michalis

I am in a similar position. I booked my stay in November (two nights using AMB cert and 2 using points) and then realised that I had an extra day at the start due to the time difference flying from OZ.

All of a sudden all nights dissapeared and I have been constantly checking but nothing comes as available at Le Moana even though Thalasso gets the random night from time to time.

DUflyer

Anyone interested in swapping a reward night at the IC Moana with a reward night at the Conrad Bora Bora? July 12 or July 14.

floridatraveler90

I am looking for, over the course of the next year, any dates in July 2018. I will be getting married June 29th and would really like to try to get to Bora Bora for the honey moon. I know this is going to be difficult on points but it will be worth the effort. I have no problem with doing a few nights at the Tahiti resort for a few days, Moorea, Moana, and really hoping for a few nights at Thalasso. I don't care too much if I have to jump among the properties as long as I can get 3+ consecutive nights. We are trying to avoid the Tahiti and Moorea property and spent most of our time in between Moana and Thalasso.

If anyone has or gets any dates in between 7/1/18-7/20/18 I would greatly appreciate it!

michalis

Le Moana used to have availability every day of the year up until February. Then I believe they pulled all availability.

I have not seen any nights for Le Moana since March when availability was pulled. Thalasso gets the random night from time to time (just yesterday the had a few days in August 2017) but unless you book as soon as the nights are released I would not rely on availability being there for the dates that you need it.


I wouldn't book flights to get to French Polynesia if I was not willing to pay cash and get stuck with the bill unless I had my nights arranged.

floridatraveler90

I have had a small bit of luck getting a few nights at Le Moana in July of next year. Nothing consistent though. I have not seen anything at all for Thalasso open up. Idk if they have different release times or if people are just snatching those up within the first few minutes of being released.

I don't plan on booking a flight(on miles hopefully) until I get the hotel situation figured out.

lincoln boy

This has been my experience and observation. so YMMV. If you wait until you have all the hotel reservations and look for flights, it is most likely that you don't find flight availability. This works fine if you are willing to pay for your flights but if you want to do this trip using miles and points, I would not wait to book flights until I have hotel reservations using points.


This is evident from the reward nights releasing pattern. Within 2 weeks or so, reward availability sometimes open up. This means somebody gave up and cancelled because either 1) he or she was not able to find flight availability or 2) he or she was not able to book reward nights.


I would say it is very hard to put this trip together if you want to cover flights and hotels only with points and miles. You need to be ready to pay cash if need to. So booking flights as soon as you find a couple nights at Thalasso or Le Moana would greatly increase your chance to actually go there.

evega88

You snagged up the dates I've been scouring for. We were going to book the second to last week in June because a few nights were available but our wedding anniversary is the first week of July. So I've been hunting down the reward nights multiple times a day for the last 3 weeks, literally as the July dates have opened and not a single date showed up. We were ready to book with flights and everything. Then I went to go book the nights in June once I realized the July nights were probably already gone and those two were gone also. Literally just wanted 2 night at Le Moana the first week of July for our anniversary. We're spending the rest of our time at other islands.

From what I've seen it is near impossible to get back to back dates in Bora Bora. We're limited on the flight schedule going to Tahiti... we need the overnight Friday flight into Papeete and can only stay 8-9 days total in FP. So our goal was to end our trip in Bora Bora for our anniversary. We were fine without back to back nights because we're paying for part of our stay.

I guess we will have to try to find other dates in July to go. Trying to be optimistic!

floridatraveler90

which dates specifically were you looking for?

floridatraveler90

which dates specifically were you looking for?

evega88

First week of July 2018. Anything from July 1 - July 8, 2018. Preferably end of that week so we would end in Bora Bora. We're doing Moorea the 5 days prior, but would switch it around if it worked out that we did Bora Bora to start and then end in Moorea, as long as the Bora Bora part fell on a weekend.

