Thank you guys so much! Bora Bora sounds great. I am definitely going to book something in the next few days. I am still undecided on the hotel situation. I think I will stick with the IC's since it's the best use of points. A lot of IC's tend to be business hotels, thus not a great use of points for vacation. Plus, 40K IC points vs. 60K SPG points for Bora Bora is not even close. There does seem to be great debate over which IC to choose. Some people say Thalasso is much nicer and some say Le Moana is nicer. I am sure that it just depends on what you are looking for. I am definitely leaning towards Thalasso because of the rooms. We will have three people and the rooms seem very large. Le Moana only shows rooms with 1 double bed available and that won't work since there are three of us. It sounds like we could use the shuttle to go over to the main island and buy some groceries to bring back to Thalasso with us to help with expenses. It also sounds like we would still be able to hang out over at Le Moana a little if we got sick of Thalasso. I know that the rainy season starts in November, but I can only go the week of Thanksgiving. I saw that the average rainfall for November is 6.5 inches, which is a lot. Is that going to ruin my trip? I imagine that's part of the reason that there is award availability and should help me chance of an upgrade. I do have one final question for the RA's out there:
I am really hoping for a nice upgrade as an RA. I would like to book the whole trip using points, but I don't know what kind of room I would get. I thought of booking the first night as a paid stay and using a BOGO for the second night. The other nights would be using points. Will paying for the first two nights give me a better chance of a nice upgrade? If so, what room category should I book? I thought of just paying for the Diamond OWB the first night and hoping to keep that room. Do you think that will work? If I do use the BOGO, should I not tell them until check-in? Would that even work if I book using the Advance Purchase rate? Sorry for all of the questions, but I really appreciate the help!