Frequent Miler on the Air - Is a return to the Maldives worth it? | FM *in* the air | Ep116 | 9-18-21

Episode Date: September 18, 2021

Greg and Nick recorded this week's episode in the air on the way home from the Maldives. With crystal clear waters, show-stopping sunsets, and fantastic service still fresh in mind - and while flying in the comfort of KLM business class during recording - the answer to the title question still wasn't an easy one. See the discussion for more. Subscribe to our email list: https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ Music credit: Annie Yoder

Green Miler in the air starts now. Today's main event, going to the Maldives. Is it worth it? Great question. We should ask somebody who's been. Yeah. Recently. Recently. Like we should talk to someone who's on their way home from a Maldives trip. You know, you're in luck, Greg. I've got just such an interview lined up today. Really? With us. With us.

With us. That'll be us. We're in the air, talking Maldives. It's a long way. Like, not just a little bit long. No. Really. Really.

Like, we got on our first flight, like, two days ago, and we're still not home. I don't even, I mean, yeah, I probably had a few birthdays. So mailbag time. Okay, mailbag time. All right. So we have the giant mailbag with us in the airplane, but it's like in my luggage. So. So you have to imagine is what he's saying.

So we don't have any giant mail. We're mail-less. Mail-less, no mail today, okay. All right, so there's no mail. So how about then we go with what crazy thing did? Yeah, I don't know that we can do that segment either. Okay, so. How about the mattress running the numbers? Should we talk about that? No, I mean we shouldn't because we don't know much about it.

Stephen wrote a neat post about stacking Radisson promos. Really? Yeah, there's some stuff going on there. And if you like your Radisson points, you should check it out. The latest promo I think you get your radisson points you should check it out the latest promo i think you get a lot of points when you spend when you stay twice and then there's another promo where you get a lot of points for each day those overlap okay so if you add those up it adds up some stackage there a lot of points i see well that's that's good and we like a lot of points so we did because we know that the the radisson points are so useful.

We can get lots of use out of our Radisson. Enough jibber jabber about nonsense. Let's get to the main event. So the reason the Maldives is the main event is because it's been on our mind a lot. Why has it been on our mind? Obviously, we were there. We loved it. But we keep going back and forth as we talk about it are we going to come back and the question isn't is it great it is right right i mean it's gorgeous it's beautiful we were at the meridian you saw the pictures right yeah i mean if

you've seen our our any of our social media you've seen the pictures from from all these if you've read that our blog post you've seen pictures it's beautiful and the meridian is particularly very good and service was fantastic top-notch and overwater billows at such a cheap points rate is ridiculous it's such a good deal but all that said it goes back to are you willing to fly like 23 hours or whatever it is i mean it's going to vary depending on your route where you're starting from but it's a long long way yeah i mean there's not like a direct flight you're going to connect somewhere and it's probably not going to be somewhere super convenient and and just going to dubai in each direction we had like a seven or eight hour layover yeah so you know you'd max or you match that with another layover to get to the maldives or something and just becomes a long long ride it's yeah it's it's it's nuts so so when you start thinking about how

long it is you start thinking about things like is it really that much better than going to hawaii which is a long way but a heck of a lot less of a long way than the maldives from the us especially the west coast i mean the west coast could get to hawaii in like five hours five and a half hours something like that but um but anyway even for these ghosts it's it's much closer and then you start thinking well what about Mexico or Central America or the Caribbean yeah there's lots of nice places you could go is the Maldives worth it do we really want to go so far so we don't know the answer do we I mean we know I mean i i don't think there's not an easy answer you know i i this is the second time i've been i obviously planned another trip here this

trip this time so obviously i found it to be worth going back um but would i go another time i mean i would really love to go to the meridian if there was an easier way to get there if it wasn't so long then i would say yes absolutely yeah but the combination of distance the cost of the seaplane transfer i mean minimum minimum from the us you're talking three flights right because you got to take two flights minimum to get to the maldives and then the sea plane on top of that so you're talking a minimum of three flights each way you might be on four or five flights right so you know that's a especially when you add in all the layovers and everything else you're just exhausted by the time you get there and exhausted when you get back home is it worth all that I think you know I was

asking Greg yesterday and I think that you hit the nail on the head when you said it's worth it if the journey is part of the luxury yeah so what did you mean if the journey is part of the experience if so you know for someone who hasn't flown business class before um the the journey is like exciting in itself right right those flights are something to look forward to and or even if you've only flown it if you've only flown it like one or two times you're probably still feeling that way for me it takes first class to get excited about it's where the journey is part of the adventure of of my my trip but so either way you know uh for those of us who are kind of jaded because we've been doing this a while, you know, it's still exciting to me to fly like we did Emirates first or even though I've flown Lufthansa first a few times, it's still exciting to do it. I'd still happily do it again.

