A couple of options not covered by the milez.biz link:

1. Transfer UR to KE and redeem on Air France - 60k in Y per person (120k total)

2. 25k BA per RT ticket (on AA or AS out of SAN) to HNL then 20k VX per RT to PPT on HA.

For option 1 you're short 20k UR points and could obtain those from any number of Chase cards. Also note that going this route, you can get business class for 90k per person.

For option 2, note that HA only flies HNL-PPT once a week. Also, assuming the virgin miles you mention are Virgin America (VX) you're 20k short and could get the remaining 20k through transfer of Amex MR points (they have periodically offered xfer bonuses in the past)

Thanks for your input! I really like option #2 since I have those points available. I'm thinking- we can redeem 1 reward on HA and 1 on VX (given both awards are available on both airlines).

Direct flight would be perfect, but I'm not point rich :( I don't mind stopping in HNL to eat some of their amazing food! Excuse for a longer vacation :) Thanks for your input!

Advice from LAX to PPT
 

You can also book 2 separate tickets air Tahiti Nui - one using AA miles (u already have) and second using delta miles (amex transfers to delta)

Allow at least a full day, pref 2+ days in HNL. In the event that your flight on one airline is delayed or cancelled, you may not get to HNL in time to make the other booking.

I apologize if you're already versed in this stuff... but a delay caused by Airline A is no excuse not to get to the flight for Airline B in time.

Have fun.

Personally, given the amount you have, I'd shift 25k MR to BA (enough for two AA flights LAX-HNL), 55k Hawaiian will give you two HA flights HNL-PPT (Saturdays only) and 75k American will give you two Air Tahiti Nui flights PPT-LAX. Availability on all is limited, so you'll need to plan a fair few months ahead, most likely. It works out at a few miles more than just an AA redemption (155k total, rather than 150k), but far less than Delta (200k), and clearly neither of those are very realistic options for you. Takes are lower than with AF.

You could use 40k UA, but IMO those are considerably more valuable than 25k MR and it makes for a poor value redemption. Also, if you can wait for the next BA transfer bonus you'll do even better.

Regarding the VX redemption, be absolutely sure that there's availability with them first before transferring any miles. Also note the 2:1 MR:VX transfer ratio. I tried with VS once, and discovered than there was no availability for the entire year, which was very disappointing.

Moderator action
 

grlnextdoor's question and replies have been appended to the established thread. Reviewing the first few posts should prove helpful.

thank you!! and sorry for the trouble!

It does take planning to create a free trip to French Polynesia, but it can be done. We've done it twice, free airfare, free hotel nights and even free food. And, we're going back again possibly next year. Free airfare (including the flights to/from Bora Bora and Tahiti using a general travel awards card that will reimburse the purchase since those flights have no miles partner or program), free hotel nights for 2 weeks and using another card to use points to pay for upgrades. It has taken a lot of work, a lot of signup bonuses and a lot of spending requirements to meet, but we have ways to do that. This will be our 3rd free trip to FP (each two weeks). In fact, I don't understand the concept of buying timeshares when I can travel free every year. But then again, it's only my wife and I since we have no kids so I guess that makes it easier. This year it's back to USVI and BVI for free. We never take free vacations for granted. It takes some planning and really good credit so you can apply and receive all the necessary credit cards, plus never spending more than what you'll pay off each month. Between Amazon Payments and Blue Bird we've found the 2 of us can rack up a lot of 'spending'. If it wasn't for these ways we wouldn't be able to travel free. The Chase Ink Bold offer recently (now gone) for 60,000 points was an incredible value. Between 2 of us that's over $1600 in travel reimbursement money. I love Chase!:D

Actually i got a 50k ur ink plus and was able to send a securred message in to ask for the other 10k everybody was getting and they gave em to me once i met my min spend anyway...

As for FP, we have it on our list but man wed need a lot of spg!!