Our plan was to pay for two nights, and do 2 nights on points in Bora Bora. We have to pay for at least one weekend night (Friday or Saturday) to use our Ambassador Cert, and were hoping to get at least any two other days between Weds. and Sunday. Because we want to use our Ambassador night in Bora Bora versus Moorea, our goal was to end there. But we would start there as long as it worked out to get at least 2 nights at Le Moana.

We are one of the rare couples that didn't care for the Thalasso at all so our focus has been on Le Moana and Int. Moorea.

evega88

Before that, we were looking at dates between June 16th and June 21st 2018. We *almost* did it because all of the Moorea dates we wanted were open and two nights at Le Moana were available. But my husband insisted we wait until reward nights open for the first week of July since that's our anniversary. I told him it wasn't a guarantee and risky to wait it out, risk losing the nights that were open in June. By the time all of the first week of July 2018 opened and I didn't see one night at Le Moana, I went to book the June dates and they were gone. You snooze you lose, as we've learned in taking that risk. If we don't get the dates next year for 2018 we're going to wait it out for 2019.

evega88

Also, I'm more mad at myself for letting the dates slip lol. I know you were also looking for dates during the July timeframe, so I can't be upset that you got them before we did. I truly hope you guys make it their for your honeymoon. And seriously consider doing a few days in Moorea. It took a lot of convincing to get my fiance at the time, now husband, to even want to do Bora Bora. He was SET on Moorea - cheaper, still beautiful, etc. But once that plane started to approach Bora Bora, you just knew you were coming in on the island. We were at Le Moana for all but 30 minutes when he said "We are DEFINITELY coming back!" We did 75% of our excursions in Moorea because they were cheaper. We found the breakfast was better there as well, it tasted much more fresh. Moorea has a majestic beauty to it as a bigger island. Bora Bora is just paradise on earth. The snorkeling and sea-life was also more visible in Moorea, and we found the spa at Int. Moorea to be better than the Thalasso, by a long shot. If you can end in Bora Bora, do it. The water, the scent of the island, the coral gardens, everything about Bora Bora is unbelievably breathtaking. But if you can't get those dates at the Thalasso, seriously consider doing Moorea. It's absolutely beautiful and a totally different experience.

floridatraveler90

Depending on how my plans work out I may be able to release some of the Moana dates for you. I have a few sets of consecutive days with one day missing that breaks up the stretch. I'm trying to refrain from having to pay for more than the ambassador certificate night. If I can't work it out we may decide to go on the honeymoon towards the end of July instead and the nights will be yours. If you happen to see any other dates open for thalasso or Moana open up please book them because I may need them and we can do a trade off.

floridatraveler90

I have managed to get a few reservations at Moana and very few at Thalasso. I am really not trying to hoard nights but I am trying to see what will actually be able to be used during my honey moon. Over a 14 day stretch in July I have 8 reservations in Bora Bora. I have a few sets of consecutive days at Moana and two single night stays at Thalasso that are separated. I do have a few days where I have absolutely no reservations July 4th, July 5th, July 8th, July 11th, and July 12. What would those with experience be able to recommend to me? I am almost tapped out on IHG points. Should I wait it out with what I have or should I just start looking to push back my honeymoon and keep trying to get an actual 4-5 night consecutive night stay at one of the properties as they release the nights?

DUflyer

I would say it is highly unlikely someone will release these nights anytime soon. Of course if someone else also has individual nights they might have the same problem as you and then it is a matter of who sits it out longer. That's probably the main reason we see nights released just before the cancelation deadline. But I also noticed that some reward nights don't go back to inventory, even if released long before the deadline. Definitely use Hotel Hustle or some other method to monitor the nights you are missing.

On our recent trip to Bora Bora I noticed that there are quite a lot of cheap looking hotels and BnBs right next to or very close to the Moana. For the nights you cannot get, you could easily move there if hotel hopping is an option for you on your honeymoon. The Sofitel is also a cheaper option that looked nice and is quite close to the Moana.