[Primer] Using Points for French Polynesia
While planning a trip in 2013/2014 and researching, I decided to create this primer to help organize my thoughts/options/plans.
This is a compilation of info from FT threads and blog posts, please let me know if anything is 'old date' Last Update: Aug 12, 2013 Flights
Oneworld AA USA - PPT* Economy is 37.5k each way Business is 62.5k each way *Need to call AA to book on Air Tahiti Nui (TN), flights won't show up online, will route with AS/HA via HNL Here is a great step-by-step guide on how to book TN with AA miles Oneworld LAN USA - Lima, Peru (LIM) Economy is 30k using AA miles LIM - Easter Island (IPC)** Economy is 12.5k using BA miles USA - Santiago, Chile (SCL) Economy is 40k using AA miles SCL - IPC** Economy is 12.5k using BA miles IPC - PPT - once a week only Economy is 12.5k using BA miles Flights are daily from either LIM or SCL to IPC. Award availability to PPT is extremely limited, if not impossible **Or you can fly direct to PPT for 25k BA miles Oneworld Qantas LAX - PPT* Reported non-stop by some, haven't been able to price or find Someone claimed they got LAX - Auckland (AKL) - Sydney (SYD) - AKL - PPT - LAX for 105k miles The LAX - AKL - SYD - AKL was on Qantas, the AKL - PPT - LAX was on Air Tahiti Nui I've not been able to reproduce or price this itinerary. Star Alliance Air New Zealand LAX - AKL -PPT* Economy is 35k each way, 28-45 hours each way Maybe useful to add a SYD stopover for the same mileage *Very limited availability on UA.bomb Sky Team Air France LAX - PPT Economy is 75k DL miles each way DL also partners with TN (outside of Skyteam) for flights Hawaiian Airlines Flights Honolulu (HNL) to PPT leave once a week on Saturdays Flights PPT - HNL leave once a week on Sundays HNL - PPT* Economy is 27.5k each way Business is 47.5k each way *cheapest way to fly HA to PPT is using Korean Air (KE) miles (30k RT HNL-PPT) Earning - Transferring - Using Airline Points Please see the Credit Card forum for latest offers. Other Miles
|
Hotels
Hilton The best redemption is the AXON (american express) redemption rate for 4 nights. See Point section for more info Hilton charges 700 XPF (~$7), per person, for a roundtrip to the main dock, Viatape, in Bora Bora. There is a page that offers stay challenges for Gold, changes every so often, and reports of as little as 4 nights for Gold. Click here for current offer Hilton MOZ:
Hilton BOB
Intercontinental No free breakfast makes it more expensive. The only redemption discount possible is with the Chase PC 10% refund on award redemption. IC MOZ
Thalasso BOB
Some info taken from this extensive blog entry http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/1...ra/#more-17115 Earning - Transferring - Using Hotel Points Chase Ultimate Reward Points
50k INK Bold (25k on first use, 25k after $10k spend in 90 days) 25k INK Classic (10k first use, 15k after $5k spend in 90 days) 40k Sapphire Preferred ($3k spend in 90 days) **All are standard offers** Intercontinental PC points 80k Chase PC (no annual fee, on first purchase, $49 fee after 1st year, one free night @ anniversary, 10% discount on award redemptions Hilton Points 50k CITI Visa (churnable) 2 Free nights CITI Reserve Visa (must wait 65 days if applying for 100k points per CITI rules, gives gold status, $2500 spend in 4 months, $95 annual fee) These are standard offers, head over to the Credit Card forum for any special offers that might pop up. AMEX has some very strict rules and are NOT churnable. I recently got burnt with the 65k SURPASS deal and this is what their T&Cs state: 1) All hilton AMEX cards are seen as one product regardless of terms 2) You must have all Hilton Amex's closed for 91 days before you apply for a new one 3) Your last bonus must have been 366 days prior to your application. EXAMPLE: You get a Hilton AMEX Jan 1, 2012 ... you must close the account on Sept 30,2012 and will not be eligible for another hilton AMEX bonus until Jan 2, 2013 HOWEVER: It is best to apply to the no-fee card and then UPGRADE to the Surpass to get an additional 50k bonus ($75 annual fee, $3000 spend in 3 months) The Hilton devaluation in Q1 2013 has made these hotels more expensive. Here is a good summary of the AXON rates. Most of these hotels have gone from 50k/night to ~90k/night, which means you need to churn a lot more !! |
MISC Info
Useful Links Interisland Flight Times Baggage Allowance (3 lb hand bag, 44/100 lb checked luggage depending on class) Interisland Air Pass may drop price depending on the trip |
You can also get to Tahiti on Air France from the US.
|
this is all I've got so far ...
any and all recommendations/answers to the great unknown are appreciatted |
Originally Posted by Million Mile Secrets
(Post 19550251)
You can also get to Tahiti on Air France from the US.
I added it after your post :p |
A couple notes concerning HA.
1. HA is not part of any alliance. 2. The cheapest way to fly HA to PPT is using KE miles (30k RT HNL-PPT) |
hmmm
I'm considering the same trip.