And so if I can get there and a lot of the way there is on those kind of flights, I think it's totally worth it. You know, because that's part of your adventure. Right. I mean, if you're flying 12 or 14 or 15 hours to get to Dubai in Emirates first class, I mean, that definitely is part of the destination in the sense that you are looking forward to the luxury of the food and the drink and the service on that flight and the service on the ground and the lounge and blah, blah, blah. And so if all of those things get you excited and you're like, yes, I can't wait to get on the plane, then the Maldives is for you. If you're like, I can't wait to get to the destination, I don't really care how I get there, I just want to get there the fastest way possible, then the Maldives is probably not for you. Yeah, it seems like there's other places you should go.

Right. You know, and I guess there's probably exceptions, because if you're into scuba diving and you really want to visit some known dive locations, then obviously you're going to go as far as you go to do those but for the average traveler who just wants to get away do some snorkeling um sit on the beach it does seem kind of ridiculous to go so far it does but but you know then on the flip side you have the whole overwater villa thing because there are just not

very many places in the world where you can stay in an overwater villa if that's your thing yeah that's what you want you've just got like what i mean bora bora the maldives and like you know a couple of exceptions here and there and other places well i guess it kind of goes back to what i was saying about business class before which is it's one of those things where if you haven't done it before yeah maybe that also makes it worth the trip so maybe we maybe that also makes it worth the trip so maybe we're really discussing is it worth returning to the maldives right i mean that's what's been on our minds um i keep going back and forth personally like i really do want to revisit

la meridian i also really want to try a number of other resorts in the maldives but then i think about what i was saying earlier like there's all kinds of places i haven't been in the caribbean that would be so much easier to get to why wouldn't i do that first and part of the answer is well you don't get over water bungalows in the caribbean you don't get them in mexico uh there might be some things that are kind of like it, but yeah, not the same, not the same concentration, at least at the very least, not the, you know, where in the Maldives, you have one resort after another with those overwater bungalows and you don't get that in very many places. I mean, it's like Bora Bora, the Maldives, and those are, that's it. I mean,

those are the two places I know where there's an endless supply of resorts with that type of experience uh so you know i i and i i enjoyed that you know i i i was nice i loved it i mean these didn't have the glass bottoms that we see on some reviews of overwater bungalows where you can you know look down at the fish from your room but i mean we i spent more time out on my deck where the water's right there than i did in my room except for sleeping right so right the last floor i wouldn't have seen that anyway while i was sleeping hopefully not if you do then yeah i don't sleep walking and shouldn't be in an overwater bundle for your own safety. Sleepwalkers stay away from them. But, yeah, I mean, and I posted a video of a stingray that was just outside

and saw it swimming by and was able to climb right in the water and get a great video and an awesome experience just being a few feet away. So you're not going to get that directly from your room in any place that's not an overwater bungalow. There's only a few feet away. So you're not gonna get that directly from your room in any place that's not an overwater bungalow. There's only a few options. So if you're into that, then it may be worth going for that. But then is it worth returning is a very good question. So what are the luxurious options to get to the Maldives

that you would be like, okay, maybe that would be enough. If I got that availability maybe that would be enough right if i got that availability that would do it right right well i you know i mentioned lufthansa and the reason that to me uh lufthansa is worth returning to first class that is is more to do with the ground experience than in-flight i mean in-flight is very nice but their ground experience when you transit through germany which you have to do um is phenomenal i mean they have such a high level high standard for the whole experience for first class passengers that to me it really makes a difference and makes it makes it worth like looking forward to well so

now that gives me a tag-on question here is it that way if you're connecting to business because if you're going to go to the maldives you'll fly first class between the u.s and europe but they're only going to fly a two cabin plane to the maldives from europe so you're going to connect to a business class right right no that's good that's a great question um you'll get some of that experience so uh when you're trying to remember how it works but i think i think the way it works is if you're arriving in first class and connecting to business you still go into the lounge um in fact oh yeah i've done that so you still get into a first class lounge frankfurt has um both a first class terminal which is his own thing and first first class lou. Frankfurt has both a first class terminal,

which is his own thing, and first class lounges. And as far as I could tell, the experience is very, very similar between the two. The first class terminal usually involves a ride in a Porsche to get there, I guess, that you might not get. So it's complicated, but the thing is, I think you'd be pretty darn good anyway.

