If you booked one flight with AA miles and one flight with Delta miles you would be on the same flight. You can book TN flights with both AA and Delta miles so you would be on the same flight. The reason for booking one RT with AA miles and one with Delta miles is that Delta does not allow one way awards. Delta also is partners with AF but that would not help you.

thank you for that info. i will look at availability today. wish me luck!

AF has availability for two departing LAX on 11/12 and arriving PPT 11/13. There is availability on the return departing on 11/22. You will need 60K AF miles and pay $455 per ticket. You may even book Premium Economy for 15K more per PAX or do one-way awards in either direction. Don't know if using DL on TN will incur a similar charge. However, I do know that you will need 100K DL miles for the same RT plus $54 on AF. Something to think about in case you are considering transferring AMEX MR to DL instead of AF.

EDIT: You can also transfer UR to KE to redeem on AF. You will need 110K for a RT. However, I don't know if KE charges YQ on AF redemptions.

this is definitely awesome if i could work this out. i'm trying to look for award availabilities in the delta site but it doesn't show any at all, ill try to call them in the morning. do you know of any website that gives award availabity on this flights accurately? thank you!!!

thank you for this i did check this out and it might work out for me but i have to cut a day of our stay if i am to do this and also dont like that surcharges are a bit higher BUT this is my 2nd option if i cant work out the delta route. thank you!!!

Thanks for this info -- I wasn't aware that Air Tahiti interisland tickets could be booked through those reward site engines. Very helpful!

I tried to use Chase UR for the Air Tahiti interisland flight and when I called Chase I was told that they did not have any relationship with Air Tahiti. I booked using $$ and then could have use the pay myself back feature if I wanted but no 25% bonus.

In any event, in 3 weeks we leave for Tahiti in business class thanks to AA miles.

Does anyone have experience finding availability for the NRT-PPT flight?

Might be a potential option for Asia based travelers besides AKL

I recently booked a similar trip, and leave in a month. The flights were the biggest challenge. We had AA miles like you, so I'll explain how I found my tickets. It's 75k miles for each person round trip. You'll need to transfer some points.

Sign up for expertflyer.com, or at least the free trial, so you can find award flights. Search TN for LAX to PPT & back. There were very few options for flights, but I ended up finding two choices that both gave us 10 day stays. I couldn't book online at AA.com, so we had to call in & pay the phone in fee (I think it was $25 each).

Since we're based in ORD, we had problems finding award saver availability from ORD to LAX. The "best" option we found was flying to LAX 4 days before we flew from LAX to PPT. We setup EF alerts for the ORD - LAX flights, and were able to change them to the same day.

In regards to the hotels, the Hilton Moorea was a lot of points, but we are going in peak season. Hopefully you can find something with a lower redemption value. We emptied our Hilton account, and after 2 nights at the Hilton are moving to the IC Moorea. You can transfer Chase UR points to Priority Club & the IC Moorea is 25k points per night or 15k points + $70. Sign up for IC Ambassador and I've read the odds are good for an upgrade.

I'm in the final preparation stages for my honeymoon, and have one more question. We are debating purchasing the ferry tickets from PPT to MOZ in advance or waiting until we land. I can't find any information if the ferry ever sells out for passengers without cars, or what happens if you have a ticket for one ferry, and you miss it because of a late incoming flight. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

You do not have to purchase ferry tickets in advance; just buy at the ticket office at the dock about 20 minutes before the ferry leaves. There is no "ticket for one ferry" -- the ticket can be used on any other ferry on the same line (e.g., Aremiti) on any date and time.

I've never heard of a ferry selling out as full, except for car reservations, which are limited.

Have a wonderful trip and congrats on your upcoming wedding!

Thanks BarbiJKM

FWIW check your flights often

We had a 4 pm flight out of LAX dec 18 and that got cancelled, we got bumped to the 11 pm flight

Had to cancel our hotel reservation since we are now sleeping on the plane and may need to change the air tahiti flights (if that is even possible) to a slightly later flight

How long does it take to go through customs at PPT?

How long it takes to get through immigration/customs/baggage claim in PPT depends on where you are on the flight. The line gets pretty long when people deplane, so the closer you are to the exit door, the sooner you will get through immigration. I would say the average is no longer than 30-45 minutes for immigration (have your forms filled out and passport and return res handy), baggage claim, and then customs (Stay to the LEFT on the "nothing to declare" line with your passport in your hand, and they will usually just wave you through; don't get on the "red" line with the Xray machines even if people are lining up there like sheep!)

Air Tahiti will allow you to change to a later flight at no charge, assuming there are available seats. That sometimes can mean the next day -- best to check with them and make changes before you leave, as others are likely to be in the same situation as you are. (The only exception is for a multi-island AirPass, where a change in one flight might force you to rebook the entire itinerary.)

Great thread! Like others, I need some advice planning honeymoon. I'd like to go Aug/Sept 2014. I know I should start 330 days before, here is the situation:

Me:
Amex MR: 240,000
Delta miles: 120,000

Wife:
Amex MR: 76,000
Delta miles: 50,000

2 nights PPT
5 nights BOB
LAX-PPT-BOB

Would like to fly business (LAX-PPT) and stay at nice hotel... what's the best use of my points? Blow 300k skypesos on Delta/AF or use points on hotel (Hilton, etc...)?

Thanks!

Delta miles on Air France from LAX - PPT.
PPT- BOB you have to pay for i think on Air Tahiti.

Hotel - buy Intercontinental Ambassador - $200.
Buy points @ $0.007 per point. use 50K per night for IC Thalasso.
PPT - doesn't matter.. IC there is fine, points or pay.. it's like a regular priced hotel.
Any reason why you are spending 2 nights in PPT? most people spend 0 if possible..