I've been searching availabilty on TN and can find 2 biz. tickets later this year, but it would mean a 2 week trip. Is this too long for FP? I could look for a stopover in NZ or HNL, but I'm not sure how long most people think it takes to experience FP. Thoughts welcome.

Well I'm no expert on FP, but I know a lot of people go for 7-14 days. It probably depends on what type of vacationer you are, and how many islands you go to. The flight arrival/take off times are pretty bad, and it is easy to lose a day or two in the process, plus with jet lag it'll kill another day or so. You could easily do 1 day in Tahiti, 5-6 days in Moorea and 5-6 days in Bora Bora, or even add another island.

I think if your idea of a vacation is hitting up 3 countries in 2 weeks, then probably 2 weeks in FP is too long. If you're fine chilling at 1 resort for a week relaxing, obviously this is the perfect vacation.

It may be a little long for me, as I would normally hit up 2 countries in 2 weeks. :) However, I looked to try to stopover in HNL or AKL and could not find a way to make it work near Thanksgiving. So, I just went ahead and ticketed for biz. the week before Thanksgiving, with a 2 night stay in LA on the return. I'm going to Tahiti Life is good!

French Polynesia
 

We returned yesterday :( from out 3 week stay. 4 nights in Moorea at the Hilton (free on points with a $125 a night upgrade for an overwater unit), free internet and breakfast, then a 10 night Paul Gauguin Cruise and then 6 nights in an overwater unit on Rangiora at the Kia Ora. It is a great trip.

We used AA miles for our business class tickets from JFK to PPT and had the newly refurbished ATN plane for one of the flights. We booked 330 days in advance as it appeared ATN only releases 2 business class seats per flight.

You can easily do 14 nights but if you do I would go to Moorea, Bora Bora and one other island (not counting Tahiti) to break it up. It is a great place to visit.

Thanks for the info flightmedic. How was the Paul Gaugin cruise? Would you recommend it? Hadn't thought of visiting Rangiora--I'll have to research it.

French Polynesia
 

This was our third trip on the Paul Gauguin. It is a great small ship, about 320 passengers. All inclusive including tips and alcohol. Only extra is for shore excursions. They do a spectacular job in this region. On our trip Jacques Cousteau's (sp?) son Jean-Michel was a guest lecturer which was great as was going on three dives with him.

Cruisecritic has tons of info on the ship and if you want any more infor feel free to PM me. Rangiora is very isolated and has spectacular diving and snorkeling.

Looking for help booking Korean Air award to PPT
 

I'm looking for some help booking an award flight to PPT in April 2014. We currently have 190K UR points that we want to transfer to Korean Air to book the Air France Business class award for the LAX-PPT flight. How can I find if there is award availability for that flight? I've search ExpertFlyer and they do show Business availability, but when I called Korean Air to book (following advice on the Miles and Martinis blog) they said there was no availability for our dates.

Any advice on what to do? What fare classes are we looking at for SkyTeam partner award redemptions? Are there certain Air France classes that are only available to FlyingBlue members? I'm just trying to understand fare classes and the whole system a little better to see if Business will be an option or if we should just go ahead and book economy. The Korean Air representative did confirm Economy award availability on that flight.

Thanks!

Business class on AF LAX-PPT is almost impossible to get if you are trying to plan months in advance. AF tends to release Business class closer to departure date much like what Delta does with their low-level awards. For instance, AF has business class availability in the next couple of weeks but nothing beyond that. I suggest also using the AlaskaAir website to see what AF partner availability is really like. I think it's easier than the Delta website.

I'm kinda curious about the whole over-the-water bungalow thing. I understand the points will not normally cover them. Which resorts (and where) offer the lowest add-on rate? I'm not hell-bent on any particular destinations.

Overwater Bungalow
 

These are offered throughout the region. Moorea, easily accessible via an inexpensive high speed ferry from Tahiti, has these at the the Pearl, Sofitel, Hilton and Intercontinental. They are also offered at the Intercontinental on Tahiti. For all other islands you will need. $400+ RT airfare.