It would still be a good experience. And then coming back, you would probably be in the first-class terminal and get the full experience. It's pretty good. And one of the advantages with Lufthansa, as I wrote about in the post this week, is that because it will be a mixed cabin

award where you're going to fly a long distance in business and a decent distance in first class also booking through Avianca Life Miles can be a great deal because Avianca Life Miles would charge 87,000 points one way to Europe in first class but if you continue on to the Maldives in business class depending on your starting point distances it's going to work out to be just a few thousand miles more you know maybe 92 thousand miles or ninety four thousand miles one way maybe a little more a little less depending on where you originate so it's it's going to be a very small number of miles of additional miles to go much, to

travel much farther and get that experience. Right, right. Okay, so I threw out one of them, and I've got others in my head, but let's go to you now. What's on top of your mind? I mean, you mentioned Emirates before, and Emirates would clearly be the one I would be most excited about. I enjoy flying Emirates First Class.

The experience is awesome. The food, the drink, the service typically is quite good. So that would be my pick. It would also be my pick because it would be a more direct route. Connecting via Europe is going to add a little bit more time than connecting via Dubai. So that would be my pick, except it's going to cost a bunch more miles so really the only feasible way to book emirates first class these days is through emirates skywards and that's going to cost you 160 000 one way plus the tax so that that's for one person that's for

one person so you're talking 320 000 round trip for one person, more than half a million. Yeah. You need, you know, and Emirates miles for two people that say Emirates miles are relatively easy to come by because they're transfer partners with so many different programs. Right. But that's still, I mean, for the number of miles you would use on that, you could stay at, for example, a Virgin limited property, not Necker Island, right.

But like 600,000, we'll get you one of those safari lodges in Africa. And think of all the you can do a few a a round the world trips for that amount of points in business class so uh it's um hard to say uh at least i i have the impression and you can tell me if if i'm totally off base here that emirates first is kind of a lot easier to get that's true ability than most of the other first class products. It's true. It's true. And not only is it a little bit easier to get, but also I think as you get closer to departure, it gets even easier. So it's not bad far in advance and it's even easier.

The closer you get, like so we had a specific flight that we needed based on all the other things going on. And so we initially booked business class and just kept watching it. And first class opened up shortly, what, about five days before? Yeah, about that, five days before, yeah. So, yeah, yeah, that's great. Okay, what else? So another one I would be, well, sorry, I would have said I'd be really excited to return to Etihad

first class apartments if that, if they're still flying them. To my knowledge, I don't think they're flying them. No, I don't think they're flying the A-30 at all right now. So it's unclear if they're going to do that again. I mean, that was my best in-flight experience when I flew Etihad first-class apartments so if they do bring that back I mean it wouldn't even be a question that's what I would want to do well I mean I think that's a great point and and you know Etihad also even in their non-apartments I've flown their first class that wasn't apartments and the service in my experience my one experience was also fantastic

yeah great experience so i think that's still one that's worth keeping in mind will cost you 115 000 points one way with american airlines uh or 130 000 one way with aeroplan you could add a stopover with aeroplan now for 5 000 more miles one way so 135k still kind of pricey not quite as pricey as emirates so you know it's not going to be cheap if you want that level of luxury but it's another great experience yeah all right so that's a another good one one that we're leaving out because we're talking about first class that i think we shouldn't leave out of this conversation is cutter q su Yeah, for sure. You know, it looks to be an experience very similar

to first class on board the plane anyway, and in terms of the seat and the service, the food. Right. So, and much cheaper. We're talking 70,000 American Airlines miles one way for Cutter Q Suites. So, in 140 round trip, that's's a deal worth considering and also something that's i think often much easier to find availability for i mean just think about how amazing that is

140 000 round trip for cutters all the way to the maldys from the states compare that to united uh if you want to fly business class on one of their partners to Europe, you're gonna be paying more than that round trip. Right, right. Just to Europe, more than that round trip. Yeah. I don't know what the price is too. Right. I'm all the use of math. It's like that is.

And Delta, of course, you pay infinity. It would be more. Yes. Turn an eight sideways. That's how much the Delta price is. It's so true. So true. And you also get the Doha, the Doha Lounge experience. And the lounge in Doha, the business class lounge, is fantastic.

So that's another great benefit there. So, okay. I think QSuites is something that I think that might be towards the top of my list for a future return trip. Yeah, I mean, that's sort of a sweet spot of comfort and an economical way to do it. Right. And also, pretty easy to find award space. Exactly. So that combination is really good.

