Introduction
This honeymoon is really coming together quickly! In my last honeymoon post, I shared the hotels I booked in Japan. I still have to book Singapore hotels, a hotel for the night before our flight to Japan, and a flight back from JFK after flying Singapore Suites. This post is about the very specific reason why I chose to fly from Singapore to Male and back rather than booking a one-way flight to Male and flying directly home after our 3 nights in the Maldives.
A Quick Recap
Our honeymoon itinerary looks like this:
- Fly JFK to Haneda, spend 9 nights in Japan
- Fly Narita to Singapore, spend 2 nights in Singapore
- Fly Singapore to Male, spend 3 nights on Rangali
- Fly Male to Singapore on Friday, spend 1 night in Singapore
- Fly Singapore to JFK on Saturday night, honeymoon over 🙁
I had a few options for how I wanted to fit the Maldives into our itinerary. Originally we were going to spend three nights in Singapore followed by three nights in the Maldives. We’d then fly home from Male directly.
Why I Picked This Itinerary
My original plan was to use Aeroplan miles to fly back directly from the Maldives that Saturday. However, the business class itineraries were not ideal. That’s when I realized this was the perfect time to fly Singapore Suites! Singapore Airlines operates flights from the Maldives to Singapore, but there was one problem in combining this leg of the flight with Singapore to Frankfurt to JFK. Singapore Airlines doesn’t allow mixed cabin itineraries for online award bookings.
Since I wanted to book Singapore to JFK the moment it was released to ensure we got middle seats, calling in wasn’t an option. Instead, I would need to book a flight from Male to Singapore separately after booking our Singapore Suites tickets.
We could have stayed in the Maldives until Saturday and taken the same flight as this sample itinerary. However, I get nervous about flight cancellations when all of my flights are not on the same itinerary.
I decided we would fly to Singapore on Friday instead. In the event our flight is canceled, there are several other options for getting back to Singapore before our flight Saturday night. Is this approach overcautious? Probably. But I’m not taking any chances with Singapore Suites.
Booking Our Flights
I ended booking Singapore to Male round trip on Singapore Airlines. I decided to book economy seats since business class was almost double the points. For a 4.5 hour flight, I didn’t think it was worth it. This definitely wasn’t the most valuable redemption but I wanted to avoid paying out of pocket if possible. We spent 74,000 miles (transferred from SPG, Amex, and Chase) and $158.83 for two round trip economy tickets worth $985.36. We’ll be back in Singapore with enough time for a late dinner or evening stroll and we’ll have the entire next day for last-minute sightseeing.
Final Thoughts
I had to slightly change our honeymoon itinerary to make sure I could book the Singapore Suites tickets I wanted. While splitting our time in Singapore isn’t ideal, there are a few bright sides. We’ll get to try out two hotels in Singapore and we’re breaking up the extremely long flight home from Male by spending the night in Singapore instead.
Honeymoon Stats
Points spent: 1,149,000
Out-of-pocket cost: $1,612.76
Total value: $47,624.69
