Review: Leeli Lounge Male Airport

The rest of the Maldives resorts must be a lot more family friendly than the one you stayed at. I've never seen so many munchkins in any of your trip reports, or any aspirational travel trip report.

Favorites: red dress on the bus and leopard tights on dad's lap playing video games in the lounge.

Kudos for Cathay Pacific for hiring lots of foreign captains! Their biggest competitor - Singapore Airlines, hire only Singaporean Chinese captains.
Emirates and Cathay Pacific are only two multinational airlines. They hire international, create job oppturnities worldwide.

"The pilots both seemed to be Australian, while the cabin crew looked fairly young."

So the Aussies are all old? 🙂

GREAT detailed report, Ben, and thanks for that. Your eye and attention are a differentiator for your blog. Don't lose sight of that!

Hey Lucky! How is no one covering this news story?! El Al turned a plane around going between TLV and NYC. It was over half way through its flight when an engine failed and, according to the story, they chose to fly back to TLV rather than land in Europe for financial reasons.

http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.661783

Can you please stop using "literally" so much?
Surely there are other words you could employ.

@ Zane -- Have a post scheduled about it in the morning. 🙂

I was in Male in December, flew J EK and used this lounge. The lounge was pretty packed when I was there because I believe a Singapore flight also left around the same time as my flight. Overall I liked the lounge because it's basically the only "quite" part of the airport because rest of the airport is a zoo. It's too small and way too many people.

Yep - not going to the Maldives.

Intriguing post. What camera do you use for your pictures, and how do you take your pictures discreetly? Whenever I travel I get quite self conscious when taking pictures in public.

Hi Lucky,

We will be flying MAle to HKG (our destination) in October, and unfortunately in economy as there are no business class available for award booking. Anyway, you mentioned you were handed a fast track for immigration along with your boarding pass upon checked in at CX counter, is that for all US citizens or only when flying Business class?

Our CX flight Male to HKG will depart at 23:35, will Park Hyatt be responsible for scheduling our boat departure from the hotel and Maldivian flight to Male or we can request? Hopefully, PH will allow us to stay as late as possible based on availability ( I have Diamond status). I would think more convenient or better (?) than hanging around at Male airport with no access to Leeli lounge or can we pay? Is it worth it. I highly value your comment or opinion, so would like to hear your suggestion.

We seem to be following your footsteps on our upcoming Maldive so I'm reading every single post of yours. Based on your review of Beach palace or UI Inn, we would not even consider staying there. We will arrive in Male on 10/23 at 2:50 pm, and plan on staying either at the airport or Male city for one night....primarily so as not to pay for 1 night in PH all cash ( budget wise), and use instead for one night upgrade to OWV. In addition, this will allow us to see Male city on our arrival day. I read somewhere this is doable in just about 2 hours. We arrive Male from AUH, so we would not be as tired if we originated from USA.

I feel indeed "lucky" to have discovered you, Lucky and your blogs. Your attention to details and telling it like it is ...makes reading your blog so invaluable to me, not to mention your great photos. Keep writing.

@ Lena -- The fast track is only for business class passengers. Yes, the hotel will take care of everything. You tell them when your flight out of Male is, and they'll schedule the boat transfer and flight, which will likely only be in the late afternoon. Chances are you won't have all that much time at Male Airport, so I wouldn't even bother with trying to get access.

Enjoy the trip, sounds awesome!

One vital (for me at least) point about the lounge not mentioned here is that it's alcohol free. One would much prefer free alcohol.

I totally agree one of the worst lounges ever visited. only few things to eat and not good, passengers once entered got out again as the outside part of the airport (souvenir shops and nice food) was nicer than the lounge.Ahmed Amsel and Mohamed Mahfooz not at the standard of the passengers who use VIP lounges during worldwide travel.

only few things to eat and not good, passengers once entered got out again as the outside part of the airport (souvenir shops and nice food) was nicer than the lounge.Ahmed Amsel and Mohamed Mahfooz not at the standard of the passengers who use VIP lounges during worldwide travel.