I think you do need American Airlines miles, which right now transfer from Citibank. Otherwise, it's a little hard to get them except through American Airlines credit cards and flying American Airlines. It's like that old way of getting miles. Right. Another one I'd be excited to do, I've flown Singapore suites. I've never flown Singapore business class but their food their service is such a high standard that I would think business class would

be an amazing experience by itself so I would be pretty excited to fly Singapore my business class totally agree totally great I've only flown Singapore's business class regionally between Australiaralia and singapore um but i've flown their first class also but the business class that's all i have but the food was fantastic the entire experience the seat was terrific so yeah i would absolutely do that and there's another one where if we're talking about availability singapore makes more seats available to members of their own one where if we're talking about availability, Singapore makes more seats available to members of their own program. So if you're transferring to Singapore from Chase Ultimate Rewards or Annex Membership Rewards, then you will most likely have a much easier time

finding that availability, especially in business class. First class is much harder, but in business class, there are typically seats available. So you should be in good shape with that. So that's a redemption that should hopefully be fairly easy and also pretty terrific. Of course, the long way to get there, though, if you're starting from the East Coast of the United States. Yeah, because you have to go through Singapore. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. Or the West Coast.

Either way, you've got to go through Singapore. Well, actually, you could go through Frankfurt, right? Well, right. That's true, perhaps. But then you're still going to go through Singapore, right? Then you have to go through Singapore. Well, actually, you could go through Frankfurt, right? Well, right. That's true, perhaps. But then you're still going to go through Singapore, right? You have to go through Singapore. You're right. So that's taking the longer. You have to really enjoy Singapore. But I think that's a great point. That was the next one. You have plenty of time to enjoy Singapore. If you went through Frankfurt. End enjoying Singapore Airlines. But I'm actually getting kind of excited now about going back to the Maldives now that we're thinking about all these things.

Yeah. Because these do sound pretty awesome. Well, and in these cases, you're talking about a lot of flying in those luxury-type situations. Whereas, you know, we flew Emirates between the Maldives and Dubai. So that was what four hours five hours you know not four hours yeah i mean not enough time to fully appreciate and enjoy it when you're talking about 12 or 14 or 16 or 20 hours full experience exactly you get

the whole especially um this is one thing that i really like about a very good international first product is they'll make up your bed for you like with actual padding and sheets the whole nine yards and usually like give you uh pajamas to change into and and it's a level of comfort that i don't i mean i don't think you get in any business class products but i i could be wrong i certainly haven't gotten that in any business class products. Right, right. I don't think you'll get a matched level of comfort that you will in international, of course.

So, yeah, that's a good point, too. And there are lots of other ways. I mean, like Greg said at the beginning, if you're relatively new to the game and you're at the point where you're getting really excited about trying out different carriers with business class, there are lots of different options to do that reasonably, too. know there are other ways to get there and i covered a bunch of those in the post too we're just talking about the ones that would excite us enough to want to fly

halfway around the world and take again a minimum of three flights to get there because it is an arduous journey in the sense that there's a lot of time involved. So if I'm going to spend that much time getting there, I really want it to be a comfortable experience on the way there. Right, right. It wouldn't be hard for a newbie to get enough points to do something amazing. So I'm thinking about Cutter Q Suites. You said $70,000 each way. That's like one. So for one way, one American Airlines credit card sign-up.

Right. And you've got enough once you meet the minimum spend and all that. Done. Or as long as they have the transfer bonus available, the city premier card, and then you could transfer those city points to American Airlines. That's currently only available through something like November 13th so you'd have to get on that pretty quick because you have to meet the spend quick that's more of an example than a right suggestion right so you know like so a newbie could even with that just one

credit card get halfway there do another credit card made or fly a different product back for example right right right so i mean that's quite easy and and you know that's a very good solid example but another one to kind of fit the same bill is that resi offer on the platinum card i mean we've talked tons and tons about it but my goodness you could end up with half a million points on that offer and literally do any of the things we just talked about so that yeah i mean the emir Emirates option wouldn't be that, you know, wouldn't be out of reach at all. Exactly.

