windnsea26

Good point and advice. We did the upgrade last year just cause we didn't know if we would come back. Wife is okay with it, I am trying to convince myself it's okay.

brodielayne

The view from those rooms is amazing. I prefer the elevation vs being 10 feet off the water. It's stunning and there is so much to take in if you can chill enough to relax on the deck and take it all in.

Victor Lin

Hi windnsea, I was just told by Remy that the entire stay needs to be upgraded vs only upgrading 1-2 nights. Were you able to do this previously? I remember several others on this thread being able to do this as well.

windnsea26

I agree. People kept telling me to go for the Mt Otemanu view but we were upgraded to the sunset owv. Loved being able to jump out into the ocean right after breakfast directly from our room.

windnsea26

Hey Victor,
Yes. Last year we stayed for 5 days. I only paid for 2 nights for OWV at I believe about $800 or so a night. We were upgraded to the Sunset OWV for the entire stay. When is your trip? We are not going till middle of October.

Victor Lin

I knew it! We're going end of September. I'll probably do as you will and reach out in a few months.

Cynapse

We will go back for sure after visiting and we’ve debated what room we would want when we return. Debate between Mt. Otemanu Pool vs Sunset Pool. The sunsets in Bora Bora are indescribable. But you also have to deal with sunlight blasting your room/deck for the final couple hours of the day. And the Mt. Otemanu view rooms are amazing every hour of the day and the snorkeling is better there due to a shallower depth. You do get more boat traffic, but honestly we had a lot more than I expected on the sunset side (we were in 317). None of it was super intrusive though.

mcs26891

Looks like I have been upgraded to a Overwater King Pool villa my 3 nights according to my Hilton app! In relation to the posts above, if you directly contact the hotel before you stay I believe they tell you the spiel you have to upgrade your entire stay. Of course, once you get there if you play the dice you may get complimentary for some of your stay as diamond. I didn't want to take the latter risk as I didn't think it would work out not paying, so I used the Nor1 upgrade request just for the my first night (that stay was booked separately with free night certificate, other two nights were separate reservation, so I was able to go through nor1 without going through the hotel directly). I was banking on, the upgrade for first night going through but getting the other two nights free upgrade (saw reports here of people asking to stay in their overwater villa if they had two separate reservations upon arriving at hotel, so hoped the hotel would do this for me in advance). Well, it has updated both my reservations from King Lagoon to Overwater Pool Villa! Upgrade price was 113,000 XPF so $1,011 USD roughly. Accounting wise I'm telling myself I upgraded for an additional $337 per night, so that's pretty damn good! And I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have gotten it upgraded for free were it not doing the nor1 route just for first night.

We'll see what happens when I get there tomorrow, but I assume if it's showing on the app I should be good! Only question now is do I get my diamond upgrade to a Royal Pool now lol

Victor Lin

Excellent! I actually don't see the option to do eStandBy upgrades for my booking like I did in my previously cancelled ones. Did you always have that option or did it pop up later based on occupancy? I will likely do as you did and just pay to upgrade my one FNR night, and then the Standard room sound fine for my other 5 night booking.

mcs26891

I don’t think it was an option at first. I got an email about an estandby upgrade being available a few days before the start of each reservation. It came after the property itself reached out about booking the transport from airport and paid guaranteed upgrade.

Cynapse

Royal would be amazing! But there are several categories above Pool OWB (all of which would be awesome btw). Sunset Pool or Otemanu View Pool villas would both be big upgrades over the standard Pool villas.

dvsflyer

Has anyone traveled here direct from LAX to PPT in the last 10 days on Air France? Looks like French Polynesia entry testing rules have changed as of May 18th and a COVID test is no longer required if you are fully vaxed and boosted. Can anyone confirm Air France doesn't currently require the covid test for fully vaxed passengers on this route?

Traveler Dave

Confirmed.

https://tahititourisme.com/en-us/covid-19/

mcs26891

Just to update (currently still here), it turns out I was indeed upgraded the last two nights of the trip for free after upgrading the first. However, unlike what the Hilton app showed (that I was already upgraded the last two nights), when I checked in, I was asked if I wanted to pay for the remaining two nights . I played dumb and said no, and they operated under the assumption I would be changing rooms (even this morning when I asked how switching rooms would work). After not hearing from them for basically all day when they were supposed to tell me when my other room was ready (past 3pm), got confirmation I was upgraded the last two nights for free so didn't have to move.

Not exactly sure what happened behind-the-scenes (did they upgrade me my remaining two nights on the app in case they thought I made a mistake by only using Nor1 for the first night? or were they really going to upgrade me all along but see if they could squeeze more money out of me?) but I got what I wanted, so I'm happy.

The overwater pool villa is really nice. On my side, we get sun in the morning which I like, but sun is blocked in the afternoon. And don't see the sunset. Can't win em all and that's why they have the higher levels for more money Breakfast is indeed amazing, the pastries are so good (not overhyped by the property at all). Had sushi last night, which I heard mixed things about. It definitely was not the best sushi I've had in my life (pieces were hit or miss). The more expensive nigiri on the menu turned out being the best generally, so at least that's priced right (Himachi, beef, and salmon w/ salmon roe were pretty good - the shrimp which were apparently bathed in vinegar, and tuna, were not). French tonight and Banyan tomorrow. Wish Banyan was open on the weekends as I really wanted to eat there the most as it seems that is the most celebrated restaurant on the property on here.

Cynapse

Glad to hear you were upgraded!

The best food I ate at the Iriatai was the foi gras starter and the pork 3 ways main (La Cochon de Lait). They were both really, really good. They give you a small dessert even if you don’t order one off the menu so if you aren’t thrilled with the options or are kinda full you’ll still get a little something sweet. If they offer the tiger shrimp main dish don’t be tempted even if it sounds good, it was the worst thing I ate while I was there.

Banyan was pretty good, we did the Immersion menu or whatever where they bring you out all the assortments of spring rolls, wontons, etc. The best main dish w me had was the stir fried angus beef. My wife got the squid and it was “okay”. The poached pear dessert in black sesame ice cream was fantastic.

Agree on the sushi place. I’m from California and we have amazing sushi here so it wasn’t anything to write home about but was fresh and generally good (and obviously super premium on price).