Specifically, Bora Bora next summer. Overwater bungalows would be nice.

I initially thought that they could be had for 50K Hilton HHonors points as they're category 7, but apparently, French Polynesian resorts are excluded from that. Hilton wants someting like 150K-250K pts per night for Bora Bora.

I then turned my attention to Priority Club... IC has 2 resorts in Bora Bora, 1 has no availability with Priority Club points, the other does. However, 40-50K pts doesn't get the overwater bungalows. Do you think I could pay the difference to upgrade?

What about Starwood? I inquired about Le Meredian in Bora Bora, and was told it would be >35K pts/night.

Options seem really limited for Bora Bora. Is there something I don't know?

Starwood also has the St. Regis in Bora Bora, but award stays are limited. I believe you will have to call Starwood to find out what is available (if anything) and what the rates are. A friend of mine just stayed here and raved about it.

You can definitely use points at the Hilton Bora Bora Nui, starting at 50k per night (less if you use GLON or AXON). This will get you a basic room ("King Guestroom Garden View"). They will probably let you pay to upgrade from the basic room to an OWB, however. Shoot the hotel an email and see how much it would be per night to upgrade from the basic room to OWB on the dates you are interested in, you might be surprised at how affordable it is.

At Bora Bora, I believe the cost, at least for a Diamond, is 20K XPF per night to upgrade from a standard room (AXON award) to a King Deluxe Overwater Bungalow.

For IC Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa they quoted me 17,100 xpf per night for an upgrade to the Emerald OWB, 28,500 xpf per night for the Sapphire OWB, and 39,900 xpf for the Diamond villa. This is in addition to the 50,000 Priority Club points per night for the redemption for the 2 bedroom family suite (on land). This website has a map with the locations of the OWB.
http://www.tahiti-guide.com/bora_bor...so_resort.html

You can book a stay at Hilton in Bora Bora for 37,500 Hhonors points for 4 days with VIP rewards (easy if you have Amex Hilton). What happened with your search was that you ran into their "premium room" mode--the trick Hilton uses during their high volume time. If you are flexible, you'll find your nights.

There have also been sporadic reports from some elite Hilton members who have been able to upgrade to OWB for free. If OWB is a make or break deal for you, though, I wouldn't bet on it. In any case, you will have to send them an email requesting an upgrade beforehand.

Getting there on miles can prove even more difficult than the hotel, though. Availability is extremely limited. One alternative but also difficult way to get there would be on LAN via Easter Island (a stopover on Easter Island would add additional value to your journey). Your itinerary would look somewhat like this: USA - LIM - ICP - PPT or USA - SCL - ICP - PPT. Then you will have to fly to Bora Bora on Air Tahiti. If you choose to use LAN, then SPG points can be transferred to LAN miles at 1:2.5 (over 20,000).

It's a difficult trip to put together. Good luck!

This past march I went to moorea and bora bora. DL miles for flights on AF, Hilton points when it was still a cat5. 225k total for 8 nights (4 at each) using GLON. As a gold it cost me 12.5k to upgrade at moorea and 15k to upgrade to a royal owb at bora bora.

How many miles for the redemption would this be for round trip? I would fly out of DFW. I got the hilton miles, Might consider this for spring.
USA - LIM - ICP - PPT or USA - SCL - ICP - PPT

I have BA, AA and Delta but more miles with BA than anyone else. Let me know! Thanks!

If you wind up going with PC and staying at IC hotels on both Moorea and Bora Bora, I'd suggest looking into an Ambassador Club membership -- free weekend night, upgrades, lots of nice bennies, even on award stays.

I have my honeymoon planned to Moorea in 3 weeks from now and this is what we're doing...