Many resorts on Bora Bora have them as does a resort on Huhaine, another on Taha'a and on Rangiora. Lots to chose from. On Tahiti and Moorea will be the least expensive.

Thanks, but in relation to the chains--Hilton, IC, or SW--which one would require the highest surcharge on an award stay?

This has been a fantastic thread. Has anyone looked into trying to create Tahiti as a (free) stopover between the U.S. and New Zealand (or Australia)? I imagine you can do the <24hrs things, but was hoping for a 3-4 days.

Upgrade to OWB
 

I can only comment on my experience. Booked 4 nights Hilton Moorea on an AXON stay using 145,000 points under the old system. Our stay was in late June of 2013. I contacted the hotel via e-mail and inquired as to what the cost would be to upgrade from the garden unit to an OWB. I was told that as a Gold member (thanks to a credit card opening) that I was already upgraded at no cost to a deluxe garden unit and therefore the cost to upgrade to OWB would be about $125 a night. I grabbed that and it was great.

I don't know what the cost would be to upgrade at the Hilton on Bora Bora.

In July 2013, the upgrade costs that I was quoted for awards were:
Hilton Moorea:
Deluxe Garden bungalow 6 000 XPF
Lagoon Bungalow 10 000 XPF
Overwater Bungalow 17 000 XPF
Panoramic Overwater 19 000 XPF
Garden pool suite 19 000 XPF

IC Moorea (there are only a few true OWB):
Standard Beach Bungalow : 5 000 CFP / per night
Garden Pool Bungalow : 8 500 CFP / night
Premium Beach Bungalow : 11 000 CFP / per night
Standard Overwater Bungalow : 15 000 CFP / per night
Premium Overwater Bungalow : 20 000 CFP / per night

IC Bora Bora:
* from 2 Bedroom Coral Garden to Emerald overwater villa 15,000 XPF + 14% taxes per night
* from 2 Bedroom Coral Garden to Sapphire overwater villa 25,000 XPF + 14% taxes per night
* from 2 Bedroom Coral Garden to Diamond overwater villa 35,000 XPF + 14% taxes per night
* from 2 Bedroom Coral Garden to Diamond Otemanu overwater villa 45,000 XPF + 14% taxes per night
* from 2 Bedroom Coral Garden to Diamond End of Pontoon overwater villa 55,000 XPF + 14% taxes per night

I highly recommend Hilton Moorea for an overwater bungalow. So many tend to try to save and get a garden bungalow here and then an overwater in Bora Bora, but Hilton Moorea has great snorkeling right off the overwater bungalows. It's very easy for first time snorkelers to learn how to snorkel since it is shallow. Many overwater bungalows in BB have little to no coral near them (especially the ones out on motus on east side of BB). If you get a Hilton Surpass credit card you become Hilton Gold and will get an upgrade and free breakfast daily (saves you $60 a day for 2 in food cost). So, if you pay for an upgrade to overwater and you present your gold card upon checkin they will do their best to give you an even better overwater bungalow view. I've also been to IC Moorea. The true overwater bungalows are in deeper water. The water color there is dark blue. There seemed to be more French staying there than at the Hilton (maybe they advertise in France more). It is also a nice property, but the snorkeling at the Hilton is better in my opinion. I also like the crepes bar out at the overwater bungalows at the Hilton Moorea. I wish the Hilton Bora Bora had that!!

Double Check
 

Would like a double check of my work and any suggestions for points for our trip to FP.