Darius has a nice write up (how I discovered this board actually): http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/1...ra/#more-17115 http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/0...award-booking/ I live in LA, so anything besides LAX-PPT direct seems crazy. So basically I'm stuck with Air France (use miles on Delta), or ATN (AA miles). When I checked the seat availability for business/first basically Air France had 2 "award" seats period, while ATN only had 1. That means if you want to fly business on miles for a couple, you have to get some Air France miles or book through Delta (the delta forum had reports of problems getting first/business seats though - and I can't see any right now but I suck at this). Anyway, that's 75,000 AA miles in coach, or 150,000 Delta miles in business on Air France. Honestly I'd just book AA Coach and call it a day since flying business is such a pain. |
Doing LAX-PPT through *A is doable, just that you will need to plan for a trip after April and have only two says out of the week to do it with a possible overnight/long layeover in SYD or AKL. Meaning your travel time each way could be anywhere between 28 and 45 hrs. I have priced out a LAX-SYD-AKL-PPT departing on a late-evening Wednesday, arriving on a Friday very early morning, for 35K miles and $6 (total travel time, 29hrs). Yeah is looks like two days later but you cross the the international dateline twice I believe by doing this, once on the way to SYD and once from AKL to PPT. Had to look for availability segment by segment and then pieced it together with a multi-destination search. I have done one in reverse and it is one travel day but almost the same travel time (around 30hrs) and taxes were higher at around $56. But I agree with above poster that anything not direct LAX-PPT is crazy.
|
Thanks for your post- I'm looking at similar itineraries. (Easter island/machu pichu & Tahiti). I have 112k British Airways Avios & 300k AA miles, along with Hilton & 2 sign up bonuses for Intercontinental (which will= 4 nights in bora bora).
You can use expertflyer to see availability for AA on Air tahiti nui (you then have to call AA to book it). Search LAX- PPT online. We are flying from ORD. I can't remember if expertflyer allowed you to search ORD- PPT, or if I had to do ORD-LAX, LAX-PPT? Anyway, when I called to put it on hold, it was 37.5/62.5 as you mentioned above. One other thing I noticed: Depending on day/flight times, you can avoid doing that night in Tahiti if you choose a date/time that has you arriving into PPT early am (5am ish). Our plan was to take one of those flights, then hop onto the flight to Bora bora. Would also be interested in any tips/advice :) |
I think maybe part of the missing OW info you need is that you can use AA miles to book LAX-PPT on Air Tahiti Nui. You do have to call - this can't be done online.
|
Originally Posted by josephstern
(Post 19552419)
I think maybe part of the missing OW info you need is that you can use AA miles to book LAX-PPT on Air Tahiti Nui. You do have to call - this can't be done online.
|
Originally Posted by eknock007
(Post 19552127)
Doing LAX-PPT through *A is doable, just that you will need to plan for a trip after April and have only two says out of the week to do it with a possible overnight/long layeover in SYD or AKL. Meaning your travel time each way could be anywhere between 28 and 45 hrs. I have priced out a LAX-SYD-AKL-PPT departing on a late-evening Wednesday, arriving on a Friday very early morning, for 35K miles and $6 (total travel time, 29hrs). Yeah is looks like two days later but you cross the the international dateline twice I believe by doing this, once on the way to SYD and once from AKL to PPT. Had to look for availability segment by segment and then pieced it together with a multi-destination search. I have done one in reverse and it is one travel day but almost the same travel time (around 30hrs) and taxes were higher at around $56. But I agree with above poster that anything not direct LAX-PPT is crazy.
The wife and I have 14 days off in Dec 2013 and we want to: 1) Go to the great barrier reef 2) spend at least 4-6 nights in BOB/MOZ combo 3) Get to Easter Island We are in BOS now ... and I need to play around with availability to see if we should do BOS - LAX - AU - layover - PPT - layover - IPC - layover - USA - BOS We have 200k BA 40k UA 30k AA So my next churn will focus on miles Hotel-wise we have 360k HH 80k PC So that should be good for a majority of the more expensive stays. I can always get some HYATT CCs for the AU segment. My question is... how do people get from BOB to MOZ? Do you have to go back to PPT? If so, then PPT-MOZ-PPT by ferry then PPT-BOB by plane makes the most sense, correct? |
Originally Posted by Tavinder Hare
(Post 19551866)
I'm considering the same trip.
Darius has a nice write up (how I discovered this board actually): http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/1...ra/#more-17115 http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/0...award-booking/ I live in LA, so anything besides LAX-PPT direct seems crazy. So basically I'm stuck with Air France (use miles on Delta), or ATN (AA miles). When I checked the seat availability for business/first basically Air France had 2 "award" seats period, while ATN only had 1. That means if you want to fly business on miles for a couple, you have to get some Air France miles or book through Delta (the delta forum had reports of problems getting first/business seats though - and I can't see any right now but I suck at this). Anyway, that's 75,000 AA miles in coach, or 150,000 Delta miles in business on Air France. Honestly I'd just book AA Coach and call it a day since flying business is such a pain. Hopefully I can make it complete as to answer a majority of people's questions. |
I'm enjoying this thread as I hope to get to Tahiti one day.
Regarding your last question about getting from BOB to MOZ or reverse, as far as I get it, coordinating inter-island flights with flights to and from other countries has the tendency to eat up most of a day. This is partly due to the low frequency of both, and partially because they involve different operators who don't seem keen on coordinating their schedules. Just a thought - if you're going from BOS to Australia, have you considered going the other way and stopping in the Maldives? |
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 5:29 am. |
This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.