Green_eyes

(New York to Bora Bora - NYC to BOB)

I haven't booked any award reservations just yet and would greatly appreciate your guys's help!

Need to get to Bora Bora in April/May of next year. What I have:

myself - AA Gold status, 100K AA miles, 4 upgrades
hubby - no status, 30K AA miles

What is the most efficient way to do it?


As this topic comes up with some regularity, threads have been merged. Also note:

TN / Air Tahiti Nui, allows AAdvantage miles to be used; TN flies to PPT / Paeete, island of Tahiti, French Polynesia (from LAX, AKL, NRT, CDG via LAX and SYD). HI / Hawaiian Airlines is also an AA partner, and serves PPT on Saturdays at this update.

VT / Air Tahiti, the domestic airline serving Tahiti and her islands, flies to BOB and other PF destinations; it is not an AAdvantage partner nor is it connected to Air Tahiti Nui; separate tickets must be purchased additionally to award tickets to PPT - see VT's website here. Be sure to check the Air Tahiti Pass here if you are thinking of mutliple islands visits.

Tahiti is a single island; Papeete is the capital, and the main international airport serving the area is Faaa / Papeete International Airport / PPT, actually a just few miles south at Faa'a. Tahiti is part of the Society Islands, as are neighboring Moorea, and Bora Bora, Maupiti and Raiatea.

Motu-mote (Bora Bora) Airport /BOB is on a small motu (island) near Bora Bora, 260 km / 162 mi from PPT. Bora Bora is properly pronounced "PO-rah PO-rah". Transport to / from Bora Bora and resorts is by boat.

If the idea of Bora Bora is too expensive, check nearby Moorea, served by Moorea Temae Airport (MOZ), but better arrived at in most instances by high speed catamaran Aremiti ferry (1/2 hour) from the downtown Papeete ferry dock.

Check respective fora for further information, including your favorite hotel property fora, and the Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific Forum.

GUWonder

Beef up using (business and personal) credit card sign-up-related bonus miles.

sharklover

You only have enough miles for 1 free Y ticket which is a bad use of miles. For J you need 125,000 miles. Open a Citi credit card and get 30,000 miles. that way you can get 1 free J ticket. You could also convert some of your starwood points to AA. Even if you have enough miles for 2 J tickets its unlikely it will be available. Air Tahiti Nui's practice is to allow 1 free J and 1 free F per flight.
You can also only get a free ticket to PPT. So be prepared to pay another $400 to fly to Bora Bora.

3Cforme

Ah, honeymooners... to whom somebody has gifted a bunch of Starwood points.

Look at AA's All Airline Awards for travel on AA + Air Tahiti Nui JFK-LAX- Papeete, and buy the turbo prop flight from there.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/pa...Chart.jsp#APAA

Blumie

The OP does not have enough miles. See the above posts.

Green_eyes

So if I understand correctly from all you guys I need 125K miles each to get to Papetee in J? Will my 4 - 500 miles upgrades help at all (may be at least one leg)?

We haven't picked the resort yet, so it could be in Papetee also, to avoid an extra $400 to Bora Bora, unless there are no good resorts there.

Green_eyes

I am not sure what this means - can someone clarify?

tylerdurden4543

If you really want to use your 500 mile certificates in this equation, you could do this:

Get the AA credit card for 30k miles and then use 125k miles to buy a J ticket (JFK-LAX on AA and LAX-PPT on Air Tahiti).

Then, purchase a R/T Y ticket JFK-LAX, get one more upgrade certificate (AA’s been known to pro-rate at the end of the year, so maybe fly 2,500 miles by then) and try to upgrade one way. Then also purchase a R/T J ticket on Air Tahiti LAX-PPT. Complicated, but could work!

Homeboy

Do not stay in PPT any longer than you have to as you will not even come close to the true Tahitian experience. If Bora Bora is too pricey, you may wish to consider Moorea which is a one hour ferry ride from PPT. Beautiful island.

Blumie

This is fairly straightforward: award travel from NYC-PPT requires 37,500 miles each way in Y, 62,500 miles each way in J, and 72,500 miles each way in F. You could use your 100,000 miles for a one way J award and a one way Y award. Hubby can use his 30,000 miles for bubkis. Your upgrade certificates are only usable on purchased domestic (and Canadian, Caribbean and Central American, but that won't help you here) tickets. All of this information (and more!) is available on aa.com.

[Edited to add: for the sake of clarity, according to aa.com, 500-mile upgrades can be used: "within and between the 50 United States, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, and between the U.S. and Central America."]

JDiver

OK, you can not get to Bora Bora with AA miles. You can get to Papeete (PPT) with AA miles using TN / Air Tahiti Nui, but then you will have to purchase tickets on Air Tahiti (VT) to continue on to BOB.

However, it has been reported TN is only allowing one J and one F award seat per flight, so flying on awards has been complicated - members have reported acquiring one each ticket and trading a seatmate up to F to allow spouse to fly J, or flying in separate cabins. Coach may be significantly easier, but the words "honeymoon" and "coach" do not work well in the same sentence. (Seriously, it's not a hugely lengthy flight and coach is actually survivable, and 37.5 k miles per person each way JFK-LAX-PPT, iirc.)

There is a decent chance you will have to overnight near Faaa (airport) - we have stayed at the Tahiti Country Club, a fair to middling and not obscenely-priced hotel with pool, etc. on a hill (cooler, views of Moorea and the Sea of the Moon,) near the airport.

Moorea is a short ferry ride away, OTOH, and picturesque - more to do, actually, than Bora Bora, and you can use the jet catamarans from the Papeete main dock to Vaitape - trip time is actually 25 - 30 minutes, depending on the ship, and under $10 per person (aircraft-style seating.) You can range for a hotel pickup, or better, rent a car from Europcar at the ferry landing at Vaitape and self-drive so you can visit sites, eat at interesting restaurants, etc. (Do not waste flying ten minutes on an Air Moorea DHT to Moorea IMO - small aircraft with occasional luggage restrictions and prices significantly higher than the ferry to land on a small postage-stamp strip remote form most lodging, etc.)

worldwidedreamer

My advice would be to visit one of the many other spectacular island paradises in our world. French Polynesia is both rather polluted and overpriced. You will be a lot happier visiting someplace like Noosa Heads in Australia or Koh Samui in Thailana, both places easily reachable on AA partners like Qantas or Cathay Pacific.

ashill

That's in the eye of the beholder. I value miles by the ticket I would pay for but don't have to because I'm using miles. Since I would never buy a business class ticket (unless it was comparably-priced to coach), I consider using the extra miles to sit in J a waste. Coach gets you where you're going just like business. OP, of course, you'll have to make up your own mind. (My honeymoon in December is booked in coach, btw, although it's a sticker-eligible flight.)

Green_eyes

Ended up with unhelpful and mean rep who advised me that no award flights available from LAX to JFk on the dates that I need, eventhough when I try to book online I see those flights available... it was like pulling teeth from this agent, especially that I never booked award flights before

is there any magic number or email that I can call to get all of these sorted out

sharklover

I think FP is fantastic especially if you scuba dive or are thinking of starting to try it. I have been there 3 times and will be returning in a few years.