Cheap flights to
Maldives

We have never seen evidence that there’s a specific day of the week when airfare is magically cheaper, but we have found patterns that airfare is usually at its cheapest during a specific period of time before a flight. For domestic flights, it’s 1-3 months before a flight. For international trips, it’s 2-8 months beforehand. We call this the Goldilocks Window, and it’s when we recommend most travelers book their flights.

There are, of course, exceptions to just about every rule, including this one. If you’re traveling during peak season or over a big holiday, we suggest adding a few months to the equation. Likewise if your travel dates are set in stone. And, whatever you do, we highly recommend booking your tickets before airlines raise prices at the last minute—usually 21, 14, and 7 days before departure.

It’s incredibly satisfying to find a great deal on a nonstop flight to exactly where you want to be. But it’s a good thing that we love finding deals on every flight since there are exactly zero nonstop flights from the United States to Maldives. This trip is a perfect candidate for the travel hack we call the Greek Islands Trick.

The idea is that you book the cheapest long-haul flight you can find that gets you sort of close to where you want to be. Then, you can book a separate ticket on a short flight (or a train or a boat) to make up the distance. It works brilliantly for the Greek Islands, hence the name, but it also works just as well for places all over the world—especially islands.

Flying from Los Angeles to Malé might cost $1,300-1,500 roundtrip, including multiple layovers along the way. But you might find a $600 roundtrip deal on flights from LAX to Bangkok. Even when you add a nonstop $350 roundtrip ticket from Bangkok to Malé, you’re still saving money. These itineraries require more attention to detail, but sometimes, the savings are worth it.

Departing from the airport closest to your home is certainly the most convenient option, but it’s not always the cheapest option. Whether you live close to one major airport or three, we’ve found that it’s often worth checking ticket prices departing from airports that may not be anywhere near where you live. This is a bit like the Greek Islands Trick in reverse.

Flights from Las Vegas to Maldives are routinely $1,500 and up. From Los Angeles, we’ve seen flights to Maldives come in at under $700—but even if the flight to Malé from LAX is closer to $1,000, it’s still a lot less than it would cost to fly straight from Las Vegas. And that’s especially appealing when you can almost always find flights from Las Vegas to LAX under $60. The bottom line is that it behooves you to see if there’s a killer fare to your dream destination from an airport that’s nowhere near you because you could save quite a bit of cash.

This probably sounds like obvious advice, but stick with us—there’s a little more going on here than you might think.

One of the best ways to save money when traveling is by keeping your plans flexible. Instead of blocking vacation time first and looking for flights second, try looking at when flights are cheaper and blocking time off based on that.

Not everyone has that kind of control over their time off, but there are still a couple of things you can do to save a little money on airfare. Thanksgiving week is frequently an expensive time to fly domestically, but it’s something of a hidden cheap week for international travel. And, if you can’t avoid peak travel season, you can at least try to avoid flying on the days when tickets tend to be most expensive (Fridays and Sundays). Aim instead for the days when tickets are usually cheaper (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays).

Rather than devoting all your free time to internet sleuthing as you try to hunt down the cheapest airfare, we recommend signing up for fare alerts. Once you’ve signed up for an alert for the trip you want to take, you can sit back and wait for the email telling you the price is right. Keep in mind that you will have to set up multiple alerts if you’re considering multiple trips. On the other hand, you could outsource all the detective work by joining Going. We’ll send you all the deals from your home airport.

The main international airport in Maldives is Velana International Airport (MLE), located on an island near the capital island of Malé. It’s a hub for the country’s flagship carrier, Maldivian, along with 39 other airlines. This relatively small airport is still very well-connected throughout Asia and the Middle East, as well as some major European hubs. So, although every flight from the United States requires at least one layover, it’s possible to find reasonable routes that keep the layover count at one.