[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

• Award redemption is hard
• Plan on booking 330 days in advance
• Look for awards to Papeete (PPT)
• Air Tahiti is not the same as Air Tahiti Nui. You must book on Air Tahiti and gasp pay cash to get to another island.
• Getting to Bora Bora (BOB) is limited and expensive ($400+ per person) you will need to take the interisland flight on Air Tahiti, which can be booked on www.airtahiti.com
• Getting to or Moorea (MOZ) is about $15 per person each way, and takes 30 minutes on the high speed catamaran, Aremiti 5. The schedule is posted at www.aremiti.net
  

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

• 2.5 LAN miles per 1 SPG transfer
• Chase UR 1:1 for various airlines mentioned, see Post #2

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:

• good availability
• OWB appx $150-$200 extra per night on top of award redemption
• Always try to negotiate the upgrade cost for higher up bungalows, it doesn't hurt to ask

Hilton BOB

• harder availability
• OWB upgrade about $150-$200 for low end bungalow
• Some report success upgrading to Royal OWB for the same price as MOZ hilton

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

• Appx 30k per night, 25k with Chase PC 10% discount (unconfirmed)

Thalasso BOB

• Appx 50k per night, 45k with Chase PC 10% discount (unconfirmed)
• Many state this is the nicest, more peaceful, more modern hotel in BOB
• has a free shuttle boat to the IC La Moana which is on the main island of Bora Bora. There are a few restaurants and grocery shops within walking distance of the IC La Moana

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

• Available through Chase Sapphire and INK cards
• Able to transfer to all airlines mentioned with flights to PPT at 1:1 ratio (step-by-step guide)
• Able to transfer to PC points at 1:1, but airline may have better value

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

• leg room on Air Tahiti Nui was equal to an economy plus class on United
  
• LAX - PPT economy has seat config is 2-4-2 on Air Tahiti Nui and is an 8 hour flight
  
• Bora Bora (BOB) is more expensive than Moorea
  
• Moorea (MOZ) reminds some of the east side of Oahu
  
• MOZ - It is recommended that you visit first:some people say that it seems less awe inspiring if you visit BOB first
  
• MOZ - Has more activites than BOB
  
• MOZ - Flight to BOB appx $250 per person one way
  
• BOB - Dinner will run you a minimum of $100 (more likely $200 with drinks and a 3 course meal for two
  
• BOB - Breakfast is $75 per day for 2
  
• BOB - things are very limited here. You are pretty much stuck paying what they charge in the hotel unless you bring your own food
  
• BOB - Flight to PPT appx $250 per person one way
  
• Try getting a credit card that offers statement credit, such as Capital One Venture card, which can be used to offset food expense or pay for the interisland tickets. Might not be the best use for cards like that though

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

Yeah .. I accidentally hit SUBMIT when I wanted to click PREVIEW ...

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.

aha ... that's why I couldn't pull up sample itineraries! thanks!

this actually might work out for my plan.

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?

thanks for the links .. i'll integrate some of that info in this primer.

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?

Nice job.

Be aware that you need to pay $35-ish for the taxi to get from the airport to the Moorea ferry/catamaran. Also, we found no taxis waiting on our return.

There are flights from Tahiti to BOB, BOB to MOZ, and Tahiti to MOZ. The recommendation though is to hop on the speed boat from Tahiti to Moorea when you land, then flight from Moorea to BoB (you have a lot of time and aren't sitting around waiting), then fly back from BoB to Tahiti closer to your flight time. There are only 2 or so non-stop flights from MOZ to BOB, and probably 5-7 from Tahiti to BOB. Also there are 4 from Tahiti to MOZ. Round trip for random date in May 2013 for Tahiti-BOB 313.7 euros.

