My wife and I have really started looking in to a week or so in Bora Bora and it looks like for an overwater bungalow it is either the Hilton or St. Regis. I have gathered a ton of airline miles and have more than enough to book 2 R/T in J.

I would like to find a way to accumulate large chucks of points in a hotel change to use for most of the room cost. I do realize that the award stays will not book me in an OWB and I will have to buy up to that from the award room.

I do not have the SPG or HH Amex so I can start with either of those but I will still need to add another 100-150k points on top of the sign-up bonus from either of those cards. Which chain is easier to accumulate points in? Are there other cards with big signup bonus that transfer easily to one of those programs?

I really want to find a way to cheapen up the hotel portion of the trip as I have learned through research that it is INCREDIBLY expensive once you get there.

Thanks for the help, FTers.

It is definitely easier to accumulate points for Hilton, though they won't go as far as SPG points.

The Hilton Amex gives 6 HHonors Bonus Points for every eligible dollar you spend at Hilton Family hotels, and at grocery stores, drugstores, gas stations, wireless and home phone, internet, cable and satellite TB service providers. It gives 3 bonus points on all other purchases. The current offer is pretty good at 50,000 points.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-50k-easy.html

Hilton also has a Visa card with CitiBank. It gives 6 points at Hilton hotels, 3 points at supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations, and 2 points on all other purchases. The current offer is decent at 40,000 points.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...us-points.html

You CAN get both cards together and you'd have 90,000 points to start with right off the bat. If you and your wife got both, you'd have 180,000 points to start with, plus whatever spend you put on the cards.


SPG only gives 1 point per dollar spent. SPG's points are definitely worth more, but their signup bonus is pretty poor currently. You only get 10,000 points with first purchase and you have to spend $15k to get to get 15k bonus points. So if you could spend $15k on the card, you'd have 40k points. 40k points could be stretched if you use their cash+points option.


All in all, SPG points have more value, but with the current sign-up bonuses, I think Hilton is the better option. You could easily have well over 200k points by the time you book your trip and if you utilize Hilton's cash+points option, you should have enough points for quite a few nights.


EDIT - As a Category 7 hotel, it would cost 50,000 points a night. If you use cash+points, it would cost 25,000 points plus $85 a night. If you had 200k points, you'd have 8 nights that would cost you $680 cash.

I am going to Moorea (flying into Papeete just like you would) all on points in July. Here is one way to do it:

1. Apply for two of the 75,000 American Airlines Citi cards for you and two American Airlines Citi Cards for your wife (300,000 American Airlines miles)

2. Apply for a Hilton Surpass card (I think it's 40,000 points but I KNOW it gave me gold status)

3. Use 150,000 of the American Airlines miles to fly to Papeete leaving 150,000 American Airlines miles.

4. Convert the leftover 150,000 American Airlines to HHonors points at a 3 to 5 ratio. You now have 250,000 HHonors points.

5. Add your 40,000 HHonorss points for your Surpass card and your 250,000 points that you transferred from American Airlines to give you 290,000 HHonor points.

6. Book 7 nights at Hilton Bora Bora for 262,500 instead of 350,000 because of your new Hilton Gold status.

7. Enjoy breakfast for free every morning thanks to being Hilton Gold also (I know they do this at Moorea so I am assuming they do at Bora Bora)

8. Decide if you want to pay for an overwater bungalow upgrade. Contact the Hilton Bora Bora for pricing (maybe $200 per night or so??)

This is pretty close to what I did.

That is great stuff from both of you. I really appreciate it. @Cubswin- why did you choose Moorea over Bora Bora?

I was going to upgrade to an overwater bungalow no matter which island I went to and just didn't want to spend the extra dollars to fly to Bora Bora ($800ish for two). Plus, I heard that is more expensive in Bora Bora for pretty much everything during your stay. Opinions vary of course but considering that many people compare the islands and some even like Moorea better I decided not to spend the extra cash.

How are you pulling off the 2 cards per person, I got a letter on the 2nd card saying I was denied because of the first app

There is a Citi Am-Ex and a Citi Visa that both give 75,000 miles with a $1,500 spend. I know that these links still worked as recently as two weeks ago, and that you can be approved for both at the same time, because I just got both cards for my father-in-law.

Need to apply for both on the same day.

Consult this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-up-bonus.html

You can look into the Virgin Atlantic card in UA Fan's thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...er-thread.html or in the Virgin Atlantic forum if you are trying to get hhonors points quickly. VS miles transfer to HH at 1:1 and you should be able to get 50k miles/points on this pretty quickly.

Bora Bora might be more expensive but considering that this would be the trip of a lifetime for most people is it really possible to justify flying all the way to French Polynesia and not visiting Bora Bora?

If you have already visited Bora Bora or will do so on a future visit then sure, but best to drop a few extra $$$ than to regret it later.

Hard to argue with your point but he asked why I decided on Moorea and it was because I did not want to spend the extra $1000-$2000 to go there

Hi Cubswin...would you mind elaborating as I was planning a similar trip. I am HH Diamond member with ~300k points so far. My wife and I both got in on the AA deal but only 1 card each so total 150k AA (seems stupid now that we didn't both do both cards to begin with but its in the past and cant dwell). The extra $1000-2000 you speak of, is that because points alone couldnt get you to Bora Bora or is there something else I am missing?

Also, not sure if you are 100% set on Bora Bora but if you jumped on the CO 50k deal also and had some miles to start you could consider Maldives. I looked into it and I believe I was able to work out this flight EWR-DXB-MLE for about 75k CO each and then the Hilton there is also very nice with OWB. Obviously not sure where you are located but just thought I would offer that as an option. I looked into the flight before the AA deal so I am not sure if there are AA partners also flying to MLE. Seems like I am in the same boat as you so thought I would share.

Well, it's far from scientific, but here is my logic (which can easily be disputed by someone with more ACTUAL first hand knowledge):

1. I just quoted a round-trip from Papeete to Bora Bora for random dates and it was right at $950

2. My understanding is that it costs more money to upgrade to the Panoramic Overwater Bungalow at Bora Bora than I paid at Moorea (Lets pretend it is $30 extra per night for 7 nights) = $210

3. My understanding is that everything on a daily basis costs more money (Lets pretend it $50 a day for 7 days) = $350

All that adds up to about $1,500 and all of it (except for the flight) is partially made up

I agree with everything RedRiver said but to elaborate I think that to properly do this analysis you need to put a value on what a SPG point is worth and what a HHonors point is worth.

As RedRiver correctly points out a starpoint is worth much more than an HHonors point. Everyone values their points differently and again as RedRiver points out using certain redemption options such as cash and points or AXON also alter the value of your points (but keep in mind both of these redemption options are not available in all circumstances)

In general I value a SPG point at around 1.8 cents. I value a HHonors point at around .6 cents. Therefore a signup bonus of 25,000 SPG (assuming you can meet the spend requirements) is worth about $450. The HHonors signup bonus of 50,000 (since this is the easy portion to earn) I value at $300. If you simultaneously signup for the Citi version and get approved for that too you would earn an additional 40,000 points valued at $240.

At the end of the day you need to spend some time on the websites of both hotel chains doing some dummy award booking and then compare those to dummy paid bookings and derive a point value for your particular redemption patterns.

I understand that this was part of a broader strategy, but that being said I don't think that's a very good ratio