snowoody

It was on Saturday night when we were there couple weeks ago. I do not know if this changes over time though.

wlp07

It may help on an award stay. To say much beyond that would be speculative. It is definitely helpful for paid stays, and possibly helpful on award nights. If you already know that you are going to book with points and pay the difference to get a guaranteed owb, I don't see any real return on buying AMB status. In my experience staying here on points as an AMB, they gave me priority check in, welcome drink, 2 free drink coupons for the bar, fruit plate and sparkling wine bottle, and a gift of a sarong and t shirt in the room. They didn't honor late check out for me (not that they had to). Unless you can make good use of the BOGO certificate, I wouldn't do it just for this one hotel. Now, the calculus could change if you are staying at multiple IC's around Polynesia. For example, if you are going to be hopping between IC Moorea, IC Le Moana, and IC Thalasso, then you have more check-ins, and therefore in theory more chances to get an upgraded room, or otherwise collect more of the little freebies aforementioned.

DUflyer

Reward nights were available for many days. Since March 1 they are all gone, even though the entrance level rooms are still available.

I hope that's a temporary glitch and reward nights will be back soon. Or was there any major change March 1?

CanuckFlyHigh

Im curious, it appears all reward nights are unavailable. This used to be the easiest for reward nights. Hoping they change this?!

navatwal

I cancelled 2 nights here today, they did not go back into reward inventory

DUflyer

Is this hotel playing by the rules?

I have been closely monitoring reward nights in Bora Bora for the last 6 weeks and have seen at least 20-30 nights pop up at the Thalasso, but not a single night at the Moana.

They say that 3 rooms per night are available for reward booking (5% of their inventory), but it is hard to believe that.
If that were the case, wouldn't some reward nights become available in March next year when booking opens? Or when someone cancels?

CanuckFlyHigh

As of March 1st, I havent seen anything for this property. Prior to March 1st, I was able to book anything (IE I booked December 26-Jan 2, no problem, in mid-Feb). Something is going on...

Buzzman

Playing by the rules? Whose rules... Flyertalk members? You folks need to realize I think that things in French Polynesia don't really operate the same as maybe in the US, Canada or Europe. Life is simpler and slower and the Central Res System for the 4 IC properties in FP sometimes take their sweet time to get things done. Why? Because that's the way of life down there and its ok... I've dealt with them a lot over the last 10 years... maybe twice a year and its always the same...

DUflyer

Then why don't you tell us inexperienced folks how it is?
Is suddenly everything going to open up again for reward booking? In 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, once a year? Enlighten us, please.

Edward_YUL

That is ! You need to follow the rules

CanuckFlyHigh

Well the culture of FP has absolutely nothing to do with the issue we are discussing, but thanks for your input.

Back to the issue, it appears they are not offering any award availability anymore.

lawest74

A quick report on my stay last week. I booked it all on points. I am a Spire Elite Ambassador. I was upgraded to an overwater bungalow pretty far out. I was given late check out as well as my welcome amenity and free water every day. I was very happy to get an upgrade on an award stay ( I was preupgraded on the app 2 days before) . I loved the hotel and had a great time. Really liked staying on the main island as we could go out to eat and go to the grocery stores. Last time I stayed at the Hilton and was basically stuck on the motu to eat. I highly recommend the Le Moana. We visited the Thalasso which was nice, but still think the Le Moana was wonderful and would not hesitate to stay there again.

Buzzman

That's funny, I thought I just did... they may not put nights back into inventory as fast as we'd like to see... as they take their time and do it when they get to it... this is not a lecture on FP culture, its the way things work... this one office handles the reservations for 4 major properties and perhaps the Cruise ship Gauguin which is owned by the sane guy... and is the Brando his also..?? they have a lot to deal with and perhaps full revenue rooms are more important to manage than partial revenue rooms...

DUflyer

I don't know which world you live in.

With your ten years experience of booking at that hotel, you seriously think that every time a reward night is canceled, someone from the hotel needs to manually put it back to available reward inventory?
Have you never noticed that this usually happens instantly?

This hotel has obviously decided not to make any reward nights available at the moment. With your long experience and commenting that this happens all the time, why don't you tell us what their pattern is and how often they release reward nights?

Buzzman

decided not to comment...