routing map
Here is our routing. The award ticket was booked with United miles from Chicago to Male and return. The flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were purchased separately on AirAsia (!), about US$100 per person. The Maldives domestic flights were purchased via the Park Hyatt, (approximately US$430 each).
Trip report index
The focus of the trip was visiting the Maldives, and the Park Hyatt in particular, but this was a very diverse trip and we got to do a lot. Here are the items I plan to report on:
- Westin San Francisco Airport with free upgrade to Executive Suite
- Lounges in SFO as a departing Singapore First Class passenger
- Singapore First SFO-ICN (Seperate post on in-flight meals)
- Singapore First ICN-SIN
- Conrad Singapore
- Exploring Singapore
- Air Asia between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur
- Westin Kuala Lumpur
- Exploring Kuala Lumpur
- Hilton Kuala Lumpur
- Singapore Airlines Business SIN-MLE
- Maldivian between Male and Koodoo
- Park Hyatt Maldives Pool Villa
- Dining and Activities at the Park Hyatt Maldives
- Park Hyatt Maldives Water Villa
- Plaza Premium Lounge, Male Airport
- Sheraton Towers Singapore
- The Singapore Airlines Private Room
- Singapore First Class to Seoul
- Singapore First Class from Seoul to San Francisco
The segments of this report will likely take me a while to get out. Please let me know if you have any questions along the way. Thanks for reading.
