Questions and Answers

I have been looking at going to Bora Bora for a while and finally got a 5 night sequence to use my GF’s IHG points for the intercontinental bora bora (le moana). I have been trying to figure out how to use my stockpile of DL miles to fly there. There are 2 airlines that fly there directly from LAX: Air France and Air Tahiti Nui. I read that DL imposes heavy fuel surcharges if you use miles for Air Tahiti Nui so I’m trying to avoid that. So I went and found AF flights, went to expertflyer and found economy award availability (class code: X). When I called Delta, they said that I couldn’t use my DL miles for this segment for any date range.

Was the agent I spoke with wrong? Or what else are next steps to using my DL miles in getting to PPT (Tahiti).

I’m new to the board but have been reading the site for a while.

I’m trying to use my DL miles to go LAX-PPT roundtrip (My girlfriend was able to get 5 nights in a row at the intercontinental bora bora). There are 2 airlines that complete this segment; either Air France or Air Tahiti Nui. I read that using DL miles on Air Tahiti Nui results in high fuel surcharges (over 500 bucks per ticket when economy outright goes for about $1200). So that leaves Air France. I found the Air France flight that I wanted, went to expert flyer and found award availability (code class: x). It showed 9 award seats available. I then went and called delta and told them the specific flight I wanted to use miles on and the agent told me that there is no way to use delta miles on this segment for any date range.

Is he wrong? What are next steps in figuring out how to use my DL miles to get to Tahiti?!

Thanks,
Dan

Old post but sometimes ExpertFlyer will display AirFrance flights that are actually a Air Tahiti Nui codeshare. These seats are not bookable by Delta. Delta and Air Tahiti Nui area not partners.

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/12/05/use-miles-flights-tahiti/[/URL]

Could it be that you’re looking at the code share flight?

Try searching for the flights on Alaska and Korean’s websites. If space shows up there for AirFrance operated flights, it should be bookable by Delta.

Ah, slight correction — Delta and Air Tahiti Nui [I]are[/I] partners, but you still can’t book the codeshare.

Air France doesn’t always give full inventory to Delta SkyMiles. There have been ups and downs over the years, but for the most part X and O space should be bookable by Delta.

That being said, you shouldn’t have to call. Air France space displays on delta.com, so if space is bookable, you can do so on the website.

When are you looking at visiting? Would be happy to take a look for you.

Tiffany and David,

Thanks for going ahead and giving me tips. My girfriend had a stash of amex points, and I had chase, citi and amex points and found 30k each way in economy with flying blue points. So i went ahead and transferred, then booked that route.

Tiffany – I was looking for March of next year. My girlfriend stays with IHG so we had to book Bora Bora far out (unfortunately we were probably a couple hours too late on some of the days since I never got availability at Thalasso, just Le Moana, but 5 nights straight at least). I used the delta flexible dates calendar (the 5 weeks one) and got no results to return for award space from LAX to PPT.

If you go ahead and look for any dates on delta and find some I’d love to know since I’m plat with them and would rather book through delta and get some of the miles back and be able to pick a seat for free.

[USER=3134]@Minnesota Miles Man[/USER] — Hmm, nothing on Air France, but seems to be plenty on Air Tahiti Nui, which is bookable through SkyMiles.

I just picked random dates, but Sunday, Monday, and Thursday of this week all have 2+ seats in business, and 6+ in economy.

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[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] – I never had any issue finding the availability to show up on experflyer. My problem was actually through delta. When I would actually go to delta I would get that there were no award options available.

Then when I called in, I was told that there were no valid flights available to book points to. Note: There were revenue flights showing up.

Yeah, I would call again. It’s not [I]easy[/I] to book TN awards with Delta — most agents don’t know that the airline exists — so you sometimes have to call a few times to get one who can manage it.

We haven’t done one recently, so something could be broken, but that’s generally how it has worked.

I was running into the same issue recently and stumbled across this thread. I have been looking at LAX-PPT on AF. Flying blue shows saver Econ awards. But when I go to Delta I keep showing nothing. I don’t have a specific date of travel because I’m still trying to familiarize myself before I start booking (I call it researching my options). I’m concerned that delta’s website can barely handle the word Papeete. It doesn’t make me confident in earning Delta miles.