You can check flight times interisland at:
http://www.airtahiti.aero/horaires.php

Luggage overages will kill you on the flights probably. If you book Y it is 44 lbs (3 lbs carry on), and Z is 110 lbs (3 lbs carry on). Overage is 1.9 EU per kilo.

http://www.airtahiti.aero/faq.php?cat=Baggage

There is an airpass available making the trip a lot easier. See the pictures and fares below:
http://www.airtahiti.aero/articles.php?id=69

So it is 456 euros for the airpass with 50 kg baggage to hop from PPT to MOZ to BOB back to PPT. Obviously it is a tad cheaper if you pick the round trip option with limited luggage and ride the speed boat.

yes .. but we are planing on doing a BOS - CAI - layover - MAL and having that be a separate trip once I refill the coffers

AAdvantage miles can be used for HA (from HNL) or TN (from LAX or AKL, no longer flies from JFK) or LA (IPC via LIM or SCL). Only LA is part of oneworld, both HA & TN are AAdvantage partners outside of oneworld. AA metal does not fly to PPT

For a roundtrip XXX-LAX-AKL(stopover)-PPT(destination); PPT-AKL-LAX-XXX should be permitable assuming the mileage isn't over the maximum mileage to PPT

AF flies CDG-LAX-PPT, i think twice a week. Skyteam awards (or cash) can be used for the LAX-PPT/PPT-LAX segment.

DL also partners with TN (outside of Skyteam) for flights

also, for anyone contributing to this thread ....

I would like to make a list of programs that transfer to either airlines that fly this route or hotels at PPT.

I will probably list the threads for current offers.

For instance, the 35k HA cards (good for either the flight or HH points), how SPG transfer 2.5:1 ... I read elsewhere that Virgin points also transfer to HH?

I usually skip points with US, Virgin, or other programs I don't use mainly because I don't use them, but if they are of value for a trip like this, it would be great to have it all spelled out

Your miles can get you to French Polynesia (Papeete in Tahiti) from abroad but you can't use your miles to fly within those islands. I think they are only about 4 airlines flying domestically and none of them are part of any alliance.
It's not cheap to fly from one island to the other but if you want to go island hopping, your best affordable option is to buy an Airpass from Air Tahiti. Just don't carry too much luggage with you or they'll make you pay extra.

You can find here the current prices for Air Tahiti's Airpasses:
http://www.airtahiti.aero/articles.php?id=69

Wow, this is great information. We briefly considered a French Polynesia vacation for early next year, but I had to put a stop to it when a Facebook friend put up pictures of her honeymoon at St. Regis Bora Bora and my husband declared he must stay there. This is a category 7 hotel and redemption here by points is something beyond ridiculous. So we need to pay cash and thus need to plan and save for a trip like this.

What about using 90,000 Korean Air Skypass miles to fly roundtrip LAX-PPT on Air France in Business, has anyone been able to accomplish this? Its listed on the Korean Air Award chart :confused:

Yeah the St Regis looks pretty awesome, but there are plenty of "points" hotels nearby. Intercontinental and Hilton or probably the 2 easiest to book. Each runs about 50,000 points per night for the basic room (which is about $500), and you can e-mail the resort to pay cash to upgrade to an OWB (from $200+ per night).

We're planning a trip next year. Probably will use miles to fly coach, then get an airpass via cash. Book 3 nights in the hilton moorea (upgrade to OWB), and 3-4 nights in intercontinental thalliso or hilton bora bora (probably with the AXON). I'd assume we'd spend about $4-5K all told for the trip with food/upgrades/interisland flight/activities, and saved about $3.5K for the room (IC/Hilton) and $2.2K for the flights (wife and I) using points (AA).

For Aussies-SQ has *A awards for 25K Y and 35K J but good luck trying to get J class on the AKL-PPT sector! SQ doesn't charge YQ on NZ awards.

SQ is a partner of Australian Membership Rewards, I think also the USA one as well. A possible advantage to using them vs USDM is that I think if you book Y in advance because J is not available, then closer in J opens up it's cheaper to change the class of travel though I haven't done it myself. I vaguely remember reading it somewhere.

I think it is quite easy to fly from either LIM/SCL - IPC - PPT on LA using BA miles.

