French Polynesia, which is home to the popular islands of Tahiti and Bora Bora, is renowned for its stunning scenery, first-rate beaches, and top-notch resorts.
However, it might be challenging to locate open award availability at a fair price, particularly in luxury cabins.
But if you move swiftly, you can arrive in style in French Polynesia, a place on many people's bucket lists.
Air Tahiti's business class currently has plenty of award space available, including nonstop service from Seattle and Los Angeles.
AwardWallet was the first to report about this award area.
Let's look at the available award space and how to use points and miles to book it.
The deal
Air Tahiti Nui is an airline.
Routes: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) are the airports with the most flight options to Tahiti International Airport (PPT).
If award space permits, you can connect from other airports.
Cost: 60,000 miles from the Alaska Mileage Plan or 80,000 miles from American AAdvantage, plus a few small taxes and fees.
Best availability is from now through March 2023.
Pay taxes and fees using one of the following cards: Chase Sapphire Reserve® (3 points per dollar on travel), Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (2 points per dollar on travel), Platinum Card® from American Express (5 points per dollar on airfare booked directly with the airline; on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year).
Sample travel itinerary
Seattle has the best availability.
Many airlines, I discovered, offer up to four business class reward seats.
Although I was unable to secure space for more than two persons at once, there was also good availability from Los Angeles.
San Francisco has some respectable award space as well.
Of course, if you book with the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan or the American Airlines AAdvantage, you may also connect to these flights for no extra points.
For instance, this itinerary from Denver International Airport (DEN) to Tahiti may be purchased for the same 60,000 Alaska points, and the DEN to PPT leg is on an Alaska domestic first class flight.
How to book
The American Airlines AAdvantage program and the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan are the two best options to reserve these seats.
For one-way business class travel on Air Tahiti Nui from the United States to Tahiti, Alaska Mileage Plan charges 60,000 miles.
If you wanted to travel to Australia or another country in the South Pacific, you could use Tahiti as your layover since Alaska also permits free stopovers on its one-way award tickets.
Booking through the American Airlines AAdvantage program is the alternative.
For a one-way business class flight on Air Tahiti Nui, American AAdvantage charges 80,000 miles.
Collecting miles for this reward ticket
Due to the fact that Alaska points cannot be transferred from programs like American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards, earning Alaska miles might be challenging.
Through the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business card, one of the finest ways to accrue Alaska miles is available.
After you spend $4,000 during the first 90 days of opening your account, this card will give you an increased welcome bonus of 70,000 Alaska miles.
Meanwhile, thanks to the abundance of credit cards with cobranded rewards, it is much simpler to accrue AAdvantage points.
Four Citi American Airlines credit cards are available, each with a unique sign-up bonus and rewards program:
• Earn 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $2,500 during the first three months of account opening ($99 annual fee, waived the first year) with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®.
• Earn 65,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after making $4,000 in purchases during the first four months after account opening ($99 annual fee, waived for the first year). CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®.
• Earn 80,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $5,500 during the first three months of account opening ($450 annual fee) with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®.
• Earn 10,000 extra points and a $50 statement credit when you spend $500 on purchases with the American Airlines AAdvantage MileUpSM Card during the first three months of account opening (no annual fee).
Additionally, you can convert your Bilt Rewards points to AAdvantage at a 1:1 ratio.
Enhance your purchase
Paying taxes and fees should always be done with a credit card that offers extra points for buying plane tickets.
Among these are the Citi Premier® Card, American Express Gold Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve, The Platinum Card® from American Express (5x on flights booked directly with airlines or American Express Travel), and the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (2x on all travel purchases).
In conclusion
Since widespread business class reward availability to Tahiti is extremely uncommon, this might be the ideal opportunity to book that once-in-a-lifetime vacation.
Keep in mind that the American AAdvantage miles or the Alaska Mileage Plan will net you the highest discounts.
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