AA miles to fly round trip JFK-LAX-PPT in Business class (I believe it was 125k each)

HHonors points for 5 nights at Hilton Moorea (I used the 4 night AXON + 1 standard night) -- This gets you the basic room, my Gold membership gets me upgraded 1 level and then I paid ~$800 to upgrade to an OWB for my 5 nights. I've also heard that it's possible to get upgraded for free to the OWB, but I wanted a confirmed upgrade and I was able to do this last December. So, that peace of mind made it well worth "only" getting the 1 level upgrade for free and paying for the next level upgrade. There was also the option to pay to upgrade another level to the "panoramic" OWB, but we didn't think that was necessary.

Also, another side note... we picked Moorea because (even though it will be our honeymoon), we wanted to be able to get out and do things when we're there. Everything we read about Bora Bora was that there was nothing there but the resorts. So, going to experience the local culture or out to eat at a local restaurant wasn't an option. Not only that, but it was about $600-$700 each round trip plane ticket from PPT-Bora Bora.

So, in the end, we decided that Moorea offered some things to do, a short ferry ride back to the main island if we wanted to go there for an afternoon and we wouldn't be spending thousands of extra dollars on food and flight just to be in Bora Bora.

Good Luck with your planning!

I just got back from Moorea and Bora Bora and stayed at the Hilton in Moorea and Bora Bora and the Intercontinental Thallaso in Bora Bora.

The InterContinental is the much nicer resort, but is expensive since you can't get breakfast and internet for free like you can with Gold status from Hilton (easily acquired through a virtual move to Australia or with the Citi Reserve card).

We used our free nights from the Priority Club card to book a garden suite and paid ~$150 per night for a confirmed upgrade to the Emerald overwater bungalows at the Thallaso.

I suspect you are looking at the premium room redemptions with Hilton points, which is why you see 150K+ per night. We booked a standard room for 50K points and paid a cash upgrade fee to the Royal Overwater Bungalow. Availability at the Hilton in Bora Bora was tough, but check back every day since availability constantly changes.

We did IC Thalasso in Bora Bora in May. Was initially planning on Hilton, but their premium points program, blocking off dates, blatantly ignoring HH rules about no quotas and constant lying in my communications with them turned me off this property for good. I was much happier with my decision to go with IC. I visited the Hilton when we were there and wasn't as impressed with the location and the resort. PC points are ridiculously easy to accumulate with their CC, buying points trick and one free night that comes with Ambassador. You can just take a chance on the upgrade to OWB and they most likely will upgrade you when you get there, but we did it in advance and paid for it just for peace of mind. We got a Diamond but in hindsight would've been just as happy with an Emerald.

Le Meridian is right next to IC, great location but I think an older property. St.Regis is the much better Starwood property here, but both have ridiculous redemption rates in my opinion.

My Hilton points that I didn't use in BB served me much better in Europe.

Booking the flights was also very easy. AA miles on TN for LAX-PPT.

30,000 on AA to LIM, 40 to SCL (not sure about BA, but should be the same, more or less).

25,000 on BA (LAN) LIM-ICP and ICP-PPT.

Whichever you choose, you'll likely be forced to go to SCL rather than LIM. Outbound flights to LIM have almost ZERO availability on AA (and BA). Inbound flights from LIM are easier to get, so you could play with OW redemptions.

Also LAN only flies 2 or 3 times a week to those islands, so availability is not stellar as well, but you can get them if you check every day. This would be a vacation of a lifetime if you can pull it off. You could even start with Machu Picchu to make it even "more perfect".

i love reading everyone's trip reports and planning on these islands. i've been accumulating points to make a very similar trip next year.

LAN flies everyday, sometimes more than one flight a day, to IPC from both SCL and LIM. Availability for rewards is good. They fly only ONCE a week from IPC to PPT and there is NEVER any award availability, at least as far as I have been able to find. You can check on ba.com or simply call AA, BA or any oneworld carrier.

Actually, no. I believe, they fly twice a week between LIM and IPC, at least currently. They used to fly more and less often. I believe you are correct about IPC to PPT flying once a week, but they used to fly twice a week last year. LAN isn't very shy about changing their schedule at the moment's notice when they feel like it.