Exactly. So, so, I mean, there are some opportunities there, I think, anyway, and strategies to go after. And if you're not going to go after the American and Q suites option, then I think you want something like that resi offer. Because, for example, if you did that, those membership rewards points, you could transfer to be able to book the Emirates flight, you could transfer to be able to book Singapore. We talked about Lufthansa, you could transfer to

Aeroplan anyway to book that if you wanted to. So there's an Aeroplan could get you at Dihad. So those American express membership rewards points would give you the option of finding availability with a number of the things we just talked about yeah that's that flexibility is nice because then you'll you have a greater chance of finding availability that fits your needs i'm going to suggest that if someone's just starting like start with just a good business class product instead of like the best one. That's true. So that you'll be excited when you move up. That's true.

Cutter Q-Sweets. And then you'll be excited when you move up from that to like Emirates first. For sure. You can go into that ladder because otherwise you're going to get jaded like us really quickly. And it's going to be hard to beat. Because, I mean, we're on an amazing business class flight right now, which anyone who only flies economy would be thrilled to death to be on this type of flight.

But we looked at it and we're like, eh. Well, we flew the 787 last night and the seats were just much nicer. Yeah, the seats we have now are just, they're actually fine. It's just, you know, it's not exciting once you get used to it better. Right, right. So go in stages, that way you can keep getting excited, excited. For sure. All right, so I mean, I think that covers a lot of the different ways to get there.

One thing I'm still curious about, why haven't we talked about Cafe Pacific? Oh, that's a great question, because Cafe Pacific would be an awesome way to get to the Maldives and in fact I flew to the Maldives on Cathay Pacific the first time that I went so that was one of the first ones that came to mind. So you're keeping a secret from us so that you can keep those award seats available. Well the award seats are not available at the moment. Why not? Because Cathay is not flying to the Maldives. They stopped. stopped they cut that route so they cut a bunch of routes in late 2020 because of the pandemic and reduced demand and the maldives is one of them so they have said that they don't intend to restore that route until travel demand reaches pre-pandemic levels so who knows when that's ever going to come back so right

you could fly to hong kong and cathay pacific but you're gonna have to find another way to the maldives from there which well isn't it more like you can try to fly there uh because they've got a bunch of routes even they did from the united states they cut seattle they cut newark uh so absolutely it's much harder these days yeah than it was yeah um all right so is that it? Is there anything else to cover? I mean, I think that's mostly it. You know, I guess one other thing that I'll address is I'm sure that some people will ask, or maybe some readers with families would be curious anyway, what about kids? Would you bring kids to the Maldives? Good question.

And so, I mean, your father, Greg, what do you think? Would you bring kids? Would you bring young kids to the Maldives? You know, for me, well, first of all, I would not bring them and stay in an overwater villa because that would be kind of terrifying. I mean, young kids. Right. It'd be too easy for them to run off the property. Now we spoke to the general manager of the Meridian.

He said he won't even allow kids in those overwater bungalows. So that's probably not an issue. Kids under four, they have to have a beach villa. So if what excites you about being there is the overwater villa, then bringing kids obviously doesn't make sense unless you're at one that has them very well secured, which I'm sure there are ones. I'm sure there are ones that do do but that's something to look into when i went to bora bora in late 2019 i met a couple staying with a young child in an overwater bungalow and they said the resort at the saint regis bora bora had done

something to kind of child proof the bungalow some in some way to make it safer for the kid but but like greg said they told us at the meridian that they wouldn't even allow it so you're gonna need to do a little bit of extra research if you've got young kids and uh and there's the back to the length of the flight and that's the key you know i don't i wouldn't want to do it right right and that's and that's i guess my my outlook on it at the moment is that you're talking at least three flights and that's a lot of flight time with kids so i don't know if i would go back with kids yet anyway right right another consideration one last thing to discuss about like whether it's worth going to the maldives is like what do you want to do activity wise that true. Are you just interested in just like lazing around and looking

at beautiful views? Are you interested in snorkeling? You know, then all these is good for great for both of those things, I think. But what if you're more active, you know, so like my wife and I love hiking and mountainous areas. It's not mountainous there. No. So, you know, I think about activity-wise, there's a lot of places I'd actually prefer over the Maldives by quite a lot. Well, and it's worth mentioning for people who aren't familiar that most of the hotels in the Maldives have their own islands. So you are on an island that is just that resort and nothing else and no ability to go to another island.

