The Air France-KLM Flying Blue program has just added a useful new award redemption partner. How good are the redemption values, though?
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Air France-KLM Flying Blue adds Air Tahiti awards
It’s now possible to redeem Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles for travel on Air Tahiti. For those not familiar, Air Tahiti is based in French Polynesia, and operates a fleet of 16 turboprops (this isn’t to be confused with Air Tahiti Nui, the long haul airline of French Polynesia).
The airline is based at Faa’a International Airport in Papeete, and operates dozens of routes within French Polynesia, as well as a single international route, to Rarotonga International Airport (RAR), in the Cook Islands. For example, if you want to fly to Bora Bora (BOB), a flight on Air Tahiti is often the most practical way to get there.
Air Tahiti award redemptions are possible directly on Air France’s website. It seems that when available, redemptions within French Polynesia cost 15,000 miles.
Meanwhile the carrier’s international route, to the Cook Islands, seems to cost 30,000 miles.
Are these Air Tahiti award redemptions worth it?
Generally speaking, Flying Blue redemptions on Air Tahiti don’t represent some sort of an amazing value. For example, most of Air Tahiti’s flights cost somewhere around $200-300 one-way. So the ability to redeem 15,000 miles while paying $36 in taxes and fees will consistently get you over one cent of value per mile, but not necessarily much more than that.
So this won’t get you as much value as a long haul premium cabin award. However, it’ll definitely prove useful for those looking to minimize their cash outlay on a trip to French Polynesia, especially since flights within French Polynesia typically have to be booked separately from the long haul segments.
Bottom line
Flying Blue has added award redemptions on Air Tahiti, the primary airline operating flights within French Polynesia. Most routes are bookable for 15,000 Flying Blue miles one-way, compared to a cash cost of $200-300 per flight.
This isn’t the world’s most exciting redemption option, but it’s a useful partnership to be aware of, if you’re traveling to French Polynesia and want to minimize your out of pocket expenses.
What do you make of the ability to redeem Flying Blue miles on Air Tahiti?
Air France has great awards from LAX to PPT.
Can you include it on the same ticket as a long haul flight for the same cost? That would potentially make it worth it.
I just did one test and found that LAX-PPT was 30k miles in Y. LAX-PPT-BOB was 45k in Y and I couldn't search LAX-PPT (J) then PPT-BOB (Y) in an online search.
So seems unlikely. Maybe having two airlines on one ticket could be worth it for protecting short connections and luggage transfers.
Definitely a good option for the "points rich, cash poor" folks since FlyingBlue points are easy to get.
Are tickets to all islands 15000 or just the mainstream ones? If so, this is a smoking deal, some of those are USD400+ one way
Not really , Alan - you could always buy Tahiti Pass which will offset any two flights of 400$ each..