Welcome to my next trip report, covering a trip last December to Tahiti, to review Air Tahiti Nui’s new business class, and to compare that to United’ new Tahiti to San Francisco flight.
Continue reading: Introduction: Dreamlining To Tahiti
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Looking forward to this one Ben! I'm bummed that I didn't get the chance to try their A340, but the 787 looks fantastic.
I stayed and loved the Four Seasons Bora Bora.
Looking forward to your review of the St. Regis.
Excited for this one. Bora Bora is on my list for potential honeymoon destinations (along with Bali and the Maldives primarily).
Would love a comparison between the Maldives and Bora Bora. Would also like to hear any comments on FS Bora Bora and whether you had any thought of going/general views of the property vs. St. Regis/Conrad and whether its worth giving up points. Would also like to know if you ever considered the Brando (obviously much more expensive than any of the above places).
I have been to French Polynesia two times and the Maldives one time, going back to Bora Bora next month thanks to the Marriot and SPG merger so will be staying at the Le Meridien and the St. Regis 🙂 I much preferred French Polynesia (Bora Bora) than the Maldives and think it's more picturesque in a photographer's view with both the beautiful eye-blinding turquoise lagoon and the mountain peak. I wrote a detailed comparison between the two in terms of the cost, activities, and photo-ops: http://www.missvacation.net/2018/03/05/a-comparison-of-maldives-and-bora-bora/
"This was our first time in Tahiti, and we both had a really fun time. Bora Bora was so picturesque, and in many ways I preferred it to the Maldives (maybe I should do a post comparing the two)."
Please do!
Curious about your decision to redeem 80K Aeroplan in lieu of 70K United. Save 10,000 points, no? Also, when does UA open up saver business on this route? Haven't seen any. Did you have it booked before outbound departure? Impressive.
Curious you decided not to redeem 60K Marriott? Seems like a good deal. Maybe it wasn't available? If you can get 0.9 cents per point, I think that's a win at this point.
Also curious, weren't you in Tahiti a few years back? Can't remember. You don't mention it.
Also just worth mentioning... IRL people can't just fly into and out of different California airports. I guess United makes it pretty easy to add a tag flight in coach (maybe with a connection) to where you actually live (let's pretend it's Miami for the sake of the point)... how easily could American have gotten you to LAX from MIA in saver?
Some airlines never get it right. 2-2-2 seating in biz is unacceptable. Biz passengers deserve better.
Looking forward to this, Lucky! Particularly looking forward to your StR review. I'm also curious on the food options. We'd love to go to Bora Bora this fall but don't want to be stuck with bad food in a beautiful place a la the Seychelles.
@Lucky, why the link about booking AAdvantage awards by phone? Award travel on Air Tahiti Nui is now bookable on aa.com.
40k AA miles for 11 hours in business is indeed a sweet deal. Too bad best travel seasons for Tahiti and Japan don't line up very well.
Second everything Jack says - a detailed comparison of Bora Bora and the Maldives would be great and what are your thoughts on the Brando? Seems right up your alley given you like eco-tourism (like the Mashpi Lodge in Ecuador).
@Peter Brown 2-2-2 on a leisure route isn't the issue it would be on other routes. Most people are traveling with their significant other and I'm sure a large percentage would prefer to sit together over the privacy of 1-2-1.
@stvr! Maybe Ben doesnt have any Marriott points left to redeem 60k/night 🙂 i think he tried to meet $20k spend req for ambassadors elite. Still $500 per night at st regis is a heck of a deal.
I spent a month traveling around French Polynesia and would highly recommend that one purchase a pass on Air Tahiti. It permits you to fly to a number of different islands at a much lower price than individual flights. You are not permitted to transit the island of Tahiti so advance planning is required. I used it to visit 7 other islands. Personally I found Bora Bora to be one of the worst islands apart from being quite beautiful. The roads are awful and the quality of hotels can vary greatly. I utilized two free IHG Chase nights back when that was still possible. The Intercontinental that is not on the main island was nice but definitely not spectacular apart from the view. The intercontinental that is on the main island was extremely dated and not even particularly clean. I stayed in an overwater bungalow but it was not even close in quality to the other Intercontinental.
My favorite islands were Huahine and Morrea. Huahine is absolutely beautiful but there are no major resort hotels - that is quite possibly part of its charm. Morrea has plenty of resort hotels and it is quite nice to just drive around the island - the roads are much better than Bora Bora. I must also say that I enjoyed the island of Tahiti. I stayed in an Airbnb on the smaller island (they are connected by a small strip of land) which was on a mountain side with a view of the ocean. The smaller island has some wonderful beaches, both black and white sand and many fewer tourists than Morrea or Bora Bora. It offered a much better opportunity to interact with locals.
If I were to go back, I suspect I would actually spend much of my time on Tahiti and maybe some side trips to other islands.
I’m supprised that you found any business clsss available on United let alone two to Tahiti we were trying to go this summer but couldn’t due to not being able to find award space. Then again we didn’t look the Aeroplan but would still except some to show up on United
Matt, definitely skip Bali...the traffic will suck a lot of the fun out of it, especially if it is a Honeymoon. Looking forward to going back to Maldives next January (the use of Hyatt points for free nights for 25K is a nice deal) and Tahiti is on our list.
TN does show up on AA now, but unfortunately the website is still glitchy and often errors out if you try booking.
@Zach, sorry, too much editing and looking at different posts. 40k miles for 11 hours refers to flying between PPT and NRT, not PPT and LAX. Too bad best travel seasons for Japan and French Polynesia don't line up very well.
@François, good point - I never tried going beyond checking availability on aa.com.
As far as comparing French Polynesia vs Maldives, would definitely be interesting to see Lucky's take on it. For me it's a tie between Maldives and Moorea based mostly on underwater scenery. Maldives have large variety of corals and fish you can see from a single resort, either on a house reef or via short boat trips within the same atoll - but absolutely nothing to see above water. Moorea adds beautiful green mountains, and at least one of the great reefs is just a 10-15 minute swim from a public beach - no need to stay in an expensive resort. Bora-Bora looks stunning above water, but not much to see below the surface.
Finally, if you split your time between Tahiti and Moorea, you don't need any domestic flights - the two islands are very close to each other and there are several ferry trips a day between them.
Ben, Tahiti is the name of an individual island while French Polynesia is the name of the country. The way you have it written now is akin to saying Oklahoma when you mean the United States.
Its a shame you only went to Bora Bora, as Morrea was much better in my opinion, it was beautiful!