Her:
DL 30,517
AMX MR 56,910
Citi TY 38,069 (earning around 15-18k/mth w/ VR/BB)
UA 5,631

Mine:
DL 54,382
Amx MR1 80,565
Amx MR2 52,363
Citi TY 338,071
UA 21,971


Current line of thought
Airfare: Get Her 65k more AmxMR/DL points , transfer MR -> DL and book biz class on AF LAX->PPT(150k each). Will figure out another award or just pay IAD->LAX

Hotel: TY looks to have free transfers, so transfer Hers to His and book Hilton Moorea through CITI TY travel redemption (seems better redemption than transferring to HH), cash upgrade to OWB. Also I'm HH Gold.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

my first thought without having time to think of anything else is:

BURN those citi TY points ASAP! I burn all mine each statement and never let em sit.
Call me scared but I dont wanna get stuck with a shut down and losing all of them.

Next you may wish--unless you have the cards already--to apply for the chase suite...

Ink plus, ink bold, sapphire. That will give you each 50,50,40k ur. AND get the UA explorer visa for 30-50k more. transfer the UR to UA and you have enough miles to get around with United. OR transfer to something else in the UR world. Or find a friend with MR who will like your UR... there are ways, and I aint sayin more on that one here or elsewhere.

AND if you have time, assuming you are into MSing, get the Hilton Surpass card. spend $40k in GCs at grocery store and MO them. Now you is diamond.
Then again I dunno if that matters.

I got my OWB @ moorea dropped from $120/night to $60/night for the week of christmas by going to Gold

I don't know if there are any added perks to diamond, but I am shooting for diamond to see if I can snag free upgrade to Bora Bora Hilton, but from what i've read, you have better luck @ moorea

although, for $60/night, it was a hard offer to pass up and risk a free upgrade

yeah I will agree that in some cases Gold and Diamond are not much dif. And yes, $60 per night to upgrade is fine.

just thinking in terms of someone who has a lot of TYP... they probably do a lot of MSing already. So yeah, but yeah

Unfortunately i earned the large balance of TY the old fashioned way(mtvU(Forward) and something else (eventually forced into premier) over years before i started taking a harder look at all this. The TY on Hers is light MSing (enough to cover normal monthly expenses through bluebird) My hope is that since the MSing is on Her card (not joint) the large balance on mine is protected.

that chase suite is more than enough points to book the iad-lax RT.

Thanks for the insight.

Tahiti
 

For those trying to use miles in my limited experience it is tough. We traveled in June 2013 and I made the air exactly 330 days in advance using expertflyer to determine availability. It looked like ATN opened up 2 business and 6 coach seats for AA miles each flight. Our outgoing flight was on the date I wanted but we had one extra day on the return as the flight was not available.

That's why my stash of AS and HA miles are becoming very valuable. Availability with AF is pretty good in Y. I just looked at some dates in March and April and there is availability one or two flights a week. Yes you can use your DL miles as well but you have the flexibility of doing one-ways with AS and you redeem at a lower redemption rate than DL. I was looking at using 12.5K BA miles to do LAX-OGG on AA. Spend a 3 or 4 days in Maui and then do OGG-PPT for 27.5K HA miles. And come back PPT-LAX on AF using 40K AS miles. I could probably do it in reverse order as well.

Hey. First post. My wife and I are looking to go to either AUK or PPT vis RDU or CLT with a direct to LAX. She is PM on DL. Ideally, we leave around Dec 13 and return Dec 26. We are deciding if paying out of pocket vs points makes more sense. She is PM currently and should hit 60K miles this year without this trip. She currently has 400K miles available. I've got a number of questions. She has a delta amex plat.

1. Is it worth paying for the flight if it means she will hit PM rather than GM? It seems like flights run around $2000.

2. How do I search expertflyer intelligently? I am looking for the availability of the lowest mileage economy fares (we get free upgrade to economy comfort becauase of her PM)? Specifically, what fare class for either Air France (code share with Delta) or Delta do I need to find?

3. I get that I look for individual legs of the flight separately but without knowing the proper fare classes, I am getting bogged down in the details.

4. are there any 100K roundtrip options available in that time period? I am finding it difficult to search the AF legs despite signing up for an AF account so that I can search that website.

Thanks in advance. I'm happy to provide more details if that helps.