USA to Maldives/best route and flight time
 

Could someone please tell me the best route to Maldives from DFW (Dallas/Ft. Worth) and appox. travel time? Sorry to sound ignorant, but I don't even know where to begin. We are considering Maldives to celebrate hubby's big 5-0.

start by doing a search on travelocity or similar....there are not direct flights of course...

i read recently that the best way is through colombo sri lanka....i think also from bangkok....

go on a web site for maldives and see if they talk about flights....also get a maldives guidebook

Wow, you can't find many places further away from DFW. The two places are almost 10,000 mi apart.

Anyways, Sri Lankan airlines appear to fly LHR-MLE non-stop, but it departs Heathrow at 9:35pm. There's no non-stop DFW-LHR flight, but you can fly AA via ORD or JFK. Still you'll have about 9 hours in London.

Anyway you do it, it'll take at least 30 hours each way.

Emirates has the best connections from the east coast of the US to the Maldives. Not sure how this would work from DFW...but you would fly JFK-Dubai non stop (departing at about 11pm), connecting to Male.
For example depart DFW Friday am for JFK, connect to Friday night flight JFK-Dubai, connect to Male arriving early Sunday morning.
Flights NY-Dubai-Male run around $1500 RT.

Thank you. Guess I was under the impression, we'd fly from west coast via LA?? Any thoughts? I'm assuming Seychelles would be equally as far??? That's another destination we would consider or am I so naive the 2 do not compare?? I think I'll post this question on the Africa board.

No, you'll fly east across the Atlantic. There are more connections from Europe and Middle East to MLE and the Seychelles than there are connections via Asia.

i think you could go either way...usually flying west is cheaper across the pacific for some reason, at least to SE asia....

Well, Bangkok Air still has BKK to Maldives listed as a "Future Route" on their web site. You might contact them to find out when they will start up. If it's in time for your trip you could go LAX>BKK>Maldives. I've been watching this too, because I'd love to visit the Maldives one of these days.

Have you been to French Polynesia yet? It's much closer and Air Tahiti Nui is a pleasant flight from LAX. You could visit Moorea or Bali or another island and stay in a bungelow over the water, just like in the Maldives. The mountain scenery on the islands and the snorkeling is awesome too!

LA_Fadeaway: You are absolutely right about French Polynesia. We were there in 2000 flying on Air Tahiti. FP was amazing. We stayed at Hotel Bora Bora and another place in Moorea (can't remember name) I understand there are several new places since 2000. Have you been lately?
We have always wanted to see the Maldives but, because of teens at home we were not able to leave for that amt. of time. (6 yrs. ago we could still trust they wouldn't get into too much trouble; if you know what I mean) But, this fall we will experience the "empty nest"-- baby will leave for college and we'll have more freedom.
What do you know of Fiji resorts? We had friends who stayed on the private island of Wadigi? Any other suggestions?
I'll check out Bangkok Air. Thank you.

katiekate, I haven't been to French Polynesia since 2003 so I imagine a lot has changed since then too. I haven't been to Fiji yet, but I'd love to go there too!

Bangkok Air started BKK-Maldives but then stopped.

From East Coast Emirates has twice daily non stops from NYC to Dubai and at least once per day Dubai to Male ( Maldives ), so from NYC that is a very easy routing with same carrier all the way through.

Europe carriers to male are 'very limited', I think Austrian has once a week, some charters operate from Milan and seasonal from Germany.
From Far East Asia /S.E Asia very limited, Malaysia a couple of times a week, though Singapore Airlines has a daily service from Singapore. Other Gulf Airlines fly into Male but they don't serve the USA, I think your easiest would be Emirates via Dubai if you can get a good deal to NYC.

I actually e-mailed Bangkok Air and they said they plan to resume service from Bkk to Male, but they couldn't say when.

Singapore Air flies from the SFO to Male through Hong Kong or Seoul to Singapore and then Singapore to Male.

-Bill

While the Maldives is beautiful (my parents lived there for a few years), I don't think it's worth going there from Texas unless you combine it with another more 'cultural' place. There isn't a lot more than you would get in a nice resort in the Carribean or FP.