Points and miles can help ordinary people to explore extraordinary places. We recently used points and miles to book a trip to Dubai and the Maldives. We locked in the outbound trip on Emirates, and now we needed a way to get home.
After exploring our options we decided on flying Etihad Business class. Etihad has a partnership with American Airlines, and so we booked our Etihad flight using AA miles. The cost per ticket was 70,000 American Airline, and $83.23 for taxes. Total for the two tickets came to 140,000 miles and $166.46. This is a great use of AA miles.
The trip home consists of two segments
Flight #1 – Male, Maldives to Abu Dhabi, UAE. Our flight departs from Male, Maldives at 6:10 pm and lands at Abu Dhabi at 9:40 pm.
Flight #2 – Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles. The second leg of the flight leaves the next morning at 8:50 am from Abu Dhabi and arrives in Los Angeles at 1:35 pm.
What do with a long layover?
For those at home doing the math, we have an 11 hour overnight layover at Abu Dhabi. That’s a long enough layover for a hotel, so we booked a room at the Aerotel hotel. Aerotel is located within the departures area of the terminal. When we land, we won’t need to leave the secure section of the terminal. We’ll be staying airside for the entire layover.
Our plan during the layover is to make use of the Etihad business lounge, check out the terminal, get some sleep, wake up early, hit the lounge again for breakfast, go through pre-clearance and catch our flight in the morning.
Now that the outbound and return flights are in place, it’s almost time to take the trip!