For those that have Citi ThankYou points, you can search Tahiti inter-island flights (Air Tahiti). Last I checked a PPT-BOB R/T priced out to around 30K points (or $406) in Mid-March, and around 33K points (or $438) in mid-August. It is also possible to do a multi-stop that includes MOZ. Also bookable through Chase Ultimate Rewards but at higher point redemption. Have not booked one myself but it looks like it is definitely possible to fly to Bora Bora on miles and points.

So from my research it appears that the cheapest way to fly to Tahiti from West Coast North America is to use Avios miles (25K r/t) to fly from the West Coast to Honolulu (with either Alaska or American Airlines) and then Korean Airlines miles 30K r/t (with Air Tahiti Nui) from Honolulu to Tahiti totaling 55K miles round trip. Is there any cheaper mile redemption?

Yeah, I have seen there are other "points" hotels nearby. Problem is that there is no unconvincing him from the St. Regis since he knows it's there. I would never hear the end of it. In this case, I am better off just saving up and staying there than trying to convince him that we should stay elsewhere with miles and points. If there is one person who can complain despite being in paradise, it is my husband.

Interesting. That's the first I read about a way to use UR points to get there (besides the obvious "pay with points" feature"

I believe you can also use ANA miles from West Coast (LAX) to PPT on Hawaiian Airlines for 55K R/T (85K for business class).

How do you get miles transferred to Korean Airlines? Are we talking about Thank You, UR, SPG?

UR

150K gets you two tickets from LAX - PPT.

30K of priority club a night for Moorea intercontinental
50K of PC a night for BOB intercontinental

You can go with Delta/AF miles too from LAX, costs more than 75K per person return though. not sure how much exactly. Also AF's flight doesn't go daily, so you are a bit more limited on dates.
AA (buying air tahiti nui) arrives at night. so you have to stay at Tahiti your first night, but it leaves at night, so you don't have to stay your last night.
AF arrives during day so you can skip your first night and go straight to another island, but leaves at 8am, so you have to stay the night before on Tahiti.. so works out the same.

Sounds like two one-ways would be perfect, if you could only book a one-way for 37,500 on Delta, which you can't.

Thanks but ANA is known to tag on heavy fuel surcharges, can anyone confirm if they attach or make up YQ on Hawaiian Airlines flight from the US to PPT?

Thanks-Tahiti Here We Come (again)
 

Thanks to all. Based upon your suggestion I have just booked my 4 night AXON award at the Hilton on Moorea using points (HHonors Card, 2x Hawaiian Airline Cards with point transfer to Hilton), Business Class from JFK-PPT (Citibank AA 75,000 x4), as well as a pretty expensive interisland flight from PPT-Rangiora paid for with the Chase Sapphire points/dollars (we were targeted for the 70,000 points offer x2).

Still spending a lot as we have a Paul Gauguin 10 night cruise and 6 nights to pay for on Rangiora but this is spectacular.

Congrats medic. How far out did you book? Did you find the 2 business seats open on the 2 flight day?

Flights
 

I used expert flyer to watch for availability booking exactly 330 days out when they opened. It looked like they only released two business class seats per flight. I made the outbound 3 days before I really wanted to travel and kept moving it each day as availability came through. I was on the phone with AA at 4am to do this.

For the return I reserved about 3 days before I really wanted to return and again moved it each day finally settling on one extra day in Tahiti. With 4 nights per cruise on Moorea and 6 post cruise on Rangiora I had some flexibility.

I have flown ATN twice during the past two years. Once in business, not bad, and once in coach. Coach in ATN is one of the worst products in existence. The are rests only go up about 2/3 of the way, leg room is non existent, and the seats are hard as a rock. I spent the overnight flit standing in the aisle and swore I would never do that again. Now I am 6'4" tall so shorter people may not have an issue.

If you plan this right you can easily do 4 nights on Moorea, 4 on Bora Bora, all at the Hilton from the East Coast for less than $1,000 per person including the inter island air fare, ferry and one night as needed on Tahiti (Fare Suisse). This would include breakfast. Excursions, other meals and drinks extra.

Do not forget resort Food and clothing is expensive. Tahiti food trucks at port are a great place to have a cheap meal