French Polynesia: Tahiti and Bora Bora Airfares

French Polynesia Trip Report Index
Tahiti and Bora Bora – Flights & Airfares
Hilton Frankfurt Airport
Lufthansa Senator Lounge Frankfurt Airport (Terminal 1, Departure Area B)
InterContinental Resort Tahiti
InterContinental Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa
The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort (site inspection)
InterContinental Resort and Spa Moorea

My Flight Itinerary: BRU-FRA-LHR-LAX-PPT-BOB-PPT-LAX-LHR-FRA-BRU

Map: Distance Tahiti -> Tokyo, Sydney, Auckland, Los Angeles, Santiago, Paris

Pic: Air New Zealand B777-300ER All Blacks Livery at LAX airport (Sep 2012)
Back in January (’12) I was fortunate to find a steeply discounted airfare to Papeete (PPT, Tahiti) at vielfliegertreff.de, a German frequent flyer forum.  I paid €916 for FRA-LHR-LAX-PPT-LAX-LHR-FRA with Air New Zealand (LHR-LAX-LHR) and it’s codeshare partners Lufthansa (FRA-LHR-FRA) and Air Tahiti Nui (LAX-PPT-LAX).  Regular airfares from Europe to French Polynesia rarely go below €1500, so this was a great deal.  (e.g. 3 weeks before my departure the ticket was priced at €2456!)  As I live in Brussels, I booked a second ticket BRU-FRA-BRU with Lufthansa for €106, resulting in a total airfare of €1022 for Brussels – Papeete return.  The Air New Zealand airfare was deeply discounted so I wasn’t sure if I was going to earn any status miles with Lufthansa Miles & More.  L’TUR, the German OTA (Online Travel Agency) selling the ticket, didn’t display the booking classes, so I couldn’t really check in advance.  Much to my surprise, it earned me 13712 status miles!  There was even an added bonus by Lufthansa.  As they were having a strike on Sep 7, I had to rebook my FRA-LHR flight to a Lufthansa Regional flight at 6:55am (LH Regional was not affected by the strike).  Not sure why, but I was also credited status miles for my cancelled FRA-LHR 1:40pm flight.  I guess it was a compensation for the early wake-up call!

Map: French Polynesia – Tahiti (PPT), Moorea (MOZ) and Bora Bora (BOB)
With my flights booked to Papeete (PPT), the capital of French Polynesia on the island of Tahiti, I still wasn’t on my final destination, Bora Bora (BOB).  Domestic Airline Air Tahiti (not to confuse with international airline Air Tahiti Nui) serves a network as wide as Europe.  PPT-BOB return flights don’t come cheap at around XPF41,000 (€345), but thanks to a Belgian family living in Papeete, I managed to get hold of a ticket for local residents priced at XPF25,480 (€213)  Checked luggage was limited to 10KG compared to 20KG for the more expensive ticket.  Surprisingly, overweight luggage is really cheap with Air Tahiti.  Passengers holding a diving license get 5KG extra for free, and for every additional KG, you only pay XPF210 (€1,75 or $2,3) !  In my case, I paid XPF3570 (€30) extra for overweight.

Pic: Air Tahiti ATR 72–500 at Bora Bora Motu Mute Airport (BOB) (Sep 2012)