So it's not like you can take a boat to a nearby island, even if there is a nearby island, they don't allow travel to, at this point anyway, because of the pandemic, they don't allow travel to and from other local islands like that. You can go and stay at another resort, but that's typically gonna involve paying for the transfer

back to the airport and then again to your next resort so you're going to pay that seaplane fee twice if you want to do that there aren't direct transfers hotel to hotel a lot of people do that right right and then that's true yeah that's but that's the way you do it so yeah um so that's not an option there whereas for example in bora bora you could take a boat to the main Island and do some hikes and walk around and it's mountainous there. Uh, you could take a boat to another nearby resort and go out for dinner or something like that. And that's not an option for you in the Maldives,

generally speaking. So, um, so I think that is a good point because at the, at Limeridian, for instance, snorkeling was fantastic. If you like snorkeling and you're a reasonably good swimmer then there's a terrific reef so very well worthwhile a lot of fun i could spend all day out there every day and and my back would have the burns to prove that um but my burns are starting to get itchy yeah i know unfortunately i hear you there uh but anyway so there's a lot of that but there wasn't a lot of other activity to do. Now, I think the resort is so new that they're going to work on some other entertainment and things. So there probably will be more and more things to do.

But it's still going to be somewhat limited geographically because you're on a very small island. There's not that much space. So if you're not really into getting in the water, getting on a boat, doing a little bit of sailing or that sort of thing, then it might not be the right experience for you. On the flip side, if you do want to get in the water with beautiful tropical fish, it's an awesome place for that. Right, right. And that, I love that. Me too. Me too. It's such a great experience if that's what you're answering. It's like swimming in an aquarium. So if you want, if you ever wanted to be in the aquarium, yeah, then it's a great place for you. Right. Although this aquarium has fairly strong tides.

It does. So that's why you need to be a pretty strong swimmer because, you know, you could go in one direction without any effort, but you generally have to go back in the other direction afterwards, and that could be a little bit harder. Right, right, right. At least this time of year. It wasn't smooth and glassy all the time.

Right, right. All right. At least this time of year. It wasn't smooth and glassy all the time. Right, right. All right. I think that wraps that up. No post roast this week, I don't think. No post roast. I'm prepared with a post roast, but you know what? I'm going to hold onto it until next week. Really?

I am. Oh, you can roast me. Okay, I can roast you? Okay. All right. So a little post roast here. Greg wrote a roundup of the Guck trip, passing the G Guck trip and he went over a bunch of the stuff that happened and the thing that stuck out at me and not because it's a major thing but it's because of what I wanted to roast I guess is he mentioned

that the service at the Four Seasons in Abu Dhabi was okay they didn't do anything to go above and beyond and I'm going to say what all right Greg clearly has forgotten that we had a lot of confusion about getting into Abu Dhabi. We didn't know exactly how that process was going to work and what we needed to do. And so for like the better part of a day, I was chatting in the Four Seasons app with reps at the Four Seasons Abu Dhabi who were answering patiently, I'll add, and quickly answering my questions about getting into Abu Dhabi who were answering patiently, I'll add, and quickly answering my questions about getting into Abu Dhabi. And then when it was clear that I still wasn't there, they took the initiative to look up my phone number and my profile and call me. I didn't ask them for that call. They just took the initiative to call and try to help me get it figured out and sorted out. And that's something I wouldn't expect if I was chatting with I don't know the residents and or whatever whatever Mary had the Marriott

app that takes like an hour or two to get back to you the Four Seasons in Abu Dhabi was like almost instantaneous on responses and took the initiative to call so I actually would give them a lot of credit for service now yeah I say that and Greg's right like on property it was like fine. I mean, it was what you'd expect with any like. Right. Any luxury. Medium, high end. Not even luxury.

Not even luxury. Medium. You're right. Medium. And again, nothing bad about the service. It was all like good. Right. But, you know, I didn't get like, I've read some like reviews where, you know, maybe Lucky

from One Mile Time says that they're there lined up and and you know ready to greet them by name because they know them you know it wasn't that it wasn't anything like that no it wasn't like that it wasn't like that whereas the meridian was like that was like that they were lined up and they were greeting us they took us back when we returned to the airport they led us through you know all the security and everything at the airport like personally one person assigned to the two of us because we were traveling together to make our way through the airport as if we were VIPs and yet they appear to do that for everybody and that was really amazing

there was it was fantastic so service there was top-notch and I'm glad that you touched on that because it really is the level of service you would expect at a higher-end hotel. Right, right. Which is so cool. It is awesome. Okay, so that was Post Roast. Question of the week is a question we're going to ask next week because I don't have the question of the week. So then, if you enjoyed what you were hearing today and you would like to find out more about it, all you got to do is go to frequentmiler.com slash subscribe to get on our email list

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of the pictures and stories from this trip. Thank you guys very much for being out there with us today and we will see you again next week. Thanks, everybody. Bye-bye.