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Wow, this is great information. We briefly considered a French Polynesia vacation for early next year, but I had to put a stop to it when a Facebook friend put up pictures of her honeymoon at St. Regis Bora Bora and my husband declared he must stay there. This is a category 7 hotel and redemption here by points is something beyond ridiculous. So we need to pay cash and thus need to plan and save for a trip like this.
Yeah the St Regis looks pretty awesome, but there are plenty of "points" hotels nearby. Intercontinental and Hilton or probably the 2 easiest to book. Each runs about 50,000 points per night for the basic room (which is about $500), and you can e-mail the resort to pay cash to upgrade to an OWB (from $200+ per night).
We're planning a trip next year. Probably will use miles to fly coach, then get an airpass via cash. Book 3 nights in the hilton moorea (upgrade to OWB), and 3-4 nights in intercontinental thalliso or hilton bora bora (probably with the AXON). I'd assume we'd spend about $4-5K all told for the trip with food/upgrades/interisland flight/activities, and saved about $3.5K for the room (IC/Hilton) and $2.2K for the flights (wife and I) using points (AA).